Perfect CX Series Part 2— Product Experience
The last time we met, we discussed how CX is not a single concept, rather it is an amalgamation of a variety of interdependent concepts. The first concept in this mixture was Brand Experience and we learned how the simple color, design, and logo of a brand can create a huge impact on its image and personality and the overall CX.
However, with brand experience, you can barely scratch the surface of CX. With a strong brand experience, you can leverage brand equity and word of mouth. This can be crucial to attract and bring customers to your doorstep. But the real customer experience journey begins now. And only one thing can make your customer stay, a strong Product Experience (PX).
In this blog, we shall discuss the concept of product experience, how it can contribute to overall CX, what matters to the customers, the challenges in creating product experience, and how brands like American Express succeeded in excelling their PX.
Buckle uptight! Here we go…
What do we Understand by Product Experience?
In the most basic sense, product experience is the utility that can be derived from the preliminary usage of a product. This experience is a major driving source in the creation of a customer’s perception about product quality, features, design, and functions and thereby affect their purchase and usage behavior.
Imagine the last time you visited an automobile showroom. You must have had some prior information from the internet, reviews, and people around you. You would then analyze the various models by their look, feel features, and functions. You would also take a test drive. And ultimately you would form a view of whether or not the particular car fits your utility parameters.
This exercise you do every time you go shopping is nothing but a product experience. This may be a long experience as in the above case or a brief one when you go to buy soap or toothpaste. Some products can be tried before use. Such products have a distinguished product experience that can play an important role in decision-making.
Others may be needed to be used without trial. In these cases, the packaging, look and feel of the product is what defines its experience before the sale. For software and applications, PX is the entirety of their journey while using the app or software. This way, product experience can be of different types.
A good product experience can have a positive impact on purchase decisions while a poor experience can lead to negative results. Thus, it is necessary to understand the concept of product experience and know why it matters to the customers.
What Matters to Customers?
From a product perspective, customers expect two major things from brands. One, that the brand understands what their needs really are. And two, that these needs are converted into utilities by the products offered to them. Customers want brands to use the information supplied by them to personalize their experience with the product.
For instance, when let’s go back to the automobile shop. You would specify your requirements to the dealer and expect him to show you the models that suit your needs. Anything less than that is not acceptable. Because it matters to the customers when brands do their homework before interacting with them.
On the other hand, Product Experience can add significantly to the success of the brand. It can be a key differentiator for a brand to help it stand out from the competition.
According to Design Management Institute, companies that focus on customer centered product experience have outperformed the S&P 500 companies by 219% over the past 10 years. Thus, PX is important for companies from both perspectives: that of the customers and the competitors.
But, creating PX isn’t a cup of tea. There are some roadblocks to deal with while enhancing your product experience!
Major Challenges in Product Experience
The benefits of PX are not without its challenges. Some major roadblocks in designing a perfect product experience are:
- Understanding Customer needs and Personalizing PX accordingly: It is difficult to understand the dynamic customer needs and deliver a personalized product experience to each customer. According to Digital Trends, 73% of consumers prefer brands that use personalization to enhance their CX.
- Consistency of PX with Marketing Message: Marketing may use varied messaging to attract customers. It may highlight a lot of product features that build customer expectations. However, these promises must remain consistently in alignment with the actual PX, or else it can all backfire.
- Creating Tangible Elements for Intangible Products: Creating PX for intangible products like apps and software is quite difficult due to their intangibility characteristics. Adding tangible elements to these is a challenging task.
- Retention of Customer Interest: Another challenge in product experience is to keep the customer hooked with the product throughout the journey. If the customer loses interest, the whole exercise of PX will fail.
- Justifiable Pricing: And lastly, the price of the product must be in line and justifiable to the PX offered. If the customer deems the price to be more than the experience the product offers, they may deem your product to be overpriced.
Companies like American Express have overcome these challenges and mastered the art of a memorable product experience. Let’s discuss this case to learn more about how to create great PX!
Product Experience Lessons from American Express
American Express is a world-renowned brand that deals in financial products like charge cards, credit cards, traveler’s cheques, and corporate banking products.
The most popular card products of American Express cards include the Platinum Card, SmartEarn Credit Card, Membership Rewards Credit Card, Platinum Reserve Credit Card, Gold Card, Platinum Travel Card, etc. The sheer variety and benefits of each card add to the PX of American Express. Each card caters to the specific needs of its customer base.
Apart from this, the Digital Solutions offered by AmEx in the form of the Apple Pay feature, Google Pay feature, Samsung Pay feature, Mobile NFC, etc. through the AmEx application are also a great addition to their PX.
Image: Digital Solutions offered by AmEx
Another striking strategy used by AmEx to enhance its PX is the plethora of Virtual Experiences it has added for its card members keeping the COVID scenario in mind. These experiences are in collaboration with their entertainment partners.
For instance the exclusive invitation to all AmEx card members to attend the live virtual workshop by KEPT founder Kara Mann on the Art of Home-keeping. The experience also includes a specially curated, limited-edition box of an assortment of items for the members to use in styling their space alongside Kara.
Conclusion
To summarize it all, Product Experience is yet another important type of experience that constitutes the overall Customer Experience. It is through PX that a customer will be inclined to purchase your product. But, maybe you don’t deal in products altogether. Maybe your main offering is service-based. Is PX relevant then too? Of course, it is! And for organizations that are service-based, PX gets converted to SX or Service Experience. We shall discuss this in further detail in our upcoming blog. Till then, enjoy your reading!
In the other parts of this series, we will learn more about each of the six varied types of experiences forming Customer Experience
