Time is the currency of experience. It’s about time.

But once most people understand that, they quickly jump to the wrong conclusion. They add a word: ‘It’s about saving time.’ There’s no doubt that customers don’t want their time to be wasted. That’s the first step toward a great customer experience.

They want time well-saved.

That’s the world of the service-provider. Pay for my service and I will save you the time it would take to do it yourself.

But that’s not all they want. They want their time well-saved so that they can spend it on experiences that they value more highly.

They want time well-spent.

Experiential companies understand that time well-spent is more valuable than time well-saved because time well-spent is an experience. That’s what customers really want and are willing to pay more for.

But even big, experiential brands forget this. Take Starbucks, they have built a $36 billion company around the coffee experience. As the title of a former key employee indicated: It’s Not About the Coffee.

The reason Starbucks can seven bucks for a coffee is not because they have the best coffee or the most convenient purchase process. No, it’s because they are selling a coffee experience.

But that’s not what their popular app has become. That’s about convenience and, according to founder Howard Schultz, it’s killing the company. That’s what I talk about in this video: