What is Customer
Experience Management (CEM)

7 min readNov 6, 2019

What is Customer Experience Management (CEM)

Customer Experience Management (CEM) is enjoying undivided attention and has become an integral element, hardwired in the business domain. Every business that cares about its customers is busy working its way to create and perfect their Customer Experience Management strategy. However, what exactly is Customer Experience Management and why has it gained so much momentum?

Customer Experience Management, CEM or CXM comprises of a collection of activities which a company undertakes to provide a personalized, smooth experience to customers. It’s about knowing your customer thoroughly and ensuring they are happy and satisfied at every point of interaction with your company, right from the start of the customer journey. Simply put, customer experience management is all about fulfilling customer expectations and establishing a positive perception of your brand in their minds.

Defining Customer Experience
Management (CEM)

Before you understand what CEM is, it is essential to know what customer experience is all about.

Customer Experience (CX) is defined as the impression your customers have about your brand. It could be a personal experience or hearsay. It could be an opinion that got formed at their first interaction with you or could have developed over the various stages of the customer life cycle.

Now, let’s extend this definition to CEM. Customer experience management comprises of any and every effort which an organization takes to ensure a smooth customer journey. Consequently, it results in a positive perception of the brand.

Gartner defines customer experience management (CEM) as “The practice of designing and reacting to customer interactions to meet or exceed customer expectations and thus increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy.”

Why is Customer Experience Management important?

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that customer experience management is an important differentiator that decides the champion of brand wars. In this ultra-competitive, technology-driven market, customers don’t settle for anything less than ‘crème de la crème’ or the best. Simply put, customers can choose you. If you fail to impress them, they’ll choose your competitors. A small mistake you make is an enormous opportunity for your competitor to sweep-in. However, with customer experience management, you can avoid such mishaps from happening.

CEM is the finest way to ensure your customers are happy & satisfied with your brand and they give it a thumbs-up through and through. Therefore, customer experience management helps organizations to build and retain long-lasting client relationships. CEM motivates an organization to see each customer uniquely. They aren’t merely the source of income and revenue. Instead, they are the true patrons who can help your brand climb up the ladder of success and make it to the top.

Customer loyalty is a natural outcome of good Customer Experience Management. Happy customers are great for an organization. However, loyal customers take things to an entirely new level. With positive word-of-mouth and spirited referrals, loyal customers bring in new customers in a natural way. Therefore, an organization can turn customers into brand evangelists using customer experience management. Thus, CEM helps a product become a ‘brand’- loved by all, preferred by all. Not to mention the steady and increasing revenue that follows. Thus customer experience management is, without doubt, necessary for any organization to improve sales and shape their brand persona.

Customer Experience Management Vs.
Customer Relationship Management

Business leaders and product managers have often confused Customer Experience Management with Customer Relationship Management and used them interchangeably. However, this isn’t the case. Let’s explore what makes CRM different from CEM.

The goal of CRM includes customer relationships and optimizing the overall revenue and growth of the company. CEM, on the other hand, focuses on the interaction and the experience customers have with a company. Therefore, CRM captures how a company perceives a customer. CEM is all about what a customer thinks about the company.

CRM or customer relationship management, mines data and analyzes it to track customer behavior and purchase patterns.

How did a customer hear about the product?
What prompted them to purchase it?
How often do they make a purchase?
How do they interact with the brand?

These are some questions which any company might have in mind. CRM brings answers to all these questions. Therefore, we can say that customer relationship management focuses on nurturing customer relationships and making it last longer. CEM, on the other hand, shifts attention towards driving customer loyalty, brand advocacy by creating a positive persona about the company in the minds of customers.

CRM comes into play when there’s a customer interaction happening- like sales-talk, support query, or assistance of any kind. On the contrary, CEM is monitored and measured at every customer touchpoint. CEM is measured with research data, online surveys, observational studies, and the likes.

CRM comes handy to customer-facing teams like sales, support and marketing in order to self-evaluate and improve the services extended. In contrast, CEM is used by business leaders and analysts to identify the various flaws and strengths in the business structure and better the business process.

How to measure your Customer Experience Management System?

There are various metrics to assess the efficiency and success of a company’s customer experience management system. These metrics throw light on the various aspects that make up customer experience management. The various metrics include Customer Satisfaction Score(CSAT), Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Churn Rate, Customer Effort Score (CES), Average Resolution Time, Conversion Rate, Customer Acquisition Rate, and Social Media Presence. Thus, organizations can understand the quality and efficiency of their CEM system.

CEM Metrics

01: CSAT Score

CSAT measures how satisfied customers are with the product/service of a company. Higher the CSAT score, the better is the CEM.

02: Average Resolution Time

It is the time taken to resolve a customer distress/query. Quicker resolution means better customer experience management.

03: Net Promoter Score (NPS®)

NPS uncovers the loyalty customers have towards a brand. A high net promoter score means your CEM is doing the job perfectly.

04: Customer Acquisition Rate

It is the ease of procuring new customers. Better customer acquisition rates mean excellent customer experience management.

05:Customer Effort Score (CES)

CES is the ease with which customers can execute a task using your product/service. Lower the CES score; better is the experience.

06: Customer Churn Rates

Churn rates give the percentage of customers who opt out of recurring purchases. Lower the rates, better is the customer experience management.

07: Social Media Presence

Great social media presence and customer monitoring imply sound customer experience management.

08: Conversion Rate

Conversion rates give the percentage of prospects who turn into customers. Higher rates imply a great CEM.

How to improve your Customer Experience Management system?

Picture customers giving feedback about their experience with your company as ‘Promised a lot, delivered so little.’ And this is the story of many companies who don’t include customer experience management in their core strategies. To improve customer experience, you must connect with customers first. Think from their angle and by doing this, you get to realize the customer pain-points with ease.

When you value customers, they value your brand more. Therefore, be sure to glance through these six surefire ways that help your organization turn your customer experience management system from average to top-notch. Consequently, win back even a customer who has vowed to disavow your brand. Let’s have a look at well-planned strategies to improve your customer experience management system.