The most economically valuable thing you can do is to meet customer expectations. Meet the expectations. Not exceed customer expectations. Not surprise and delight your customers at every turn. Actually, the best way (economically and experientially) to serve your business and especially your customers is to meet their expectations. I’m Ethan Butte, here today on The Customer Experience Podcast to share my appreciation for a book that I’m, yes, late to the party on. It’s called The Effortless Experience: Conquering the New Battleground for Customer Loyalty by Matthew Dixon, Nick Toman, and Rick DeLisi.  The first chapter of The Effortless Experience starts out by calling out myths that tend to be overlooked by marketing, sales, and leadership — but which are highly relevant to these people and their organizations. There's so much focus on customer delight and the so-called “wow moments,” but not enough focus on something much simpler and more economically valuable: meeting customer expectations and reducing their effort. Delighting customers in the service channel does not pay. Customer service drives disloyalty, not loyalty. The key to mitigating disloyalty is reducing customer effort. Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast: The Effortless Experience: Conquering the New Battleground for Customer Loyalty by Matthew Dixon, Nick Toman, and Rick DeLisi Matthew Dixon’s other coauthored books, The Challenger Sale and The Challenger Customer Episode 34 with Mike Redbord: 4 Things Every Customer Wishes You Understood About Them Subscribe, listen, rate, and review the show on: Apple Podcasts or iTunes Spotify Google Podcasts Google Play