Stop trying to be a little faster, a little easier, a little cheaper. That is all about improving your service.

But your client experience is not your service.

It’s the time your clients spend with you. It’s about time.

In fact, that’s the first headline in the preface of The Experience Economy, the seminal book by Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore, when it was reprinted in 2020.

It’s About Time.

When you make your service faster, easier, and cheaper, you are actually commoditizing yourself. Don’t get me wrong. Your clients will initially love it. They want their products and services delivered fast and cheap.

That’s because they want to spend their time, attention, and money on experiences that they value more highly.

So instead of making your service more forgettable, make the time they spend with you more valuable.

How do you do that? Think about all the ways that people like to spend their time.

When Capital One did that, they started Capital One Cafes like the one Joe Pine (pictured here) and I just visited in St. Cloud, Minn. Why would a bank open cafe in their lobby?  What does coffee have to do with cash?

Well, not very many people want to go to bank branches anymore, but lots and lots of people go to coffee shops. First Bank & Trust in Sioux Falls did something similar. They partnered with a local coffee roaster called Coffea, who put a coffee shop in the FB&T branch closest to my home.

My daughters spent hours and hours hanging out in that bank branch. And one of them even became a Coffea barista!

I’m not saying you need to open a cafe in your lobby, although if you do, I will surely visit. What you need to do is think about what would make your clients want to spend more time with you. Regardless of your service.

Because it’s about time.