What Is Customer Experience (CX)? Definition, Examples, and Best Practices

Competitors may offer a similar product or a lower price. But it’s much harder to replicate the entire experience of interacting with a brand – from the first encounter to post-purchase support. This experience determines whether customers return, recommend the company to others, and remain loyal even when a cheaper alternative appears on the market.

At the same time, customers rarely think of "customer experience" as a separate concept. They remember specific moments: how easy it was to place an order, how quickly they were able to return an item, or how frustrating it was to explain the same problem to customer support multiple times. It's these moments that shape their overall impression of the company.

In this article, you'll learn what shapes customers' perception of your brand, what distinguishes a great customer experience from a frustrating one, and which practical strategies can help you improve customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention throughout the entire customer journey.

Key takeaways

• Customer experience (CX) includes every interaction customers have with a brand – from marketing and product design to customer support and post-purchase service. Unlike customer service, which focuses on resolving customer issues, customer experience spans the entire customer journey.
• A positive customer experience increases customer satisfaction, repeat purchases, five-star reviews, and upselling opportunities, while making customers less likely to switch to competitors based on price alone.
• Improving customer experience requires businesses to personalize interactions, build omnichannel support, invest in self-service tools, respond to customer feedback, and train employees across the organization.
• Customer reviews and behavioral data help businesses identify pain points, improve products and services, and continuously refine the customer journey based on direct customer feedback.

Why does customer experience matter?

The customer experience (CX) directly influences whether customers feel understood and valued, making them more or less likely to stay with your brand. According to Harvard Business School, customers feel more understood when a company focuses on identifying and attracting its ideal customers, since a product or service should appeal to the people it is genuinely designed for. In addition, every interaction with a brand – even the smallest one – can strengthen or weaken the customer relationship.

Here are a few factors that can significantly shape customers’ perception of your brand:

• Alignment of your marketing with customer needs.
• Ease of use of your product or service.
• Functionality designed around customer expectations.
• Commitment to fair consumer practices (respect for ownership rights and consumer choice).
• Seamless multichannel customer support (customers don't have to repeat themselves when contacting support again).

When customers enjoy their interactions with your brand, they stay with you longer and are more willing to make additional purchases. Some consumers are even willing to pay more for a brand that delivers an exceptional customer experience than for a cheaper but less convenient alternative. In other words, customers are willing to pay for the confidence that comes from doing business with your company.

In the following sections, we've compiled real-world examples of both positive and negative customer experiences to demonstrate how they influence customer satisfaction, loyalty, and purchasing decisions.

Examples of good customer experience

Confirming that an issue was resolved through follow-up

A customer reports an issue – let's say an internet outage or another technical problem. The company acknowledges the request and provides an estimated timeframe for resolving it. The issue is fixed within the promised deadline, but the company doesn't stop there. A few days later, a support representative contacts the customer to confirm that everything is still working properly and that no additional issues have occurred.

This simple follow-up demonstrates that the company is committed to providing a consistently positive customer experience rather than simply marking support tickets as resolved.

Easy returns and refunds

A customer purchases an item from an online store, but it isn't quite what they expected. They go to the My Orders section of their account and follow these steps:

1. Select the order they want to return.
2. Click the Easy Return option.
3. Choose the reason for the return from the list.
4. Receive a tracking number or QR code to ship the item back using the specified delivery service.

A virtually effortless process.

Once the item is received and inspected, the online store promptly refunds the customer's money to their original payment method. A simple return policy can encourage future purchases because customers feel they remain in control of their purchasing decisions. It also reduces the perceived risk of buying online.

Seamless omnichannel interactions

A customer abandons a shopping cart on their desktop, and shortly afterward receives a reminder or a discount offer by email. They open the email on their smartphone and follow a link to the online store's mobile app. There, they complete the purchase and choose to pick up the order at a nearby store.

By providing a seamless transition between online and offline channels for shopping and customer support, businesses create a more convenient customer experience while increasing opportunities for upselling and reaching a broader audience.

Proactive communication

Proactive customer service is often about communicating seemingly obvious information that companies are expected to share, yet sometimes overlook. Here are a few examples:

• Reminding customers about upcoming bills to help them avoid missed payments and service disruptions.
• Alerting customers to planned maintenance or service outages so they can adjust their schedules accordingly. Some companies also provide compensation for service disruptions. For example, many internet providers automatically issue bill credits after outages, while food delivery services such as Uber Eats or Glovo may automatically compensate customers for orders canceled by a restaurant.
• Notifying customers when an order has been shipped, is out for delivery, or has been delivered.

Examples of bad customer experience

Long wait times and confusing phone menus

This is one of the most commonly discussed issues on PissedConsumer. A customer calls customer support only to become trapped in a never-ending maze of automated menu options, trying to find a way to speak with a real person. When they finally do, the system informs them that they’re fifth in the queue and politely asks them to wait.

