More Customer Experience than ever

According to the official definition from the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) — the most reputable global authority in the field:

“Customer Experience is the sum of all perceptions and emotions formed through every interaction a customer has with a business — whether direct or indirect.”

The key lies in the word sum.
CX does not happen in a single moment. It is shaped across thousands of micro-interactions that businesses often do not realize they are creating:

The moment a customer searches for information.
The moment they read a review.
The moment they visit a website for the first time and it loads slowly.
The moment they call a contact center and have to wait.
The moment they receive a rigid or unhelpful response.
The moment they unbox a product.
The moment their complaint is resolved.
…

CX is everything the customer feels when interacting with a brand.
If they feel comfortable — that is CX.
If they feel frustrated — that is also CX.

And because CX exists in the customer’s mind, it is not something the business “creates,” but something the customer experiences.

2. Forrester’s perspective: CX is the science of emotion — not merely a service function.

If CXPA provides the foundational definition, Forrester expands it through a behavioral lens:

“Customer experience is the ability to help customers accomplish their goals effectively, effortlessly, and with positive emotions.”

Forrester highlights three core drivers of CX:

Effectiveness: Did customers achieve what they wanted?
Ease: How much effort did they have to exert?
Emotion: How did they feel throughout the journey?

Among these, emotion is the decisive factor.
Forrester’s research shows that:

“Emotion is the strongest predictor of customer loyalty — stronger than price and product quality.”

This explains why two brands offering similar products and competing in the same market can produce vastly different levels of customer love: one of them manages to resonate emotionally.

One of the most common misconceptions in Vietnam is:

“Expanding the call center = better CX.”
“Answering quickly = good CX.”

Yet according to Gartner, customer service represents only a very small portion of the overall experience.

If we imagine a business as a machine, then:

• Marketing creates the initial expectation.

• Sales sets the promise.

• The product determines the real value delivered.

• Logistics and delivery shape the first impressions.

• Technical support handles negative emotions.

• Customer service maintains the post-purchase relationship.

• Technology influences the digital experience.

CX is the conductor that orchestrates the entire system.

A business may have a great call center, but if the product disappoints — CX is still poor.
A business that delivers late — CX is still poor.
A business that responds quickly but without empathy — CX is still poor.

CX is not the responsibility of a single department.
CX is an organizational capability.

Global research consistently points to the same conclusion:

• 86% of customers are willing to pay more for a better experience.

• 32% abandon a brand after just one bad interaction (PwC).

• Customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable (Deloitte).

• Strong CX reduces operational costs by 20–30% (McKinsey).

• 70% of loyalty is driven by emotion (Forrester).

As differentiation between products becomes increasingly blurred, technology enables features to be copied within months, and prices quickly converge. At this point, as McKinsey notes, CX becomes the final sustainable competitive advantage — because emotions and trust cannot be replicated.

Forrester has long demonstrated that three factors drive loyalty — effectiveness, ease, and emotion — and among them, emotion carries the greatest weight. A great product paired with a poor experience can push customers away in a single moment. Conversely, a small, empathetic gesture can generate loyalty far beyond the value of any transaction.

At a strategic level, CX is no longer “a better way to serve customers.”
CX is how a company operates to create loyalty.
CX is renewal revenue.
CX is lower operating cost through fewer complaints.
CX is the engine of positive word-of-mouth.
CX is the emotional network effect — the force that companies like Apple, Singapore Airlines, and Amazon have embedded deeply into their DNA.

One of the biggest misconceptions businesses have is using internal processes as the yardstick for customer experience. In reality, customers never see the process. They only feel the emotions that the process creates.

A company may believe it is delivering good service because it has reduced waiting time. Yet customers may still feel disappointed if the explanation is superficial, or if they are forced to repeat their information multiple times. A company may think it has “a fully featured app,” but what customers remember is the frustration of not being able to find what they need.

In IBM’s research on user behavior in digital channels, the “Intelligent + Human” model shows that great experiences are not defined by features, but by the amount of effort customers must exert. The more effort customers expend, the faster they abandon the service — no matter how good it may appear on paper.

Customers do not evaluate CX based on what the business believes it has done.
They evaluate CX based on how they feel.

Most CX failures do not stem from a lack of solutions or technology. They stem from an inside-out mindset, where businesses design experiences based on what they want customers to do, rather than what customers are actually trying to achieve.

When a service becomes overly complex, when a purchase journey requires too many steps, when a complaint process is rigid and bureaucratic — all of these originate from the belief: “This makes sense to us.”
Meanwhile, CX demands a different question: “How will customers feel if they are required to do this?”

