What you need to know about CX and EX — and their growing connection

Interestingly, both CX and EX aren't new disciplines by any means — businesses and brands have been implementing experiences of this kind for as long as they've existed.

The biggest difference now is that strategies surrounding customer and employee experiences are more intentional because ultimately, they are key drivers in positive business outcomes.

So, how exactly do CX and EX come to life and, more importantly, together?

CX involves how a business engages with its customers at each and every point of their buying journey. This can include the business marketing, sales and customer service efforts but really extends to every single interaction a customer has with a business.

But CX isn't just actions based, it also focuses on feelings, helping business owners ask themselves how their customers and prospective customers feel about their brand.

The major point here is that each touchpoint counts and even a minor oversight or mistake can make or break how customers feel about the brand they are interacting with.

2020 brought CX back into sharp focus because the pandemic created and continues to affect shifts in consumer behaviour and expectations of companies and brands. Covid-19 and its associated lockdowns saw new customers arrive in droves to the likes of online stores and apps, making it crucial for businesses to track, understand and learn from these new behaviours and ultimately build new journeys to fit new needs.

Understanding your customers' behaviour is one thing, creating a truly great product or service that they will really love, is another. Something that all businesses need to get right before jumping into product or service development is to ensure that the team behind all of it genuinely buys into its vision — and this is where EX comes in.

EX encompasses every part of the employee lifecycle. This includes the moment a prospective employee starts looking at your business' job advert, their experience during the interview process, what they learn, see, do and feel while on the job and even what happens when they leave the company. Business performance has always been tied to employee performance, but it has taken a little bit longer for many businesses to realise that EX plays a huge role in CX.

CX and EX both rely on and directly impact each other. Businesses and brands cannot expect to take good care of their customers unless they are taking good care of their employees. Building a strong and reputable brand, as well as making sure your CX efforts are sustainable, all require the help of employees.

A recent trend that has brought EX into the spotlight is 'The Great Resignation'. It quickly taught businesses that not feeling connected to a business' mission or ethos was a very good reason to leave and seek employment elsewhere. The advent of further trends like 'quiet quitting' and 'quiet promoting' have now made it even clearer that keeping employees engaged is more crucial than ever.

In the end, it's your employees' experiences that will impact how hard they work for your business, how much they are willing to collaborate and how invested they are in your vision and its performance. And ultimately, it's not just turnover and absentee rates that can be affected by good or bad experiences here, but your CX and overall profitability can be impacted too. 

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