The fundamental point of customer experience is to make a continuing, purposeful effort to keep consumers happy with the service they have gotten so that continuous improvement becomes an actual process. On the other hand, customer satisfaction has been restricted to binary measurements such as surveys that generate a figure (e.g., 95 percent) and frequently fail to meet the closed-loop criteria of going under the skin of the survey. (ADAMOPOULOS, 2022)

Customers’ internal and subjective responses to any direct or indirect encounter with a firm are customer experience. The consumer most often starts direct contact throughout the purchase, usage, or service process. Unplanned contacts with representations of a company’s products, services, or brands are the most common indirect contact, shaping word-of-mouth recommendations or complaints, advertising, news stories, and reviews. (Schwager & Meyer, 2018)

Customers’ experiences are shaped by successful brands that incorporate the fundamental value proposition in every facet of their goods. “The Ultimate Driving Machine” is more than just a tagline for BMW; it guides its production and design decisions. Mercedes-Benz invented a technology in 2000 that automatically regulates the distance between a Mercedes and the vehicle in front of it. BMW would not contemplate implementing such a function unless it improved the driving experience rather than detracted from it. (Schwager & Meyer, 2018)

Customer satisfaction is a measure of clients’ delight after completing a transaction. Customer satisfaction is a statistic that helps organizations assess how effectively they serve their customers, whether through the customer journey, transaction, engagement with personnel, or service. This measure is generated using customer satisfaction survey software, allowing businesses to run surveys for their customers to obtain feedback and assess how happy they were after completing a transaction. (Kyatham, 2021)

While both measures are equally crucial for organizations, customer experience takes the lead as a more comprehensive statistic for determining consumer views. Customer experience allows organizations to monitor how well customers were served while on the premises and how well they were treated outside of the premises. For example, the marketing for your business that reaches out to customers via messages or emails, the offers one sends them, newsletters, and feedback surveys provide more extensive data than merely customer satisfaction surveys. The quality of the customer experience has a significant impact on customer satisfaction. (Kyatham, 2021)

For merchants to adopt differentiated strategies and gain a sustained competitive advantage, customer experience has become critical. Customers live in an experience economy, which means businesses will get a competitive edge by developing an experience based on products or services to attract customers. Customer experience has also become an integral aspect of merchants’ value generation process. (Pei et al., 2020)

Customer happiness and loyalty may be improved by actively directing and generating an excellent emotional experience during the buying process. It is the only method to gain a long-term competitive edge. Retailers may establish their specialized markets to attract customers and maintain sustained competitive advantages by merging these two marketing channels, especially in the current situation when physical stores and internet shopping coexist. (Pei et al., 2020)

On the other hand, customer satisfaction is vital for a retailer’s success and long-term competitiveness. Customer satisfaction has a significant positive association with retail success indicators and long-term sustainable competitive advantage indicators, including sales volume, profit, customers’ repurchase intention, market share, and word-of-mouth. Customer experience, in particular, is the most important indicator of customer satisfaction. It is the most crucial strategy for retail enterprises to differentiate themselves from existing and future rivals in the current market climate. It is a crucial factor that influences consumer satisfaction. (Pei et al., 2020)

References: