They sound similar, they’re closely related, and they’re both crucial to your business, but CX and UX are separate things.

User experience (UX) is a subset of overall customer experience (CX) – and both are key investments for businesses aiming to deliver value, grow market share, and retain customers.

In fact, 64% of CX leaders expect a budget increase for CX initiatives in 2024.

Improving customer experience starts – and never ends – with having the right data to inform your strategy and it's a moving target.

Nearly all of CX leaders (99%) report they have changed their digital CX strategy over the past 18 months.

Quality data and thorough research are the backbone of CX strategy. So, what is UX and CX research then, and how does it factor into your brand’s future?

Let’s explore the relationship between these important experience types, the goals of UX and CX research, and important metrics to help you get it right to drive business growth and increase customer satisfaction.

Is CX Similar to UX?

Before we jump into the differences between user experience and customer experience research methods, let’s look at the definitions for UX vs CX, by Nielsen Norman Group (NNGG):

• “User experience (UX) encompasses all aspects of a person's interaction with a company, its services, and its products.”
• “Customer experience (CX) describes the totality of the interactions that a user has with an organization over time.”

Consider this hypothetical example to better understand UX and CX differences:

You launch Amazon’s mobile app and decide to buy a t-shirt. That process – navigating the selection styles and sizes, adding it to your cart, and clicking “Buy Now” – are all parts of the user experience.

But, your interactions with Amazon don’t stop there. What if you need to return the shirt? Can you get someone on the phone if you have a question? How do you feel about the emails you receive from Amazon? All these components and more make up the customer experience.

“UX is more focused on one distinct platform or site, or a singular touchpoint,” says Nate Ginesi, Director of Experience Architecture at Whereoware. “Whereas CX has to do with all the touchpoints a user may encounter.”

So, UX and CX are interdependent, working in concert to create more valuable customer interactions.  

How Does CX and UX Work Together?

When considering the CX and UX design of your website, it’s important to remember that these functions work hand in hand.

“At Whereoware, our UX design is always informed by multiple factors,” says Ginesi. “Think: visuals, usability, and accessibility. Ask your team, can everyone understand and use our platform? Do things act as they’re expected to? It’s like, when you see a handle on a door, you know to pull it and expect it to open. The user’s journey must be equally as clear.”

Even as best practices evolve and companies fine-tune their user experiences, there’s always a new challenge around the bend.

“If you incorporate, say, a chatbot on your site to help with customer service, you have to make sure it’s useful,” says Whereoware’s Creative Director, Tim Frost. “Customers will rightly expect a seamless experience every time.”

UX may be a subset of CX, but it’s a crucial one - when the UX is bad, the CX always takes the hit.

What is UX and CX Research?  

“We’ve seen incredible things happen when you listen to the customer,” Tim Frost shares.

So, now you’re ready to uncover the best user experience and customer experience research methods.

The goal of UX research is to understand the best ways to improve a product's design or functionality, where as CX research aims to improve all aspects of a customer's total experience and create a loop of continuous insights, optimization, and value.

Where do you start? UX research terms can be broken down into two categories qualitative and quantitative:

• Qualitative research tries to understand how customers feel and what they think about their experiences. It uses methods like interviews, group discussions, diary entries, and surveys with open-ended questions.
• Quantitative research collects data about how people act, using numbers and statistics. It is based in data and experimentation to measure performance and results of optimization efforts.
  
  It includes methods like: testing how easy a website is to use, analyzing where customers drop off, and experimenting with two versions of a webpage to see which one works better. Qualitative research is more opinion-based and supported by quantitative data to back it up.

Ultimately, CX research tells businesses how to better serve their customers.

Devoted customers will pay 50% to 200% more to stay with your brand — with CX being the key to that loyalty.

While traditional approaches to research focus on interviews and surveys, technology is fueling new ways, enabling businesses to view, measure, and analyze digital experiences in real time.  

What is the Goal of UX Research?

The primary goal of UX research is to improve both the design and functionality of a product, thereby elevating the overall user experience.

By employing various types of UX research, we continuously ensure that the user encounters no points of frustration," Tim Frost explains, “As usual, data and experimentation lead the way in how to remove frustration. We’re trying to understand users' needs, preferences, and challenges to inform how to make a more intuitive and satisfying product experience.

What is the Goal of CX Research?

