Key Differences: Customer Experience Management vs. Customer Relationship Management

Oct 2, 2024

8 mins read

Manisha Khandelwal

Customer Experience Management vs. Customer Relationship Management – What are the Key Differences?

Good customer experience goes beyond a transaction — it’s about making your customers feel heard, valued, and understood.

But as customer expectations evolve, so do the tools to manage them. With an ever-growing lineup of tech tools—each with its own acronym—it’s easy to get lost in the sea of customer management solutions.

That’s especially true when it comes to Customer Experience Management (CEM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

Although they look alike, they have different functions. But when used together, they are forces to reckon with and, in fact, help to boost your customer journey to a whole new level.

Let’s break down their differences and explore how they work hand in glove, but first, let’s understand what they are.

What is Customer Experience Management (CXM)?

Customer Experience Management gives you a 360-degree view of your customers, allowing you to segment them based on behaviors, map their journeys, and anticipate their needs. It’s about fostering relationships by understanding who your customers are and what drives them. In fact, the global CXM market is expected to grow at a 14.6% CAGR, reaching $65.95 billion by 2031.

Why CXM Matters?

According to Forrester’s research conducted for Adobe, firms with solid CXM strategies have 1.7 to 2.1x the year-over-year growth in revenues, customers, and customer lifetime values than those without.

What is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?

CRM is the foundation for managing interactions with prospects and customers. Its goal? To improve customer satisfaction, enable sales development, and optimize the sales, marketing, and support functions. Essentially adopted by the sales and marketing departments, CRM helps capture the details of customers, lead nurturing, and even marketing campaigns, with the intent of improving sales and customer loyalty.

CRM tools allow businesses to organize contact information, monitor customer interactions, and identify future sales opportunities. They provide valuable insights, enabling teams to forecast and optimize their efforts. It’s no wonder the global CRM market is valued at $70.2 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow at a 9.8% CAGR, reaching $178.7 billion by 2034.

Why CRM Matters?

According to a survey conducted by IBM, CRM software, if employed in the right manner, can give a business a return on investment of 245%. In fact, businesses utilizing a CRM are 86% more likely to surpass their sales goals.

Customer Experience Management vs. Customer Relationship Management: Key Differences

CXM and CRM are strategic ways to address the management of the relationships between a business and its customers; however, these two concepts are quite different.

Now, let us find out how CXM and CRM are distinct, how they are related, and in what aspect each one adds a different flavor to the complex sphere of customer relations.

Criteria	CXM	CRM
Primary Focus	Optimizing the delivery of all aspects of the customers’ experience, from start to finish.	Managing customer relationships and interactions, primarily focused on sales.
Perspective	It is established around customer needs and expectations.	It is determined by your organizational goals.
Objective	The goal is to improve customer satisfaction, relationships, and loyalty.	The purpose is the improvement of sales processes, customer loyalty, and, as a result, revenues.
Approach	This vision is more long-term, as it covers customer, loyalty, interaction, and individual approaches.	The focus is on managing data and enhancing sales and marketing efforts in the short term due to its transactional nature.
Key Metrics	Customer satisfaction, Net Promoter Score, and Customer Effort Score.	Revenue, lead conversion, and Customer Lifetime Value.
Scope of Use	Actively used by marketing, support, and product teams; across the entire customer journey.	Used by sales, marketing, and customer service teams.
Tools/Components	Uses tools like customer journey mapping, feedback collection, and text analytics.	Includes sales automation, contact management, and campaign tracking tools.
Feedback	Actively collects customer feedback to refine the experience in real-time.	The approach is less feedback-oriented and more concentrated on managing interactions and data.
Personalization	Deep personalization across multiple channels in real-time.	Basic personalization based on past interactions and sales data.
Data Usage	Uses real-time data for proactive problem-solving and experience optimization.	Uses historical data to improve the approaches towards current and potential consumers.

When considering the Customer Experience Management vs. Customer Relationship Management argument, consider CXM and CRM as two instruments with different objectives.

CXM is all about optimizing your interactions to ensure customers feel valued and satisfied at every touchpoint. By delivering positive experiences at the right time, you can foster long-term loyalty and enhance customer engagement, creating a strong foundation for lasting relationships.

In contrast, CRM deals with relationship management, customer information, and driving sales, ensuring that all is well behind the scenes. It helps you stay on top of leads, campaigns, and customer retention.

While CXM handles the “feeling” part of the customer journey, CRM manages the “doing” part. Together, they give you a holistic view of customer experience, helping you build stronger customer relationships and grow your business with both heart and strategy.

Let’s look more closely at how these two champions combine to raise customer happiness!

The Customer Happiness Intersection: Where CXM Meets CRM

Together, CXM and CRM work in harmony to retain customers by providing efficient service and nurturing loyalty through memorable brand experiences. Here’s how they deliver the best results when integrated into your customer experience strategy.

1. Voice of the Customer: Listening to your customers’ perceptions of your products and services is critical. CXM gathers insights through surveys and reviews, while CRM automates tracking of this feedback, allowing you to respond promptly and show customers their opinions matter.

Launch, Listen, Act – SurveySensum’s Got Your Feedback Covered!

2. Customer Journey Mapping: Customer journey mapping is a significant part of CXM because it provides a deep understanding of the CX. By integrating CRM data, you can effectively identify key touchpoints in customer interactions and analyze preferences and behaviors. This powerful combo helps you spot what’s working and uncover where the customer journey could use a little extra love.

3. Customer Retention: CRM keeps an eye on changes in customer behavior, giving you clues about what they value and where they might be dissatisfied. CXM then steps in, using that data to sharpen your retention strategies and deliver more tailored support. For example, you can identify customers at risk of churning by combining CRM data, such as decreased purchase activity, with CXM feedback, such as negative reviews.

4. Personalization of Customer Interactions: CRM classifies customers based on their behavior and purchasing patterns, enabling targeted communication. CXM extends this kind of personalization beyond the pre-purchase phase to the rest of the buying journey, providing prospective customers with personal answers to boost their engagement and satisfaction.

Driving Customer Success With CXM and CRM

CXM or CRM, what do we get if we take the best of both worlds? CEM and CRM should go hand in hand, like salt and pepper, which complement one another. Integrating CRM’s data management with CXM’s focus on customer experience gives you a holistic approach—efficient operations paired with personalized, emotional connections that keep customers loyal and engaged.

Best Practices for Integrating CEM and CRM

Let’s talk about how to really make your CRM and CXM work together like a dream team.

Always keep your data clean and accurate. Clean data helps you understand your customers better and personalize interactions.
Use APIs or third-party integrations to connect your CXM and CRM with other platforms, like marketing automation or customer support systems, for a unified view of customer interactions.
Leverage surveys, feedback, and other tools to gather insights on customer experiences, preferences, and pain points.
Use sentiment analysis tools to find out the way your customers see your brand. Are they loving it? Are there frustrations bubbling up?

Every successful business has one fundamental thing in common: the delivery of an outstanding customer experience. Doing this, however, is not limited to fixing problems that occur but takes the form of understanding the customers’ journey and their needs, meeting and even surpassing expectations.

Now is the moment when SurveySensum takes action. This AI technology-driven CXM helps you understand your customers. With real-time feedback, tailored dashboards, and data-driven insights, SurveySensum empowers you to turn interactions into memorable experiences.

So, whether you’re analyzing data or personalizing experiences, remember: great CX doesn’t happen with guesswork—it’s built with intention, insight, and the right technology.