Chasing customer satisfaction has turned into an expensive, one-dimensional arms race. But there’s another way, an approach to engaging with people that’s more human and more profitable at the same time.  

You likely know the gospel about customer experience: that your organisation needs to be built around it in order to survive, or at least to grow organically. Following the lead of the most valuable company in the history of the world, everyone from retail stores to government departments are investing huge amounts of time, energy, and money in trying to optimise their end-to-end customer journeys. Every touchpoint comes under scrutiny. Vast analytic engines are deployed.   

This is not a bad thing. Customer experience is indeed foundational in a world where price and product are increasingly commoditised. But the investments are sometimes misdirected, for a tragically simple reason:  

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