Good CX. It's a Journey Without Traps.

I saw this sign while I was out grocery shopping today and totally smiled!

In my research on customer-oriented dark patterns, sludge, and red tape, which are more pervasive than ever, “surprise and delight” isn’t really a perk or a flourish like we often associate with the "surprise and delight" term in CX.

It’s when a process doesn’t hide traps. It's a customer journey free from deceptive tricks.

When those barriers disappear, people feel something close to relief, which is its own form of a "good customer experience."

Reducing unnecessary steps, fixing confusing choice architecture, and eliminating hidden constrants. That's what the research shows matters to customers.

That's the journey that minimizes customers' perceptions of disrespect, dishonesty, time theft, and emotional taxation. And guess what? The same principles apply to employee experience.

Sometimes the best customer experience design is simply the one that doesn’t get in your way.

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