Customer Experience is Human Experience

We need to think more complexly when we think about online retail and CX - because people and companies interact as systems in the customer experience. This implies more requirements than are visible at first glance.

CX is Human Experience - why we need to think more complexly.

What role do people play in online retail? Every customer is a person and we first make experiences as people. The reaction to an offer is particularly positive when you not only feel addressed as a paying customer, but also feel understood. In the buying or usage state of e-commerce. We want to feel that effort has been made, that something has been thought about, perhaps something surprising or simple to use and yet profound in its approach. We want to feel that it is not just about our money alone, but that a brand or company is serious about us as customers.

Just as the whole person "behind" the customer is often overlooked on the one hand, on the other hand it is not considered that every touchpoint is an expression of the entire brand or the entire company. Pars pro toto, then, in both respects. Much more meets than is visible at first glance: the system human and the system company. This complexity is the reason for the complexity of CX research and CXM as a whole.

Online retail often focuses too much on the process requirements of companies. Too little is viewed from the customer's perspective. Of course, process simplification makes sense from a business point of view. But it is not always so for customers. Project and order numbers are a simplification for companies, but a nuisance for the individual. They also give customers the feeling of being just a number and not even a customer for the company anymore.

In order to make people happy online, it doesn't actually take that many different factors than it does offline. More technology and digitization, which ideally works, is of course the basis. However, it is wrong to believe that the digital transformation alone is all that matters. It is a means to an end and relief in simple processes in order to have room for humanity in complex processes. And not to rationalize away humanity.

Complexity and the logic of humanity thus place the following requirements on good CX in online retail:

1. Online retail must not be seen as an isolated process. Companies and people are complex systems that interact through the customer experience.
2. Online retail should be viewed more from the customer's perspective than from the company's perspective. A simplification of processes that only benefits the company is not a simplification, but a risky investment.
3. Online retail should know the deep psychological motives and needs of its industry in order to be able to adapt to them precisely. These can be very different in areas such as finance or cosmetics.
4. Online retail should go beyond itself. It is not just about selling, but also about creating added value and meaning for the customer in addition to customer understanding: being more sustainable, climate-neutral or surprising than others is a start.

Published on 14.12.2021 by Ines Imdahl, graduate psychologist, founder and owner of the research agency rheingold salon.

Image and text appeared as an article on the Swiss Post website.