Fifteen minutes later, the customer is still third in line, growing increasingly frustrated and beginning to consider alternative providers.

Repeating information across channels

A customer emails support to report a technical issue preventing them from accessing their account. After receiving troubleshooting instructions that fail to resolve the problem, the customer calls technical support. The support agent asks them to describe the issue and repeats the same troubleshooting steps, but they still don't work. After determining that the problem lies on the company's end, the agent resolves the issue, and the customer regains access to their account. However, just a few days later, the same problem reoccurs. When the customer contacts support again, they are once more asked to explain the issue from the very beginning.

When customers have to repeat the same information multiple times, they perceive the company as disorganized and inefficient, even if individual support agents are genuinely committed to resolving the problem.

Complicated checkout process

Imagine that your customers have added items to their cart and are already looking forward to receiving their order, only to discover that they must first go through several checkout steps, starting with creating an account and filling out numerous forms. These forms load slowly and resemble mini-surveys, asking about shopping preferences, preferred communication channels, and other unnecessary details. After finally completing every step, customers may find that the shipping cost is unexpectedly high, their preferred payment method isn't available, or the payment fails with an error message that doesn't explain what went wrong.

If the checkout process is confusing and takes too long, customers may simply close the tab and shop elsewhere.

Unexpected fees

Hidden fees or penalties for canceling a subscription are obvious signs of anti-consumer behavior, but they become even more harmful when the terms are not clearly disclosed to customers. One example is Adobe, which hid early termination fees and made subscription cancellations extremely difficult. Although the company agreed to a $150 million settlement to resolve a U.S. government lawsuit over its termination fees in 2026, the damage to consumer trust is difficult to repair.

Revoked access to digital purchases

The following example relates to the broader discussion of ownership rights for digital products, but it also illustrates how licensing decisions can disappoint customers.

In June 2026, Sony informed its PlayStation customers in the United Kingdom that they would no longer be able to watch previously purchased movies and TV shows from the production company StudioCanal "due to our content licensing agreements."

Starting in September 2026, Sony will remove 551 titles from affected customers' libraries without offering refunds. Losing access to content customers have already paid for is unlikely to encourage them to continue using the service.

How to improve customer experience

Optimizing the customer journey requires organizations to understand customer needs, eliminate confusing workflows and technical issues, empower employees, and continuously improve products and services based on customer feedback. The practices outlined below can help you achieve these goals.

1. Use customer segmentation to personalize the experience

Customer segmentation is the process of grouping customers based on shared characteristics – such as demographic data, geographic location, industry, purchasing habits, and product usage preferences – which enables companies to deliver a more personalized customer experience.

In customer support, segmentation helps connect customers with the right agent on the first attempt – someone who specializes in a particular product line or is familiar with the issues commonly encountered by a specific customer group. For example, a tech company might route smartphone owners to mobile specialists and laptop owners to PC specialists. Likewise, a software company serving the healthcare, finance, and e-commerce industries may assign customers to support agents who understand the regulatory requirements and workflows unique to each sector.

To segment customers into meaningful groups, you should purchase or conduct your own market research to understand the unique needs of consumers in your industry, study the preferences and behavior of your existing customer base, and gather feedback through surveys, interviews, and review platforms.

2. Build an omnichannel experience

First, an omnichannel approach involves close integration between desktop and mobile websites and applications, allowing customers to seamlessly continue their journey as they switch from one device to another. For example, a customer adds an item to their wishlist while browsing on a desktop computer. Later, they receive a notification on the store's mobile app informing them that the item is now available for pre-order.

We also talk about omnichannel experiences in the context of unified customer support.

For most organizations, two or three well-managed support channels are sufficient. For example, a retailer may prioritize email, a call center, and in-store support, while an online-only business may rely on email, live chat, and phone support. Omnichannel support means that regardless of which channels a company chooses, it has a complete history of customer interactions across all of them. As a result, customers don't have to repeat information or start their support journey from scratch when switching from email to a mobile app chat or from a phone call to a visit to a physical store.

If a customer raises an issue on social media or a review platform, companies should also have a process for routing that inquiry into its support system.

3. Optimize customer journeys

We've already discussed grouping customers based on shared characteristics and historical data – and it's the first step toward delivering a more personalized and intuitive customer experience.

You should also do the following:

• Map the entire customer journey by identifying every touchpoint and defining metrics to measure its effectiveness.
• Collect customer feedback through surveys, reviews, and interviews to identify pain points and continuously refine the journey.
• Conduct A/B testing to determine which website or app interface elements, onboarding workflows, email campaigns, and automated customer support responses work best for customers.

