What is Customer Experience Management?

Customer experience management is key to offering a superior customer experience.

When creating and following your brand’s strategies to offer superior customer service, customer experience management is essential for success.

Microsoft defines customer experience management — also known as CXM or CEM — as a “system of marketing strategies and technologies that focus on customer engagement, satisfaction, and experience.”

“CXM is an approach to relationships with customers that goes beyond just marketing tools and software—with the goal of achieving a digital transformation that truly puts customers at the center of the business,” says Microsoft.

“A customer experience management mindset prioritizes the orchestration and personalization of the entire end-to-end customer experience and helps to do it at scale, on any channel, in real time.”

How does CXM differ from CRM?

Customer experience management (CXM) is often confused with customer relationship management (CRM), since they share some basic functionality aspects, says Microsoft.

Although certain aspects of CXM and CRM overlap, CXM takes further steps when it comes to managing customer relationships, says Microsoft:

“Where CRM mostly deals with optimizing the internal processes of a business, CXM offers an even more customer-centric approach in several ways—with new technologies, as well as processes, strategies, and customer-centric design.”

Customer experience technologies also differ from those used for customer relationship management in another important way.

“While CRMs gather data through manual or batch entry, a true CXM will enable a real-time flow of data to offer deeper insights into customer preferences and behavior,” says Microsoft.

“The CXM mindset also goes beyond a traditional CRM in its strategy and processes. A company who wants to become more customer-centric uses CXM to put processes in place to track, oversee, and orchestrate interactions and engagements with customers.”

For a better understanding of the differences between CXM and CRM, Microsoft offers the explanations of the two terms in the table below.

“Because CXM is both a set of technologies and a set of processes, and data doesn’t get siloed, CXM allows you to deliver a true cross-channel customer experience,” says Microsoft.

4 ways customer experience management benefits your brand and customers

Customer experience is a “critical differentiator” for many businesses and industries, according to Microsoft, resulting in the following benefits:

• Achieve a deeper understanding of customers
• Drive customer loyalty and retention
• Maintain a competitive edge
• Measure the success of your company’s customer experience strategies and initiatives

“Effective customer experience management is more than just good optics or good PR. By centering your customers’ experiences and making technology feel more human, you create win-win scenarios for you and your customers alike,” says Microsoft.

“While the end result for a business might be seen in lead generation, conversions, or long-term brand loyalty, the customer also comes out a winner with rich, personalized experiences, increased satisfaction, and a rewarding relationship with the brand.”