What Even Is CX? It's Not What You Think.

Light switch dilemma: leave it on for air circulation or turn it off for energy efficiency.

Picture this:

It’s Monday morning, you’ve just finished your morning cappuccino at your favorite coffee shop and decide to pop into the restroom on the way out. As you’re about to leave, you notice that the light switch has two signs. One says, "Please leave the light on to keep air circulating." The other says, "Lights Off."

Well, what the heck are you supposed to do now?

If you're like most people, you're probably thinking: "Well, this is annoying and really should be fixed.”

You’d be right, but here's the thing — this confusion didn't happen because someone was trying to mess with you. It happened because two different people with two different perspectives and two different desired outcomes both tried to help in their own way.

Welcome to the world of Customer Experience (CX).

So, What Exactly IS Customer Experience?

Customer Experience is everything that happens when a person interacts with a company. Not just the phone call when something goes wrong. Not just the checkout process on a website. EVERYTHING.

Think about the last time you bought something—anything. Your experience started before you even contacted the company:

• The Google search that led you to their website

• The product description that made you buy or wonder if it was what you needed

• The smooth ordering process – or the frustrating one where you were asked to log in with an account you have yet to create

• The shipping notification that never arrived

• The product that showed up exactly as promised – or didn’t

• The follow-up email asking for a review and/or your thoughts in a survey

• The customer support call three weeks later when something broke

All of that? That's the Customer Experience. It's the story of a person's relationship with a company, told through every single interaction with that company.

Wait, Isn't That Just Customer Service?

This is where most people – and companies – get confused. Customer Service is not CX; it’s just one piece of Customer Experience.

Customer Service is what happens when someone calls for help. It's reactive — a specific question or problem that needs to be addressed.

Customer Experience is proactive. It's designing every interaction so that your customers are less likely to need customer service in the first place. On the rare occasion they do need help, sound CX artifacts, practices, and strategies ensure that any company employee can understand that customer’s full history and resolve their concern, ideally on the spot.

Here's a simple way to think about it:

• Customer Service = The employee who answers when your customers call

• Customer Experience = Every reason a customer or prospect might interact with your company, every step they take to get the information they’re seeking, how easy or difficult those steps are, how much time it takes them to accomplish their end goal, and how they feel about your company afterward

Back to That Sign

Remember the light switch example? In addition to being a real photo I captured, it’s also a perfect snapshot of how most companies who have remarkably good intentions accidentally create terrible customer experiences.

The coffee shop operators likely put up the "leave the light on" sign because they genuinely wanted to help—proper air circulation prevents mold and keeps people healthy.

The coffee shop owner likely put up the "lights off" sign because they genuinely wanted to help too—reducing energy consumption is better for the environment and saves money.

Both people had good intentions. Both were doing their jobs well. But neither one thought about what it would be like to be the person standing in front of that light switch.

That's exactly what happens at most companies every single day:

• Marketing promises free shipping, but website checkout adds shipping fees

• Sales tells customers they'll get a call within 24 hours, but the system assigns new customers for calls within 2-3 business days

• The app sends push notifications about a sale, but the sale prices don't show up after clicking through

• Customer support offers instructions to email a receipt for a refund, but the email bounces back as undeliverable

Flipping the CX Switch On

Companies with great Customer Experience don't necessarily have perfect customer service reps (though that helps). What they have is coordination.

They think like customers instead of like department heads because they understand that customers don’t experience an organization departmentally.

Before putting up any "sign," they ask:

• What are our customers trying to accomplish?

• What do we want the person to actually do?

• How can we make that as clear and easy as possible?

• What other signs are already there?

• Will this create confusion?

Why It Matters

Because customers nearly always consider your organization to be one entity, a lack of coordination when it comes to experience will leave your customers with mixed messages, conflicting instructions, and feelings of frustration.

It also becomes a cost-center because confused, exasperated customers don't just leave your company — they tell other people about their experience. In the age of online reviews and social media, one “Wait – how can it be off and on?” conflict can influence dozens of potential customers.

The Light Bulb Moment

Customer Experience is what determines whether people buy from you, stay with you, and recommend you to others. It's not about having the friendliest customer service team (though that's nice). It's about making sure that every interaction with your company feels intentional, consistent, and helpful.

If you suspect that your organization has conflicting light switch signs – whether literal or figurative – trust that it is not an indicator of poor intent or business unit failure. Rather, it’s a signal that you have significant revenue upside through a connected Customer Experience strategy.

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For those who are curious, I left the light on.