What is a customer experience management platform?
Customer interactions with a company occur across a multitude of channels (website, app, social media, email, phone and in-store). Managing each of these interactions individually to deliver a quality experience to customers is impractical, and this is where a customer experience management, or CXM, platform comes in. The software is designed to help companies understand, manage and improve every interaction with their customers across all touchpoints.
Key features of a CXM platform
A CXM platform collects data from touchpoints (e.g. websites, social media, email, surveys and customer service conversations) and then analyses this data in order to create better customer insights by understanding customer preferences and behaviour. By applying sentiment analysis on customer feedback from reviews, social media posts and more, companies can react fast in case something goes wrong and discover what customers value.
Many CXM platforms include tools such as customer journey mapping, sentiment analysis and automated communication. These help businesses find pain points and create campaigns that resonate with their audience.
| Feature | What it does |
|---|---|
| Data collection | Brings together feedback and interactions from many channels |
| Journey mapping | Shows the steps customers take and where they drop off |
| Sentiment analysis | Highlights how customers feel in reviews and messages |
| Surveys and feedback | Measures satisfaction at key moments |
| Automation | Sends timely, relevant messages and alerts |
Why businesses use a CXM platform
Managing customer experience manually becomes difficult as the volume of data and number of channels grow. A CXM platform from a company such as https://signal.co.uk/ simplifies this by bringing customer information together in one place. That makes it easier for marketing, sales and customer service teams to work together and give customers a consistent experience.
When your customers feel understood and their problems are solved quickly, they are more likely to become loyal customers and come back to you for new purchases. In addition, you can also see on the CXM platform which changes have the greatest impact.
CXM and CRM: what is the difference?
A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, on the other hand, is focused on the business’s side of the relationship and looks at the information the business has on the customer including contacts, sales opportunities and service issues. A CXM platform focuses on the customer’s side: how they experience each interaction and how they feel about it. Many businesses use both a CRM system and a CXM platform, and use the CXM platform to draw on and inform the CRM.
Choosing the right CXM platform
- Which channels do your customers use most, and does the platform cover them?
- How well does it integrate with your CRM, website and marketing tools?
- Is it easy for your teams to use day to day?
- Does it help you act on insight, not just report it?
- How does it handle customer data, and does it support your data protection obligations?
Frequently asked questions
Do small businesses need a CXM platform?
Not always. A simple CRM, the odd survey and regular analysis of feedback is often all that a small business needs. A CXM platform is more valuable the larger the customer base, number of channels and staff numbers, as it becomes increasingly difficult to gain a ‘big picture’ view of it all.
How do you measure customer experience?
Common metrics include customer satisfaction scores, Net Promoter Score, customer effort score, repeat business and complaints. It’s best to pick a few to track on an ongoing basis and link them to specific parts of your customer journey.
Where to go next
If much of your customer experience happens online, read our five e-commerce web design tips.
A good CXM platform helps businesses build meaningful relationships by personalising interactions and making customers feel understood and valued.
How a CRM supports property management firms
Property management shows how a CRM works in a single industry. Estate agents often draw leads from many sources, including personal contacts, social media, online advertising, direct mail and their own websites. A CRM brings all of these contacts into one place, organised and available on laptop, desktop, mobile and tablet, instead of being scattered across manual lists.
It is just as useful for keeping in touch with past clients. Many buyers say they would use the same agent again, yet few actually do, often because the agent lost contact over the years. Automated messages, such as birthday or anniversary emails, keep the relationship alive.
A good CRM also reports on what is working, showing how many emails are opened, which links get clicked and which listings are most popular, so campaigns can be adjusted. Scheduling meetings and storing every enquiry in the system means no sales lead slips through, and automating routine contact saves staff time and money.
Linking your CRM to the website
Connecting a CRM system directly to the business website is one of the simplest ways to improve the customer experience. When the two are integrated, customer information is instant, accurate and current, so staff are not working from out-of-date records that make the business look unprofessional.
Integration also gives a clearer picture of who buys from you, what they buy and when. That helps you fine-tune marketing and improve customer service, and with accurate data to hand, staff can follow up leads more quickly and turn more of them into sales.
It saves time too. When the systems are separate, information has to be exported or copied and pasted from one to the other, which takes staff away from more useful work. Manual transfer also creates the risk of errors and duplicate records. Choosing a widely used CRM that connects easily with other business software makes this kind of integration much simpler to set up and maintain.
