Is Customer Engagement the Same as Customer Experience?

Too many times a definition is in the eye of the beholder.  That is why it is always important to have operational definitions as it relates to projects, strategic initiatives or meetings for that matter.  Without clear definitions there is an assumption from others which can lead to confusion, project delays or in many cases rework.

In recent weeks I have been engaged in conversations about Customer Engagement and the approach as a future strategy.  What I found was everyone had a different perception of the definition and what it represented.

So here is my 2 cents on the operational definition of Customer Engagement and Customer Experience. 

Customer Engagement - It represents the holistic (end to end) approach of how a customer interacts (the engagement interaction points) with a company and their product / service life cycle.  Now this engagement with the customer can be from both a reactive and a proactive perspective. 

For example, let's look at customer engagement when ordering from Amazon.com.

  - The Web Site is the critical customer engagement medium when searching / conducting reviews of products, purchasing the product as well as upon delivery writing a review or requesting a return.

- E Mail is another customer engagement when you receive order confirmation and shipment notifications.  You also might get follow-up emails asking for a product rating or a survey on the service experience.

- Contacting customer service by phone could be another customer engagement upon delivery if there were issues with the product.

These mediums and how well they are executed will ultimately drive the Customer Experience.

Customer Experience - This represents a customer's emotional perception of a product / service from a company based on the engagement.  Now the emotional perception based on engagement (was the experience good or bad) might determine if the customer will return to buy / use the product or service in the future.  The emotional perception if bad might also create negative word of mouth.  In short, the customer experience is driven by the 5 senses.

Using the Amazon.com example above, the customer experience is ultimately driven by how well the website performs along with the breath of product offerings to the speed and accuracy of the product delivery. 

Now I know everyone is entailed to an opinion so there might be some debate on my perception but this is where I see the difference between Customer Engagement and Customer Experience.   Have a great day!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Thank you for reading the article. You may follow me at @bradnelsonops.