Three Ways to Bridge the Customer Experience “Gap”

Closing the customer experience gap is key to keeping loyal, satisfied customers.

Is your organization closing the customer experience “gap” that can send customers to your competitors if you fail to recognize those gaps and take action to fill them instead with a positive customer experience?

The customer experience (CX) gap is the space between what customers expect from their customer experience with a brand and what the brand believes about how well it’s meeting customer expectations, according to customer experience platform provider Emplifi.

“More and more, customers expect to interact with brands how they want, when they want,” says Emplifi. “In search of easier, faster, more engaging, and personalized experiences, customer expectations are continually evolving, often quicker than brands can keep up, widening the CX gap.”

The gap between customer expectations and what companies believe about expectations being met is often wide and affects more customers than you might think.

“Nearly half of consumers say brands aren’t meeting their expectations, and even fewer remember the last time a brand exceeded expectations,” according to “Closing the CX Gap,” a report from digital experience company Acquia. The report is based on survey results from 5,003 consumers and 501 marketers from five countries.

Even worse, when customers let companies know that they’re dissatisfied with services, many brands fail to resolve those customer issues to their satisfaction.

“Some 36 percent of consumers said they were not satisfied with the levels of customer service they’d received, while more than half reported that when they’d raised a customer service issue, it went unresolved,” according to “2023 Global Consumer Trends,” a global consumer report from Qualtrics XM Institute.

Here are three tips for closing the customer experience gap so that your brand meets customer expectations.

1. Examine your company culture

One common barrier that organizations face is “their own internal company culture,” which can take many forms, according to a white paper from Emplifi.

“A company culture where each department or product line is an autonomous entity can and often does result in disconnects in the customer journey and a poor experience,” says Emplifi.

“Another example is when different parts of the company (e.g., regions) purchase different technologies to accomplish the same outcome and these technologies are not integrated. Arguably the worst and most difficult to overcome is where the customer is not treated as an important part of the success of the organization.”

One of the best ways to know what the customer experience is like compared to what you believe your company delivers is to contact the company, pretend to be a customer, and have other people do the same, says Emplifi:

“Compare notes, and see where at least some of the barriers are. This will often raise cultural issues that won’t necessarily be obvious, and you can then make a plan to address them.”

 2. Look for gap indicators that lead to churn

To avoid churn due to customer experience gaps, make sure your organization pays attention to what customers are saying at every stage of their customer journey, says the Qualtrics report:

“Customers might not hold up the red flag and say ‘hey, I’m about to switch to your competitor,’ but you can bet they’ll give feedback, get in touch about their problem, or post a comment on their social media or on a review site.

“When you tune in to everything, from their very first interaction with you to every post-purchase call, comment, like, or mention, you’ll know exactly where the friction is.

3. Close customer experience gaps quickly

People are quick to switch brands when money is tight, and their tolerance for bad experiences is low. That’s why it’s important to recognize and get ahead of customer experience gaps, says the Qualtrics report:

“Many of your customers are just a tap, click, or swipe away from churning, giving you no warning that they’re about to take their business elsewhere…When all it takes is a single ad showing up in their newsfeed to get them to churn, you need to make sure they have no reason to leave.”