Do you know what Customer Experience Management (CEM) means?
In 2017, Christian Homburg, Danijel Jozić, and Christina Kuehnl conducted research aimed at defining this holistic concept. Over 10 months, they conducted 52 in-depth interviews with professionals across various industries and firm sizes, all of whom had roles related to CEM.
You might be thinking: "This isn't new — Customer Experience (CE) already covers this. Why complicate it further?" That’s a fair point. CE refers to how a brand or company enhances the customer’s sensory, emotional, and cognitive responses at every touchpoint, before, during, and after a purchase. However, integrating this concept into a strategy that creates a sustainable competitive advantage is where Customer Experience meets Marketing Management, and CEM takes center stage.
CEM is built on three pillars: cultural mindset, strategic direction, and capabilities. According to the researchers, “CEM refers to the cultural mindsets toward Customer Experiences, strategic directions for designing Customer Experiences, and firm capabilities for continually renewing Customer Experiences, with the goal of achieving and sustaining long-term customer loyalty.”
In other words, CEM is the ongoing process of surprising customers. People get bored of the "new" experience over time, and as Chip and Dan Heath emphasized in their book Made to Stick, surprise plays a crucial role. Customer Experience is not a one-time event—it's a spiral process of observation, creation, and execution.
In today’s competitive landscape, brands that invest in CEM are those that understand the evolving nature of customer expectations. By continually surprising and delighting customers, these brands don’t just build loyalty—they create emotional connections that set them apart. Remember that CEM isn't just a strategy, it's the heartbeat of your brand’s lasting success. Prioritize it, and your customers will too.
I hope you like our first article,
Aline Costa 🧡
https://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/1400064287