Customer experience is gaining traction as the new battlefield. In the economy we live in, experiences dominate. If your customers love their experience with your company, they’re more likely to stick around. Experiences now drive all market changes, and customer experience leaders are now leading the markets. AI is revolutionizing how customers interact with brands.

But there are some misconceptions about how customer experience is perceived. According to a Bain & Company study, 80% of companies are confident that they offer an excellent customer experience. However, only 8% of customers agree with that.

This shows the gap in what customers expect and what they get. It’s simple, to deliver the best customer experience, companies must first understand what customer experience is.

But before you can do that, you’ll need to know what it isn’t. So, here are the 15 biggest myths of customer experience busted.

Myth 1: CX cannot be measured

Many companies assume that customer experience cannot be measured. However, that isn’t true. There are some caveats though.

• Every business works differently
• Everything doesn’t need to be measured
• Measure only actionable aspects

Some ways to measure CX include performance metrics, response rates, renewals, and NPS.

Myth 2: Data is supreme

CX is not all about data. Though data is essential, there are many aspects of customer experience that go beyond it. Many customers prefer omnichannel customer experience since they don’t have to repeat their issue but can just pick up where they left off.  Data coupled with a strong focus on customer ethos will create a simple, unified user experience. Data coupled with a strong focus on customer ethos will create a simple, unified user experience.

Myth 3: Phones and emails are the best bet for CX

Phone and email are great for customer engagement. However, more than 70% of businesses feel that chatbots and AI agents will soon become the new normal. In the near future, chatbots usage will increase, increasing efficiency, reducing service costs, and increasing how many customers you can help at once with it. 

Overall, customers will engage more than before, which leads to better CX and more conversions.

Myth 4: Customer satisfaction needs to be maximized

Customer satisfaction is what the customer perceives at a single point in time. Customer experience is what the customer feels from the first point of interaction with the company. Customer satisfaction has a lasting effect on customer experience. But it’s important to offer an omnichannel customer experience along with the best satisfaction.

Myth 5: CX teams can control customer behaviour

Many believe that customer experience which is driven by customer behaviour can be controlled by CX teams. And that’s not true. While customer behavior depends on interaction with customer-facing teams, there are far too many factors involved to confidently say all customer behavior directly results from the CX team.

Myth 6: One bad customer experience will not have a lasting effect

86% of customers feel that they will switch once they have a negative experience with a company. Customers are looking for an experience they love and are more empowered than ever. So, if they experienced a bad interaction with your company, they’re likely to leave for your competitors and not turn back.  

This is why companies are now moving to sustainable experience solutions to offer the best for customers. Early prediction of customer behavior with intelligent tools will help your managers understand why customers leave and how to prevent it

Myth 7: Customer Experience = Customer Service

This is a big myth. While customer service is an essential component of customer experience, it is not the whole concept. Customer service is the communication between a customer and a company. Customer experience, however, begins before the point of onboarding or sale. And moves beyond the sale and stays with the customer throughout their time with the company.

Myth 8: Customer experience is linear

Customer experience is human-driven. Humans are emotional and face different aspects in another manner altogether. This makes the customer experience for each customer vastly different. One customer may love a simple website; one may hate the font, color, or more. Even the name of the product is something every potential customer may not like

Myth 9: Zero complaints = awesome CX

Another myth is regarding customer complaints. If the customer doesn’t complain, they’re happy. That’s not true. 

No company is perfect. And no complaints are alarming. Complaints provide feedback and show that a customer is passionate about your product—which still gives you a chance to change their experience for the better. But for customers that don’t complain? They’ll silently leave you, and you’ll never know why.

Myth 10: No innovations means no CX

Many companies feel that no innovation means no customer experience. Simply innovating without adhering to the basics of customer experience will bring no impact. Companies like if their product is rich with all the trendy CX jargon like VR, AI, etc. however, the core of customer experience is to optimize current practices and improve communication for the customers.

Myth 11: You need to always avoid customer dissatisfaction

The 80/20 formula of keeping customers is true for any business. Customers will always be dissatisfied to a certain extent. You cannot eliminate it 100% even for high profit-making companies. Avoiding customer dissatisfaction 100% is not possible for any company. Customer experience will change when customers are satisfied, period.

Myth 12: Once a customer is satisfied with the experience, they are loyal customers forever

Customer experience is not constant. It keeps changing and dictates how customers stay loyal. But no one can guarantee that customers will always have the same experience with your brand. All it’ll take is one bad experience before your relationship with them is in jeopardy.

Myth 13: Only customer satisfaction surveys measure customer experience

Surveys are great. Surveys help understand customer nerve and what they feel about the company, products, services, customer support and more. Customer experience and customer satisfaction surveys are qualitative ways to understand customer experience. Surveys help understand customer psyche and how they react to situations. But customer experience metrics like purchase frequency help understand customers better.

Myth 14: Customer experience begins only after the sale

A huge myth is that customer experience begins only after the sale. That is wrong, honestly. Your customers interact with the company way before they become customers. 

It can be a blog, website, or a call with sales personnel. You need to keep that customer experience in mind as well. It needs to be more cohesive, structured, and similar to their existing experience as possible.

Myth 15: Low prices improve customer experience

Customers love low prices, don’t we all? In B2B SaaS companies, managers might think that customers only care about the price. But, customers need to be happy with both the quality and price. 

Low prices are important but that’s not all. A McKinsey study says that 70% of buying experiences are based on customer experience. For example: Apple products are expensive. But people buy them for their high quality and amazing customer experience. This shows that price tags alone does not influence how customers react.

Customer experience is a sustainable form to gain an advantage over competitors. The previously mentioned Gartner report also notes how CX is an excellent part of value proposition.

Five ways to include CX are:

• Embrace a mobile-friendly, AI-driven mindset for CX
• Personalisation will be the biggest boost for customer experience
• Customer journey mapping will help improve customer experience seamlessly
• Include voice of customer programs to get customer feedback
• Above all, it’s important to improve customer service. It’s the backbone of customer experience

Most importantly, it is important to improve customer service. It is the backbone of customer experience

Bottom Line: Accelerate customer experience for customer success

To take customer experience to the next level, it’s important to reduce waiting times, optimize customer support, and offer an omnichannel experience.

Using industry-standard benchmarks like NPS and ARR will also imply how CS teams can focus on customer expectations, needs, and wishes and look for improvement. Once you are aware of what customers expect, meeting them should become the core focus.

In the end, it’s all about how customers perceive your company.

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