The Art of Experience Design and How it Separates Successful Firms

This past weekend, my oldest daughter, a sophomore in High School who is a newly minted state officer for FCCLA and a stand out in her culinary program, worked the Charleston Food and Wine Festival. Over the span of a week she collaborated with numerous chefs and food and beverage industry experts.

She was immersed in the behind-the-scenes orchestration of a world-class culinary experience—learning how the finest chefs curate, refine, and perfect every detail. And that got me thinking. Experience is everything.

Look Up—It’s Q4 Already

As quarter end quickly approaches, most of us are heads down, doing the work—showing up, making decisions, moving things along, sitting in meetings, trying to stay on track—rinsing and repeating the daily requirements.

Soon, we will look up, and it will be Q4.

We’ll think: What should we do differently next year?

Maybe you thought about this in 2024 and you’re implementing new experiences now. If your like a lot of firms, you have thoughts about what you want to change, but struggle to implement them. Experience design.

This holistic approach to crafting meaningful and memorable experiences for our clients by intentionally shaping their interactions, perceptions, and emotions across various touch points, including physical, digital, and sensory elements is what separates us from our competition and is what moves the needle for client satisfaction.

We all want life to be better than it has been. Everyone wants an exceptional, preferential experience.

At the heart of everything we do, in wealth management now more than ever, is client experience.

How do we craft great experiences?

How do we help our clients feel something exceptional?

How do we make the experience of our team members better every day?

The Experience Tour: Your Next Assignment

I want to challenge you to go on an Experience Tour over the next few weeks—whether it’s spring break, a work trip, or even just a weekend.

Go out and intentionally walk through a world-class experience:

• Stay at a Four Seasons. Observe what mind-reading service feels like.

• Eat at a Michelin-starred restaurant. Experience storytelling on a plate.

• Visit a top-end spa near you and don’t just book one service. Grab a half day or full day package.

Go into the experience with your eyes wide open. Take mental notes:

• What stands out?

• What makes you go “wow”?

• What makes you feel special?

• Why are people willing to pay extra for this?

And now—the best part.

What’s the Experience of Your Business?

Now, go through your own business.

• What is the experience we deliver today — for prospects, for clients, for stakeholders? Think through all aspects of a user’s interaction with your services and system, from the initial point of contact to the final interaction and beyond

• What does it feel like to work with us—through the eyes, ears, and senses of our clients?

• Where is friction problematic or growing? How can we remove it?

Often, as leaders and business owners, we block out the negativity because we have to keep moving forward, stay positive, and inspire confidence.

But we need to be ruthlessly objective about experience.

If something feels slow, clunky, or forgettable to a client, it doesn’t matter how good we think our service is—their experience is what they remember.

Become a Student of Experience

Let’s become students of experience. Take time to get curious about your every day experiences in life. Learn from each and every interaction so that you can bring those key learnings into your business. From the grocery store to the golf course, the country club to the drive through, take the time to note what delights or frustrates you and extrapolate those learnings to your life and business.

We have more tools working for us than ever before—more technology, more information, more training available to our people. It’s all here for us, so let’s make sure it is working for us to elevate experience.

Experience Is Everything

The best firms aren’t the ones with the best brochures.

They’re the ones that feel the best to work with.

So yes, experience is everything. But what does experience look like for you today?

How are you designing experience—both actively and passively—inside your organization? And what can you be doing better to improve it?

Would love to hear what you learn on your Experience Tour. Let’s talk.