Resources - Glossary

customer experience

When a person interacts with a system, their experience is affected by far more than just the interface itself.

For example when a user purchases software, their entire experience will include the packaging, the installation process, help files, manuals, and perhaps after sales support and assistance from the company itself. They may need to register, and talk to sales people about other products. All of these elements can have a positive or negative effect on how the user percieves the software, and on future sales. The same is true for websites, with emails, phone calls, support materials and other interactions all affecting the overall experience.

Customer experience is a term for the complete experience of the user and is most often used in relation to measuring and improving that experience. This is very similar to 'user experience', but is often slightly more focussed on turning visitors/prospects into customers.