Think of a moment when you were out in nature. Maybe you were watching the sunset somewhere, or a sunrise. Or perhaps you went for a stroll, or a surf. Or maybe you were sat with friends around a fire, or a picnic blanket. Doesn’t matter, just think of a moment when you were out in nature that was a cool experience.

If you can think of even one cool experience then you’ve discovered the secret to a great misunderstanding.

When you sit around a fire with friends next to your tent, or paddle out into the ocean, there is no service involved, and yet there is a great experience, and that’s because they are completely different things.

Currently, that’s widely misunderstood. Many business people tend to think that a great customer experience is simply a synonym for great service.

But once you have one example showing that you can have a great experience without any accompanying service, then you know that they can come apart, and once you know that they can come apart then you know that you can design for a great experience independently.

In a world that’s still dominated by service thinking, there are going to be very many cases in which great service and great experience are found together in a commercial setting… but they don’t need to be. You can design easter-eggs into your customer journey that don’t require any customer service whatsoever, but which contribute disproportionately to the customer experience – they’ll remember, and talk about, the easter-egg you carefully laid out for them to accidentally trip over far more readily than they’ll remember and talk about the speed with which you responded to their email.

Being good isn’t good enough anymore.

In a world in which people can sort by rating and the selection process begins with those who have 5 stars, designing experiences that are apart from service is the competitive advantage.