Continuous CX – a promise we love to make.

Several people are having a stand-up discussion, and they are holding a sticky note called 'Customer'.

We have built our service offering with a clear target: Continuous CX. This can be seen as a delivery promise when a client indulges in our full-service offering. This journal entry explains what we mean by continuous CX and why it should also be something you’re curious about. We’ll also delve into how we can deliver upon the promise. It is integral to the way we operate, just if you are interested in infusing your product or service development with continuous customer experience.

Our holistic approach to customer experience design.

One of the early versions of our customer promise reads as follows: “Avalon CX brings CX insight, CX expectation, and CX fulfillment together as an integrated, continuous CX.” If you’re a more visual person, you’ll find a graph illustrating the matrix of our design philosophy interconnected with our service offering at the bottom of the page. For the rest, let’s elaborate in writing:

CX Insight includes research, analytics, and continuous metrics.

We offer CX Design as a service that incorporates research, analytics, and metrics. We also offer Product & Service Development as a service that feeds off of CX insights and infuses them into the design and development, resulting in CX fulfillment. They are both advanced concurrently on separate paths. When a service/product enters the development phase, there may be very little collaboration with marketing, and the actual service goal may end up quite far from the expectation that is being set. To address the discrepancy, close collaboration and unity are needed by design, development, and marketing/comms teams. Utilizing the same UX insights gained by the research and analysis in the first stage will help align messages and goals.

CX Expectation is set by marketing & communications.

When launching a service/product to the market, marketing and communications play a key role in generating user awareness and interest. This messaging formulates user expectations. And if marketing is handled separately from design & development, it is common that they are both advanced concurrently on separate paths. When a service/product enters the development phase, there may be very little collaboration with marketing, and the actual service goal may end up quite far from the expectation that is being set. To address the discrepancy, the design, development, and marketing/comms teams need close collaboration and unity. Utilizing the same UX insights gained by the research and analysis in the first stage will help align messages and goals.

CX Fulfillment involves design, development & product management.

Great CX intentions are a great starting point, but product design and development are where the real magic happens, where the expectations are either met or failed. When CX ideology is infused in product management, its value realizes its potential. Design & development deliver on the goal. Aligning all three – customer experience insights, expectations, and fulfillment – will result in what we see as Continuous CX.

So, why is the CX goal continuous, not stagnant? Because as customer expectations evolve, services/products need to evolve, and so does the customer experience they deliver. And when all three paths are aligned and delivered through one service provider, it is easy to keep evolving and developing a truly unified vision.

How do we deliver upon the promise of Continuous CX?

We offer CX Design as a service that incorporates research, analytics, and metrics. We also offer Product & Service Development as a service that feeds off of CX insights and infuses them into the design and development, resulting in CX fulfillment. Combining design and development with visual communication & design services, delivered through our partner ecosystem and equipped with the same CX insights, we can craft a fully integrated customer experience that results in Continuous CX.

Continuous CX

As for Design Sprint and Data-Driven Development, they are productized services. To learn more about them, get in touch with us, and we’ll be happy to elaborate.

Author

  • Claudio Afonso

    Multi-disciplinary design leader with an intricate understanding of digital and its myriad of facets. I began my career two decades ago in South Africa, where I crafted boundary-breaking marketing and brand experiences that connected with diverse audiences (unique to an emerging market) and garnered the attention of the industry, winning numerous awards along the way.