Blog

5 Tips for How You Can Close the Experience Gap

Customer Experience

Customer Journey
User Experience (UX)

March 12, 2020

Picture of a woman shopping online with her smartphone, next to it a picture of a sign saying "Open" and behind it a picture of a smartphone and clothes, valantic mobile commerce

Share this article

How good is your customer experience management? The company Qualtrics determined in a survey that 80% of the CEOs surveyed think that they offer a sufficient customer experience; however, only 8% of customers indicated that they are satisfied with the experience. This misjudgment is the experience gap – and it shows how far apart the promise of providing a perfect customer experience and the actual customer experience lie. Companies should try to provide their customers with everything the brand promises. Only this way can they ensure that they are fulfilling customers’ expectations on the customer journey at all times.

Infographic: Experience Gap — The experience gap arises if your own and the customer’s assessment of the customer experience do not match.

Here are five tips for how can you can close the experience gap and make customers 100% satisfied.

1. Understand the customer journey

In order to better assess customers’ expectations, you have to know where customers make contact with your company and what their experiences are there. Where are the experiences positive, where negative? A questionnaire helps understand the customer journey so you can design it accordingly.

2. Get to know customer expectations

Anyone looking to provide a perfect experience has to know what customers want. For only if expectation and reality match can the experience be perfect. You can achieve this by working with personas and customer surveys. Determined are the customer’s desires, needs, and expectations at each touchpoint.

3. Define brand promises

What is the added value that your products or services offer? What is the promise, what’s the brand core? The brand promise must match customer expectations so that these can be fulfilled.

4. Set priorities and develop a CX strategy

Customer surveys often provide insights into the touchpoint where the experience gap is the greatest. Which contact points have influence the customer experience the most? Develop a CX strategy that considers all contact points and aims to close the gap between desire and reality for the long term.

5. Check strategy

After implementation, it is important to check CX strategy regularly. Helpful here is technology from Qualtrics, an SAP company. With the help of Qualtrics, you can link O-data (operative data) and X-data (experience data) in order to detect interactions. According to details from SAP, nearly 80% of all operative company data comes from SAP systems. The connection with experience data makes it possible to answer questions about customer experience: Does higher customer satisfaction lead to more orders? What has the effect of optimizing touchpoints been? Are there fewer shopping cart cancellations?

More on this topic

Photo of four valantic colleagues taking a coffee break at the office bar.

Digital Marketing September 3, 2026

ChatGPT Ads: a new touchpoint in the customer journey

ChatGPT Ads bring advertising to a new stage of the customer journey. We explain how the new ad format works, where its strengths lie, and what role it could play alongside Google Ads, paid social, and organic AI visibility.

Three people are standing at a glass table with laptops in a modern office. In the background is a whiteboard and an industrial hall visible through glass.

Customer Experience August 27, 2026

Interview: How manufacturing stays digitally visible and AI-relevant

In the manufacturing sector, purchasing decisions are increasingly being made before the sales team is even involved. Designers, planners, maintenance technicians, and buyers conduct online research—and are increasingly receiving AI-generated responses. How can marketing teams at manufacturing companies ensure digital visibility and AI relevance? Answers and recommendations from the Manufacturing Practice.

Employee standing in a factory hall with a laptop on his arm

Customer Experience July 30, 2026

Cost center or revenue channel: How do B2B service portals pay off in 2026?

About one-third of B2B revenue is now generated through e-commerce and digital channels. Yet the potential of self-service portals in B2B often remains untapped. This article explains how customer platforms, powered by AI, sales excellence, and innovative revenue models, are becoming a revenue channel.

Don't miss a thing.
Subscribe to our latest blog articles.