The goal of CX research is to examine the entire customer journey to improve it, including interactions with customer service and other in-person and online channels.

CX research reveals to businesses where customers get confused, stuck, or satisfied. It shows how they interact on different channels, common questions they have, or other pain points.

With these insights in hand, companies can enhance the total customer experience, fostering lasting brand loyalty.

A significant 58% of American consumers say they will switch companies because of a negative customer service experience. That makes CX research invaluable – let’s dig deeper in how to approach it.

What is Part of UX Research?

UX research aims to understand users' needs, behaviors, and motivations to inform the design process.

While there are numerous angles, NNgroup lays out several key UX research methods:

• A/B testing: A classic form of experimentation in which two different versions of something are compared to see which one is most effective.
• Card sorting: A research method that helps you discover how people understand and categorize information.
• Clickstream analytics: Analyzing the sequence of pages a user visits, unveiling typical navigational routes, or potential journey blocks.
• Focus groups: A qualitative research method that focuses on a small group of people to explore their opinions, perceptions, and attitudes on a specific topic.
• Prototype testing: The process of testing an early version of a product or feature with real users.  
• Qualitative usability testing: A type of usability testing that aims to collect observational data about user behaviors and interactions.
• Quantitative method: A numbers-focused type of research that gathers metrics, including success, conversion, and task time.
• Surveys: A research method in which a participant responds to multiple-choice or open-ended questions.
• Usability testing: A method of testing the effectiveness of a product or feature by observing how users interact with it.

“You want to collect as much data as you can as often as you can during the UX research process,” says Ginesi. “It’s a continuous process. You’re conducting research, tracking, analyzing, and then providing insights to build on those findings.”

What is Part of CX Research?

CX research methods often overlap with UX research methods, but CX research aims to provide an understanding of a customer’s full journey and interactions with a brand, focusing on broader aspects of the customer-brand relationship.

Common CX research methods include:

• Customer journey mapping: Creating a detailed visual representation of customers' different stages when interacting with a company or product.
• Customer satisfaction surveys: An essential method for gauging levels of customer satisfaction, calling out what aspects meet or exceed expectations.
• Diary studies: The use of real-time experiences to see how customers interact with products and services and the range of thoughts and emotions evoked overtime.
• In-depth customer interviews: Lengthy conversations to better understand a customer’s thoughts, feelings, behaviors, motivations, and actions.

“Your CX research really needs to cover all the bases,” says Frost. “We want to understand all the ways customers engage with a brand.”

Up next – how do we measure CX and UX factors?

What are the Metrics for CX and UX?

Ultimately UX and CX research boils down to key metrics. Similarities between the two exist, but UX metrics are analyzed with a tighter scope.

“UX focuses on task success and error rates,” says Ginesi. “How many times has someone failed on a task? What are the clickthrough and conversion rates?”

Ginesi says the best metrics show exactly where your customers are succeeding or failing to accomplish their goals.

Common UX metrics include a mix of behavioral (how users interact with your product) and attitudinal (how users perceive your product) categories:

• Time-on-task: How long a user spends doing a particular activity.
• Average session length: How long a user spends on your site or app.
• Abandonment rate: The ratio of abandoned purchase attempts to initiated transactions.
• Error rate: How many mistakes a user makes when completing a certain task.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS): How likely customers are to recommend a product or service.
• Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) Score: How satisfied a customer is with a particular interaction or overall experience.

When measuring your CX success, also consider NPS and CSAT scores. Another key performance indicator is the Customer Effort Score (CES). CES often answers the question “How easy was it to solve your problem today?” with a 5- or 7-point scale system.  

Other common CX metrics include:

• Churn rate: The percentage of customers who do not renew or cancel their contracts with a company over a given period.
• Retention rate: The percentage of customers a company has retained over a given period.
• Customer lifetime value: The total revenue a business can reasonably expect from a single customer account.

Summary

Both UX and CX research take the shape of many forms, and all of it is important for growing a successful business. It’s also changing, undergoing evolution towards a more predictive, AI-fueled and data-driven approach

But no matter what technology emerges, one thing is certain: competitive advantages await the businesses that best understand what their customers want and need.

For the past two decades, Whereoware has built elevated and personal user experiences that grow our partners bottom line. Reach out to connect to a UX/CX expert.

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