Consistently delivering the product you said you would deliver is a worthy goal for any business. The problem, though, is that delivering is only half the work of providing good service to customers.

Service has two components: 1) delivery (getting the job done), and 2) hospitality (how it makes people feel). Most businesses focus primarily on delivery while only an enlightened few place as much emphasis on hospitality. This is mostly because delivery is easy to measure and correlate to the bottom line. However, since humans base a large part of their decisions on how they feel, being an unenlightened believer in the what-gets-measured-is-all-that-matters game can be a problem.

In any customer journey, there are at least three points where a decision must be made to stay or to leave: 1) just before making contact, 2) just before purchase, and 3) just before repurchasing or renewing. While your customers’ journey may have more, all have at least these three.

With a minimum of three decision points containing three potential exit ramps and those decisions largely hinging on how people feel, don’t you think you ought to consider how you’re influencing those feelings? Don’t you think taking away hassles and behaving in ways that consider people as people might keep customers from straying? I’ll wait for you to think that through.

This is why hospitality is such a big deal. In fact, hospitality can be, and usually is, a defining differentiator for a business.

If you think hospitality is only for restaurants, hotels, churches, and hospitals, it’s time you woke up.

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