Unpacking the Customer Journey: Designing Memorable Moments in Hospitality.
In hospitality, every interaction between a guest and your brand is an opportunity to create a lasting impression, a "moment of truth." These moments, whether magical or mundane, shape how your guests perceive and remember their experience. From the initial reservation to the final goodbye, the emotional journey you create is what sets your brand apart. Understanding and designing for these moments not only enhances guest satisfaction but builds loyalty, turning first-time visitors into lifelong advocates. In this article, we delve into the concept of moments of truth and their transformative power in hospitality design.
The year is 1980. Jan Carlzon, a charismatic 46-year-old executive, has just been appointed as COO of the financially troubled Scandinavian Airlines. He has a reputation for bold but effective turnaround strategies, aggressively cutting costs and transforming ailing airlines in the process. Within a year, he moves up the ranks to CEO and immediately sets out a bold new vision: “To earn the airline the reputation as the best airline in the world for the frequent business traveller.”
His theory is that “front-line workers”, those who have direct contact with passengers, are the company’s most important asset. To this end, he puts more than 12,000 of his employees through a rigorous new service course. In his quest to maximise customer experience, he looks at all the moments of customer joy, down to the tiniest details. Olives in martinis are restored. His approach is completely counterintuitive and unexpected. Instead of cutting costs, he increases them. Despite mounting internal and external pressures, he remains resolute in his philosophy and calls it “the moments of truth.”
“Anytime a customer comes into contact with any aspect of a business, however remote, is an opportunity to form an impression.”
Customers first. Money second.
Some of his moments of truth include the following:
When you call to make a reservation to take a flight.
When you arrive at the airport and check your bags curbside.
When you go inside and pick up your ticket at the ticket counter.
When you are greeted at the gate.
When you are taken care of by the flight attendants onboard the aircraft.
And
when you are greeted at your destination.
Then something remarkable happens. From this simple concept, Jan Carlzon takes an airline that was failing and turns it into one of the most respected airlines in the industry.
This philosophy has since seen many adaptations and applications in various forms across multiple categories of business. The most popular and widely quoted adaptation is the five moments of truth, starting with awareness through social and traditional media and laddering up to research, engagement with the company, experiencing the company, and finally, the customer’s emotional response to your company.
What is a Moment of Truth?
A moment of truth is an emotional response to your brand and thus often cannot be defined in a complete linear or logical manner. The moment is either magical or miserable, as first coined by Shep Hyken, a Customer Experience Designer. Although neutral outcomes are possible, they are, in reality, unlikely, as you will either impress or fail to impress a customer during most interactions.
Where Does a Moment of Truth Begin?
In the initial awareness of a hospitality brand, certain emotional views and perceptions are created around the brand personality. These are firmly embedded in the amygdala, the part of the brain where emotions are given meaning and remembered, emotional memories. Logic does not live here. Within the context of physical space, the only way to penetrate the amygdala is through the emotional experience (good or bad) of both human engagement and engagement with the physical space.
Defining Moments of Truth.
So how does one define these moments of truth exactly? It starts with the ultimate truth: despite external appearances, most people are alike, and their reaction to external stimuli has remained virtually unchanged since their hunter-gatherer days.
“Evolutionary psychology holds that although human beings today inhabit a thoroughly modern world of space exploration and virtual realities, they do so with the ingrained mentality of Stone Age hunter-gatherers. Homo sapiens emerged on the Savannah Plain some 200,000 years ago, yet according to evolutionary psychology, people today still seek those traits that made survival possible then.”
(Nigel Nicholson, Harvard Business Review, July–August 1998)
People are thus hardwired to act and react to external stimuli in very similar fashions, fashions that can be defined and designed for. Against this backdrop, moments of truth start with understanding people’s natural predictive behaviour first.
Jan Carlzon said there are good moments of truth and bad moments of truth. And then, of course, there are those moments that make no impression at all, neither negative nor positive, and simply become
In the world of hospitality, every interaction is an opportunity to create a lasting impression. By understanding human behaviour and designing for meaningful "moments of truth," businesses can foster loyalty, elevate experiences, and build emotional connections with their guests. Whether through thoughtful design, seamless service, or memorable details, these moments transform customer interactions into lasting relationships, turning ordinary encounters into extraordinary experiences.
We will unpack this customer journey and all the opportunities for moments of truth within the context of hospitality design, our next article, The 8 Moments of Truth in Hospitality Design.
Information Reference Index:
How Hardwired is Human Behavior?
Moments of Truth: New Strategies for Today's Customer-Driven Economy
The Customer Experience Revolution.
Customer Relationship Management: Concept, Strategy, and Tools
Services Marketing: People, Technology, Strategy
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