Given that the most obvious examples of the Experience Economy are from the world of entertainment, it’s easy to think that advocates of the Experience Economy (like me) want you to make everything you do entertaining. That’s a mistake. The Experience Economy isn’t about entertainment, it’s about emotion.

If you give someone a good emotion, they’re going to remember that, they’re going to talk about that, they’re going to come back for more.

So what’s a good emotion? We’re not talking about an emotion that makes one feel good (though it could be that), we’re talking about an emotion that’s good for it’s purpose.

Laughter makes people feel good, but reaching for humour in a solemn moment is a mistake. In that context it wouldn’t be good. A provider of funeral services might doing very generous work by curating moments that engender reflection, reverence, even a healthy outlet for emotions of loss. Entertainment would be misplaced, but that could still create an experience that people would remember, be grateful, and talk about with their loved ones.

And so we get to the oft misunderstood distinction between good service and good experiences. Good service doesn’t create a lasting memory. Good service doesn’t make people feel anything. Good service is a hygiene factor. The only thing about good service that makes us feel anything is the lack of it.

To turn good service into a good experience you need to good your customer an appropriately good emotion that marks itself upon them as a memory, and in such a way that they can go and re-mark others with the story of that emotion.