Customer Understanding: A company’s CX strategy is only effective if it’s rooted in a clear and accurate understanding of who its customers are, how they’re interacting with the company today, and what they want and need from the company tomorrow. CX professionals sometimes employ research methodologies—like ethnographic research and usability studies—that are familiar in UX land. In addition, CX professionals use surveys and focus groups to solicit customer feedback; dig into analytics and big data; mine social media, phone calls, email, and chats to determine customer sentiment; and tap into the knowledge of frontline and backstage employees.

Design: This is the same mindset and problem-solving process that UX professionals apply every day in their jobs. Here, it’s just applied to a wider range of customer interactions. For example, Mayo Clinic prototyped new outpatient exam rooms with foam core and cardboard, and service design agency live|work redesigned call center interactions for Gjensidige, Norway’s largest insurance company.

Again, the three disciplines above help CX professionals create the right experience. The second set of disciplines helps companies manage those experiences effectively. Those disciplines are measurement, governance, and culture.

Measurement: CX professionals use three types of metrics to determine the business impact of customer interactions. First, we’ve got perception metrics: these tell a company what their customers think and feel about their interactions. Then, we’ve got descriptive metrics: this is the operational piece that tells a company what really happened.