Why customer experience matters

A couple of articles that go through why your customer experience should be at the top of your agenda. 'Customer experience' is an increasingly popular term these days, but you could just as easily say 'target audience experience' or 'student experience'.
I think the term customer - a slightly controversial term in higher education still perhaps - is just used most frequently because the usability companies making money in this field are targeting the commercial sector.

So what is customer experience? Craig McCulloch says:

Customer experience is the sum of all experiences a customer has with a business or a brand. It embraces business awareness, discovery, attraction, association, interaction, transaction and advocacy. An ‘experience’ can be defined as a single event – or the sum of events – that a consumer has with a brand. It shapes the customers’ perception, expectation and interaction.

His article is a great introduction and overview.

In the second article, the Webcredible team then go on to discuss how a great experience can lead to customer loyalty. This includes a great presentation which pulls in examples of user centred design techniques which can be employed to help you towards your goal of a great experience for your target audience.

Creating an optimal customer experience - article by Craig McCulloch for.net

“I’m sticking with you…” Can User Experience drive Customer Loyalty? - Article and presentation by Gemma Maidment for Webcredible