An organization may be rallied around seeing it as a company imperative.  We’ve seen this happen in many businesses that have thrived or reinvented themselves.  They have now focused on pleasing their customers rather than react to or plan around competition.

It has worked.  It can continue to work.  But will it create a lasting impression to both the employees living it, and the customers experiencing it?

Without a Sense of Purpose, the values and culture of an organisation creating that customer experience will be without real meaningfulness.  Most of all, it will lose out on its sincerity, its authenticity and uniqueness.  And the customer will feel it.

The new frontier of Experience Design ought to include a Sense of Purpose.  And support their customer’s sense of meaningful existence in the community in which they are a part of.  The days of setting guidelines, processes to keep satisfied customers, and ensuring quality in products is over.  It will not last in this highly competitive, open expectations environment.  Where constant change, innovation and uniqueness of offer to segmented and evolved customers, seems to be the norm.

Bringing out simple customer smiles from a happy organisation is nice. But a meaningful, purpose-driven organisation is power.

"We are superior to the competition because we hire employees who work in an environment of belonging and purpose. We foster a climate where the employee can deliver what the customer wants. You cannot deliver what the customer wants by controlling the employee.”  

Horst Schulze, Former Ritz Carlton President

"A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.” 

Mahatma Gandhi

Find that Sense of Purpose first.  Be clear about it.  And all will follow.  The values and principle around it.  The culture change.  The capabilities and team needed to deliver it.