Gifting Experience

Over the last year I’ve been visiting a local ice cream shop every week or so, but it was only after my visit yesterday that I felt compelled to write an online review.

When I asked to sample a few flavors yesterday as I always do, the shop employee responded enthusiastically: “Ah, good choices. Let me present them to you in the order I think you should experience them. If you get the Almond Brittle first, you won’t enjoy the others as much!”

So I sampled each ice cream in the curated order, with the employee providing insightful and fun descriptions of each ice cream after each tasting.

The reason I felt compelled to write a review for the first time had nothing to do with the ice cream, which was great as usual, and everything to do with the fact that the employee made the process of getting the ice cream an especially delightful experience in and of itself.

Yes, stuff matters. But in a tables-takes kind of way: the ice cream had to be good. But beyond that, the experience we craft for others — in business and in everyday life — is everything.

Every interaction is an opportunity to imagine the kind of experience we’d love for a colleague, friend, family member, or customer to have and to show up in a way that makes that experience possible.

It is a two-sided delight — on one end it is a delight to be able to make a difference in how someone experiences their day and on the other it is a delight for the person that experiences it.