by: Nicole Strong

I recently published CX and Brian Solis’ new ‘X’ book. In that blog post, I proposed an alternate way to conceptualize the relationship between CX (customer experience), UX (user experience) and BX (brand experience). That post sparked a number of fantastic conversations with friends and colleagues. When I read something thought provoking, such as Solis’ book, I enjoy it as almost an asynchronous conversation with the author. But, the rich conversations I’ve had regarding the post—those are rare pleasures that I cherish. The gestalt has evolved my thinking, and I’d like to share.

A move to concentric circles

I’d now propose that the Venn diagram representing the relationship between BX, CX and UX appears as concentric circles. I’ve pictured this below, with examples.

Starting with the example of the inner circle (above), taking a photo with your iPhone is a user and customer and brand experience. Calling your cable company to change service packages is an example of a customer and brand experience that is not a user experience. And finally, watching someone drive by in a Porsche is a brand experience that is not a customer or user experience. (I have to thank my friend, Matt Grant, for the provocation of ‘Where do we locate the experience of watching someone drive by in a Porsche?’ My answer is above.)

It’s also important to point out that these are circles, not rings. So, while the example pointing to the overlap of BX and CX might be deemed customer service or sales; CX is the full circle, inclusive of UX and encompassed by BX. This model encodes the idea you can have a brand experience that is not a customer or user experience, and that you can’t have a customer or user experience that is not also a brand experience. Similarly, it depicts that you can have a customer experience that is not a user experience, but that you can’t have a user experience that is not also a customer experience.

A spotlight on ‘customer’

Now, in saying that ‘you can’t have a user experience that is not also a customer experience,’ I recognize that I am using the word ‘customer’ liberally. While locating UX within CX is not a change from my previous blog post, this was an area of discussion in those rich conversations I mentioned. So, I think it merits shining a brief spotlight on the thinking here.

We live in a world where, technically, we don’t own our software and where, in a lot of workplace scenarios, our employers are more in charge of which products we use than we are. But here’s the thing: I consider myself a customer, regarding MS Office, even though I only have it on my work laptop and despite having nothing to do with the purchase decision. Why? I have expectations of Microsoft that are equivalent to my expectations of Apple, for example, from which I purchased my iPhone. Assuming that both companies intend to treat their customers well, I want both of these companies to treat me like a customer.

This may be reflective of the trend of consumer expectations making their way into B2B scenarios, but that doesn’t make my lived expectations any less valid. I also think it dovetails nicely with Solis’ argument that UX needs to stretch earlier and later than it has historically been conceptualized. I would offer that another way of saying this is that we need to treat users more like customers. And, in this regard (promoting this thinking) the concentric circles model is especially helpful.

The journey continues

In the final pages of his ‘X’ book, Solis wrote “Your journey with this book is nearing its end, but hopefully this is just the beginning of another journey for you.” I think it’s fair to say, that has been my experience. I feel I’ve had a rich intellectual journey over the last few days and I feel fortunate to have had friends and colleagues participate in this journey with me. So, thank you friends, colleagues and Brian Solis.

What’s next? You tell me.