Bram De Vos
Customers do not remember their experience with you. They remember two or three moments from it, and they judge you on those.
This article covers
- why the term "customer experience" might be misleading,
- how interpreting it better can save you a lot of headaches,
- and how you can create lasting impressions that turn customers into advocates.
Why customer experience might be a misleading term
Customer experience, quite literally, refers to the interactions a customer has with a company throughout their entire journey, from initial contact to post-purchase support. The term "customer experience" suggests that every touchpoint with the customer needs to be equally excellent.
The research on memory says otherwise. The finding is called the peak-end rule: people judge a whole experience almost entirely on its most intense moment and on how it ended, while the length of the experience barely registers. Barbara Fredrickson and Daniel Kahneman found it with film clips in 1993, and Donald Redelmeier and Kahneman found it again in 1996 with patients undergoing colonoscopy and lithotripsy, whose ratings of total pain tracked the worst moment and the final three minutes rather than how long the procedure took. It is impossible for customers to remember every touchpoint and every interaction they have with a company. Instead, customers remember certain things far better than others.
Zeroing in on the moments that make the cut
Customers won't judge you for every interaction they have with you, but they will judge you based on what sets you apart. Standout moments and characteristics, good or bad, define you as a company and a brand.
Instead of stressing over making every touchpoint flawless, focus on what you are good at and emphasize that. Understand what, in the customer's view, are the highlights of their journey with you. These are the things they will remember you for. Nail the areas that matter most to your customers and prioritize your efforts for maximum impact.
A prime example: Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines built its name in the United States on two things: low fares and getting people there on time. In Europe, the closest comparison is Ryanair. For decades it declined to compete on everything else and chose to be excellent at those two things instead. Those were the aspects that set it apart from the competition.
At one point, Southwest considered improving the meals served on board, which were just a bag of peanuts and a soda. It seemed obvious that a proper meal would improve the customer experience.
Doing so would have increased costs, and that would have endangered its unique selling point of being a cheap airline. Serving meals would also have added logistical work, which put its reputation for punctuality at risk.
Southwest left the onboard meals alone and kept its focus on being cheap and punctual. Rather than trying to be perfect on all points, it chose to be outstanding on what set it apart from the competition.
Both of those differentiators have since gone. Southwest began charging for checked bags in May 2025, ending the Bags Fly Free policy it had run for more than fifty years, and on 27 January 2026 it replaced open seating with assigned seats and eight boarding groups. The case study is sharper for it. What customers remembered Southwest for were the two things it had decided to be excellent at. Take those away and you take away the story customers were telling on your behalf.
Give your customers a story to tell
As Jeff Bezos put it: “A brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
That’s the crux. You have to let your customers do the talking. When you consistently do something well, you give your customers something to talk about. These stories can become part of their personal narratives and significantly enhance your brand's reputation through word-of-mouth marketing.
For years, those two selling points gave Southwest customers something to talk about. Attempts to change the formula, like offering fancy meals, were rejected because they could have compromised those strengths.
Giving your customers a story to tell is about deciding what you want to be remembered for and focusing on those components of the customer journey.
The lesson rings clear: don’t try to be perfect in all things. But try to be sublime in the things that you are already good at.
How Hello Customer can help
Hello Customer’s AI reads every open comment your customers write and tells you which themes to fix first. Let technology help you to truly understand what your customers appreciate.
Don’t rush to improve on what is, perhaps, not totally perfect. Hello Customer shows you which aspects of the customer’s experience track most closely with the KPIs that matter most to your business, such as revenue, churn/loyalty, or your satisfaction metrics.
Then, you can prioritize on areas that you are good at, to strengthen your brand further, and you can fix the issues where your performance is truly below par.
Everything else is good enough for now. Money spent there buys you less than money spent on the moments customers actually remember.
Conclusion
- Customer experience comes down to one thing: creating an identity your customers can describe in a sentence.
- By focusing on key touchpoints and using tools like Hello Customer for in-depth feedback analysis, you can turn the right interactions into opportunities for your brand to shine. This will keep your customers coming back for more and give them a story to tell.
- You can increase the chances that what customers say about you is positive, by choosing to excel in the things you want them to remember you for.
Are you ready to make the right things stand out in the customer journeys you offer?
See how Hello Customer helps you use customer feedback to build the moments customers remember. Request a demo today!