There’s a lot of buzz these days about Customer Experience (CX) which many CEOs consider just another take on Customer Service, but the two are co-dependent, not interchangeable.

Customer Service means listening to needs, offering advice, giving assistance, resolving problems, and providing solutions. In essence, how staff interact with customers. But without a shared corporate strategy, a solid infrastructure, user-friendly systems, simplified processes and empowered employees, good Customer Service is not enough to create a loyal customer base.

Customer Experience is the sum of every interaction a customer has with a company – from website advertising, to placing an online order, or making an in-person purchase. Customer Experience is also the perception of whether your contact centre, salespeople, technicians, delivery or support teams want to build relationships with customers or simply process transactions.

Customer Experience management goes beyond protecting the brand. It’s a measure of how well an organization delivers against customer expectations, and not just once, but over time. CX is a commitment showing that an organization values its customers’ business in a meaningful way. And it significantly influences whether or not a customer will repurchase or offer a recommendation.

CX goes far beyond monitoring NPS – Net Promoter Score or CSat – in order to gauge Customer Satisfaction results. It’s knowing and understanding the customer so well that their experience becomes seamless and effortless.

Amazon Prime has an unprecedented 74% conversion rate. Why? Amazon understands better than any other online retailer what digital shoppers want. Two-day free shipping, one-click checkout, plenty of great user reviews, and easy returns all contribute to repeatable, positive customer experiences.

For many years Disney’s sole focus has been to create entertaining experiences for every guest, at every age. Disney’s vision and mission statement begins with “We create happiness,” and they do it extremely well because every cast member understands that how a customer feels is a valid business outcome.

Regrettably, despite all the hype, very few organizations have embraced such a concept of Customer Experience, and most interactions with customers are mundane. Not magical.

What’s the lesson here? As business leaders, we need to shift our thinking from designing the experience we want our customers to have, to delivering the experience our customers want.

How we interact with our customers, at every step of the journey, must come from viewing the relationship through the customer lens, not the corporate lens. That is, if we expect our customers to be loyal, brand advocates.