Customer experience management is a relatively new construct. The term lacks a clear definition, although it is used extensively, especially in blogs and studies. Thus, it is necessary to define customer experience management. When the term first emerged, customer experience management was equated with customer orientation. Customer experience, moreover, has often been viewed as selling solutions instead of products or services. Customer experience management is not synonymous with customer focus, nor is it related to solution selling. For a definition of customer experience management, it should be noted that customer experience management is another component of an organization’s customer management.

The first step is to distinguish between brand management and customer experience management. Brand management carries the brand experience as one dimension in its own conception. Particularly due to the focus of brand management on the behavior of the employees, who are to live the brand and transport it to the customer. Authors therefore rightly point out that it is not so easy to draw a line between brand management and customer experience management. Based on the brand management understanding described above, brand and customer experience would initially be conceptualized more or less identically. Customer experience management must also be distinguished from customer relationship management. From a customer relationship management perspective, the aim is to optimize customer value. This includes the customer’s experience during acquisition and in the retention or win-back phase. However, customer relationship management is less concerned with the design of individual interactions between customers and the organization than it is with the use of instruments over time. While customer relationship management also aims to deepen the relationship, it does so over time rather than in individual interactions. Unlike brand management, customer relationship management does not have a model for shaping the content of the interaction experience. It should therefore be noted that the definitions of brand management and customer relationship management do not overlap with the definition of customer experience management and that they influence each other. One might follow the view that one or two of these approaches would be sufficient.

For a customer-centric organization, it is advisable to consider all three approaches, but also to ensure that a non-overlapping understanding is established in the organization. It is not uncommon for discussions of competence to arise precisely between these three specialist departments. To make these interdependencies more manageable, we recommend distinguishing the following dimensions of experience:
1. brand experience
2. relationship experience (relationship experience)
3. transactional experience (co-creation experience)

Thus, in our understanding, customer experience management builds on brand and customer relationship management and extends both with the additional focus on the specific experience in the respective transaction. Customer experience is viewed from an application perspective in the sense of co-creation with the customer. It is hoped that the high popularity of the topic will lead to a comprehensive empirical study to ensure optimal embedding in customer management. In our view, brand positioning and customer relationship management set the framework for the detailed design of the transaction experience.

Definition Customer Experience Management

Customer experience management (CX) focuses on the individual transaction between the customer and the organization. It builds on brand positioning, is embedded in customer relationship management, and aims to ensure that the organization is differentiated in the customer’s perception by the experience during the transaction. The customer experience must be designed in a correspondingly consistent manner at all touchpoints on the basis of the brand positioning.

Accordingly, it is not purposeful for an organization to change the experience at touchpoints, or even just at individual touchpoints, without considering brand positioning. Overinvesting in the best possible buying experience at the POS (customer acquisition) while at the same time not investing in customer loyalty management is also not in line with our understanding of customer experience management. Likewise, the reduction of customer experience management to the customer-customer-employee interaction must be rejected. Unfortunately, however, it can be seen in practice that, due to the novelty of the topic of customer experience management, it is often pursued in isolation from brand and relationship management. Investing in a differentiating customer experience can pay off. On average, 85% of customers pay more for a better customer experience. Customers with bad experiences then stay for about a year on average, while those with the best experiences stay for over six years.

Customer experience management should always be understood from a network perspective. Based on the Relational View, the exchange of customer insights is of central importance. Thus, data silos and the lack of intra- and inter-organizational sharing of customer insights are the key challenges of customer experience management in companies.