The terms “customer experience” and “user experience” are often used interchangeably. Indeed, it is often difficult to distinguish one from another, especially when we are talking about electronic services represented by apps.
Here is my short observation about how a minor modification in the human-machine interaction made the user experience of one particular instance worse but improved the customer experience of the whole service.
Below is a touch screen of bottles and cans recycling machine in a supermarket. Before, one had to press a button to get a printed receipt after the last can or bottle was fed into the machine. (The money for returned bottles is refunded against the receipt by the cashier.) Now the screen does not need to be touched at all: the receipt will be printed automatically after a timeout.
What is interesting in this case is that the change in the user experience here is the opposite of the change in the customer experience. Previously, I would consider waiting for 15 sec an unnecessary delay. Moreover, I would feel that I am deprived of control over the process. Therefore, my user experience has clearly deteriorated. However, in the current situation of Covid-19 pandemic, when the hygiene comes first, my experience as a customer of the supermarket improved: I feel that my safety is taken seriously.
But when the situation will change and the danger of the virus will be gone, I would again prefer pressing a button over waiting for a quarter of a minute. In “normal” conditions, my customer experience will suffer from such delay.
My conclusion from this short observation:
The customer experience depends on the circumstances while the user experience is more universal.
