We write about what we see in the field — the patterns, failures, and breakthroughs that shape how we think about experience design and operational performance.
Organizations spend enormous energy designing the peaks of the guest experience — the wow moments, the branded touchpoints. They spend almost no time designing the transitions between them. That is where experiences fall apart.
Net Promoter Score has become the industry's most cited and least understood metric. We look at what the number behind the number reveals — and what most organizations systematically ignore.
We have spent years studying what differentiates exceptional guest experiences from adequate ones. The most consistent variable is not the physical environment, the programming, or the brand. It is the frontline manager on duty.
Service recovery is the hospitality industry's most expensive band-aid. The organizations that invest most heavily in recovery systems are often the ones most resistant to fixing the root causes that require recovery in the first place.
Behavioral economics has given us a remarkably clear picture of how humans encode and recall experiences. Most experience designers have not read this research. The ones who have produce very different results.
Guests are remarkably forgiving of a bad experience. They are far less forgiving of a good experience followed by a bad one. Inconsistency — not inadequacy — is the primary driver of lost loyalty in experience-driven businesses.
We publish new insights monthly. No noise — just substantive thinking from practitioners who are still doing the work.