This is why many leading organizations are shifting toward an outside-in mentality. They begin by listening to the authentic voice of the customer, measuring the effort customers must exert, identifying emotionally significant moments, and redesigning the journey based on real psychology and expectations.

It is a shift in mindset — from process to emotion.

In a world where every product can be replaced, CX becomes the only emotional bond a brand can use to keep customers from leaving. A great experience does more than satisfy; it makes customers want to return. A small moment of care does more than impress; it builds trust. And trust becomes the long-term competitive moat.

At its deepest level, CX is an organization’s ability to design and manage emotion.

Customers will forget features.
They will forget advertising copy.
But they will not forget how a brand made them feel.

CX is how a business is remembered — or forgotten.

Customer Service (CS), as defined by Gartner, is “the assistance and support interaction between a customer and a business when the customer needs help achieving a specific objective.” CS exists to resolve issues, clarify uncertainty, and handle help-seeking requests. It is reactive by nature, not proactive.

The effectiveness of CS depends on three factors:

• The speed of response,

• The ability to resolve the issue on the first attempt,

• And the attitude of the agent at the moment of interaction.

CS is an important slice of the experience journey, but it is still only one slice. It cannot replace the emotions customers feel when watching an ad, using a product, opening an app, or reading a negative review on social media. A skilled CS agent can put out fires, but they cannot single-handedly create emotional consistency across the brand.

And because CS only intervenes after a problem arises, businesses that rely solely on CS can treat the symptoms — but cannot address the root cause: Why did customers encounter the problem in the first place?

In contrast to Customer Service, Customer Experience, as defined by CXPA, is the sum of all perceptions and emotions a customer forms across every touchpoint — whether direct or indirect. CX begins even before a customer interacts with the business at all — when they see a review, read an article, or hear a friend talk about the brand.

Forrester describes CX through three dimensions: effectiveness, ease, and emotion. Among these, emotion plays the most significant role in driving long-term loyalty. What happens within Customer Service is only a small fragment of this broader picture; most of CX is shaped before and after the interaction with the support center.

CX is a connected system of product, processes, technology, data, communications, operations, and service. A small change in an internal workflow can affect customer emotions even if they never contact the call center. A minor update in the app interface can alter the customer’s ability to complete a task — without anyone in the service department realizing it.

The core difference is this:
Customer Service fixes what has already happened.
Customer Experience designs what should happen.

1. Nature: Proactive vs. Reactive

• Customer Experience (CX) is the totality of emotions, perceptions, and impressions accumulated across the entire customer journey, shaped by hundreds of touchpoints — many of which involve no direct human interaction at all.
  CX is proactive: the business designs the experience in advance to create the desired emotions.

• Customer Service (CS) is a support interaction that occurs when customers face a problem or need assistance.
  CS is reactive: an issue appears, and the business responds.

2. Scope: The Entire Journey vs. A Single Moment

• CX covers every experience: seeing an advertisement, reading a review, trying a product, opening the app, receiving delivery, filing a complaint — even emotions formed when the customer is not interacting directly.
  It is the “big picture.”

• CS is only one touchpoint within that journey: calling the hotline, chatting with an agent, visiting a service counter, sending a support email.
  It is “one puzzle piece.”

3. Success Metrics: Emotion vs. Process

• CX is measured by emotional outcomes: Did the customer feel comfortable or frustrated? Trusting or skeptical? Eager to return or reluctant?
  CXPA and Forrester both affirm that emotion is the decisive factor.

• CS is measured by process efficiency: response time, First Contact Resolution, clarity of explanation, and staff attitude.

4. Strategic Purpose: Loyalty vs. Problem Solving

• CX drives loyalty, retention, renewal revenue, and positive word-of-mouth. CX builds competitive advantage through emotion — something competitors cannot easily copy.

• CS reduces dissatisfaction, resolves issues, and keeps the service running smoothly. It helps the business avoid making customers upset, but it does not make them love the brand.

5. Organizational Role: Cross-functional Capability vs. A Single Department

• CX is a cross-organizational capability: Marketing → Sales → Product → Technology → Operations → CS. CX is the conductor of the entire system.

• CS is one department within that system — important, but not responsible for shaping the full emotional experience.

In summary:

Customer Service solves problems.
Customer Experience creates emotion.

CS can satisfy customers in a moment, but only CX can build a long-term relationship between the brand and its customers.

Emotion is the most important element of CX, yet it is also the one most overlooked by businesses. Most companies focus on speed, process, and technology, but forget that customers do not behave as purely rational beings. Customers remember through emotion. And emotion is the only force powerful enough to turn a brand into a preferred choice.