4. Invest in digital front-doors and self-service options

Self-service options serve several purposes in the customer experience:

• They provide convenience for customers who prefer digital solutions for making purchases, accessing their accounts, and communicating with a brand.
• Customers can use features such as virtual assistants, automated returns, and self-service account management at any time of day, unlike human support or physical store locations, which are available only during business hours.
• For businesses, self-service options help reduce the workload of customer support teams, while centralized digital front doors and customer portals provide a unified and convenient way for customers to complete common tasks on their own.

There are many ways to provide self-service capabilities, including the following:

• chatbots;
• customer account portals;
• automated return and refund requests;
• order tracking tools;
• FAQs and help center articles.

AI assistants are particularly effective at handling routine requests. While human agents remain irreplaceable when resolving complex issues, high-stakes situations, and cases requiring empathy or human judgment, AI assistants can handle simple tasks such as tracking orders, checking account balances, scheduling appointments, or finding relevant help center articles based on a customer's issue.

5. Take a proactive approach to customer support

One example of proactive communication is alerting customers to planned maintenance or service outages. Rather than waiting for frustrated customers to contact you asking what happened, inform them in advance and provide clear, easily accessible information about the issue.

Acknowledging service disruptions before customers have to report them – and offering an apology along with appropriate compensation – is a sign of goodwill and genuine care that your customers will appreciate.

Another effective practice is gathering feedback by surveying customers or even calling them to discuss a recent interaction with your brand. You can also examine the customer journey using data from your CRM and analytics platform. For example, you can identify customers who added items to their cart but never completed the purchase, clicked "Confirm subscription" but abandoned the payment process, or stopped using a particular software feature or add-on. By analyzing these behavioral patterns alongside historical customer data, you can determine which steps in the customer journey are causing confusion for specific customer segments.

6. Manage online reputation and respond to reviews

Reviews can reveal opportunities to improve your customer experience that would be difficult to identify from your internal customer data. For example, customers may repeatedly mention payment methods or delivery options they wish were available. These patterns provide a clear roadmap for improvement – something that might not be apparent from shopping cart abandonment data.

Although reviews may sometimes be exaggerated, they are a reflection of your customers' experiences. They tell you what customers value most about your product, helping you differentiate your brand from the competition. They also highlight the shortcomings that cause customers to leave or reduce their spending with your business.

Responding to customer feedback on platforms such as PissedConsumer helps resolve issues that require urgent attention, prevent customers from leaving your brand, and reassure prospective customers that they'll receive support if something goes wrong.

7. Train employees on how their roles influence the customer experience

Because every employee influences customer perception, organizations that prioritize the customer experience provide customer experience training across the organization – not just to support teams.

At the same time, customer experience and support teams must share knowledge with product, marketing, and sales teams to ensure that customer experience initiatives align with broader business goals.

In addition, support representatives should develop in-depth knowledge of the company's products or services, stay informed about industry news in their sector, and participate in industry events and discussions. Their training should also focus on strengthening communication and problem-solving skills, as well as recognizing customer emotions through digital channels.

How does customer experience impact sales?

A positive customer experience encourages repeat purchases, drives upselling opportunities, and increases the likelihood that customers will recommend the brand to others. Conversely, a negative experience can drive customers to competitors – and this has never been easier in the digital age, where switching providers often takes just a few clicks.

A smooth and transparent customer experience can reduce hesitation about making a purchase. More importantly, it makes price less of a deciding factor. Customers who enjoy interacting with a brand are less likely to choose a slightly cheaper alternative.

Finally, a positive experience encourages customers to leave positive reviews, which influence the decisions of prospective customers researching the brand. 

Note: Even critical reviews and complaints can be used to improve the product, reducing barriers to purchase and better aligning it with customer needs.

What’s the difference between customer experience and customer service?

Customer service is one aspect of the customer experience. It primarily involves post-purchase support and product assistance, so it’s often reactive and focused on resolving customer issues. Customer service is typically handled by a dedicated support team.

Customer experience, by contrast, encompasses every interaction a customer has with a brand throughout their entire journey, including interactions with marketing campaigns, website user interfaces, store layouts, and products. Its goal is to meet customer needs at every stage of that journey and build a positive perception of the brand. Responsibility for the customer experience spans the entire organization, including product, marketing, sales, customer support, and CX teams.

Final thoughts

Customer experience isn't a one-time initiative. Companies that consistently improve the customer journey are better equipped to retain customers, attract new ones, and strengthen their competitive position over time.

Knowing the principles of customer experience is the first step. To turn customer feedback into measurable business results, you also need to understand where your organization currently stands. Read our in-depth guide to the Customer Experience Maturity Stages to identify your current level and learn how to scale your CX strategy.