Forrester has demonstrated that emotion is the strongest predictor of loyalty. McKinsey shows that customers who experience positive emotions are three times more likely to stay with a brand long-term. When emotions are shaped the right way — feeling welcomed, respected, and understood — customers don’t just return; they become natural advocates.

Emotion doesn’t come only from what employees say. It comes from how an app is designed, how an email is written, how a process is shaped. Emotion lives in the smallest details — but it is those details that create the biggest impressions.

One of the most important metrics in CX—validated by both Gartner and Harvard Business Review—is the Customer Effort Score, which measures how much effort a customer must exert to achieve their goal. When effort is too high, customers will abandon a brand no matter how good the product is.

Effort appears in places businesses rarely expect: a button that’s hard to find, a cumbersome process, a chatbot that responds out of context, or an inconsistent interface design. And the frustrating part is that customers feel effort almost instantly—without analysis and without rational processing.

Leading CX companies focus on reducing effort before increasing delight. Amazon shortened the purchase journey from six steps to two. Apple designs every action to be “instruction-free.” Top digital banks in Asia invest in a three-minute onboarding flow instead of expensive advertising campaigns. When effort is low, positive emotion arises naturally.

If Effort is “the amount of work customers must do,” then Ease is “how simple it is to complete that work.” Ease is not only the result of good interface design; it also comes from the ability to anticipate intent, offer timely guidance, and remove unnecessary steps.

An easy experience is one that gives customers the feeling: “I know what to do next.” It doesn’t confuse them, force them to reread instructions, or push them to seek help. Ease is the essence of brands like Google, Airbnb, or Netflix — everything is designed to feel as natural as breathing.

IBM calls this Invisible Technology. When a system works well enough, customers don’t notice the technology behind it. They simply see everything flowing smoothly. Modern enterprises are shifting from “powerful technology” to “invisible technology” — technology that doesn’t show off, but simply serves.

Expectations are the foundation of how customers evaluate an experience. Customers don’t judge a business based on the absolute quality of the experience; they judge it based on the gap between expectation and reality. When the experience matches expectations, they feel satisfied. When it exceeds expectations, they feel delighted. When it falls short, they feel disappointed — even if the service is objectively good.

The challenge is that expectations are rising constantly, and not because of what a business itself delivers, but because of what top performers in the market set as the new norm. A customer accustomed to Amazon Prime expects similar speed from every e-commerce platform. A user familiar with Apple expects simplicity in every app. Expectations do not respect industry boundaries — they spill over.

Organizations strong in CX understand that they cannot fully control expectations, but they can manage them. Through more truthful communication, by designing journeys with fewer points of failure, and by ensuring consistent information across all channels. Effective expectation management helps businesses avoid the “Experience Gap” — the very gap that has caused many major brands to falter.

Consistency is one of the least discussed elements in CX, yet it has one of the strongest impacts on customer trust. A good experience that isn’t repeatable is no different from a beautiful promise that isn’t kept. When experiences fluctuate between good and bad, customers begin to lose trust in the entire brand.

Gartner notes that consistency alone can increase NPS by up to 30%. McKinsey adds that consistency influences not only emotion but also behavior: customers naturally return to places where they feel safe, familiar, and confident.

Consistency is not just about call-center scripts or app interfaces; it lives in how data flows across channels, how employees communicate, how technology responds, and how internal processes operate. A company only truly practices CX when every department aligns toward a single direction: creating a seamless, unified experience.

It transforms customer experience from a reactive function into a proactive, strategic initiative that is fully aligned with core business objectives, such as driving customer loyalty, increasing customer lifetime value (CLV), and achieving a sustainable competitive advantage.

Key elements of a CX strategy typically include:

• Customer-Centric Alignment: Placing customer needs and satisfaction at the core of all business decisions.

• Journey Mapping: Systematically mapping out the end-to-end customer journey to identify pain points and moments of delight.

• Actionable Roadmaps: Creating specific plans to enhance experiences based on customer research and feedback.

Chiến lược Trải nghiệm Khách hàng (CX) là một kế hoạch toàn diện mà công ty thiết lập để chủ động thiết kế và mang lại những trải nghiệm chất lượng cao, đáng nhớ và tích cực một cách nhất quán cho khách hàng tại mọi điểm chạm trong hành trình của họ.

Nó chuyển đổi trải nghiệm khách hàng từ một chức năng mang tính phản ứng thành một sáng kiến chiến lược, chủ động, hoàn toàn phù hợp với các mục tiêu kinh doanh cốt lõi, chẳng hạn như thúc đẩy lòng trung thành của khách hàng, tăng giá trị trọn đời của khách hàng (CLV) và đạt được lợi thế cạnh tranh bền vững.