Everyone keeps telling me that consumers want personalised, amazing experiences. I keep writing it. So, I thought about the idea of having “amazing experiences” in the places I shop. As it happens, I don’t care most of the time. Like many consumers, whether it is walking into a bank branch or a supermarket, there are hundreds of things I would rather be doing.

Yes, I care about having an amazing experience for something big, like when I go on holiday; I want the in-flight entertainment to be movies straight from the cinema, I want the cabin crew to be accommodating and helpful, I want my baggage to arrive on time. But ultimately all I really want is a journey that won’t be a story at a dinner party to warn people not to choose the companies I used to travel. Amazing experiences help businesses stand out from the crowd and are important when competing with others. When my fiancé went to pick out a wedding dress, the day, the experience had to be amazing – and quite rightly so, with such an occasion as this, should be.

For the most part though, I want an unremarkable experience. I don’t expect every interaction I have with businesses to be amazing, that is unrealistic. As great as it would be to have a stand-out experience every time, it just can’t be guaranteed. So, unremarkable is what I seek most of the time for most of my purchases. I don’t want to give any thought to buying a bottle of water, for instance. But just as with the expectation of an amazing experience, I fear that an unremarkable one can’t be guaranteed either. There are a few things that can guarantee that my experience buying that bottle of water will be remarkable for all the wrong reasons;

• It costs more than I reasonably expected it to
• The person serving me gives me the incorrect change
• The water has been stored in a fridge that the retailer hasn’t bothered to turn on and has just used as a storage unit

I’ve said I want an unremarkable experience. That isn’t true. When I think about it, the ways I expect to be able to shop now are remarkable. Reminding myself of these, the ways that I can shop and bank now, are completely remarkable! I can choose to never walk into a bank branch again, or go and seek the advice and empathy from a teller who understands human emotion. I can choose to pay using cash only or using my mobile phone. I can try on the clothes I buy in store or I can have them delivered to my home and send back anything that doesn’t fit. I can even combine any or all these things, my shopping experience does not have to be an absolute. If I did shop in absolutes and only used one method for everything, my life would be more difficult, not easier. I would not be taking advantage of the technologies available to me in the right way.

I’ve also said, “I don’t care most of the time.” That isn’t true either. I care a lot about the experience that I have with the businesses I use. I care how I am treated; whether that is a business’s systems treating my data with respect, or staff being available to help. I want a range of options available to me to pay. I want staff to be available for assistance. I do care about my experience in every store or branch I visit. I care because if these things are not available to me, my visit is no longer what I described as unremarkable. It becomes a reason for me to talk about those businesses but not say anything favourable about them.

Retailers and financial institutions must care that the journey is largely unremarkable and yet, when appropriate, amazing. They should be concerned with ensuring that consumers have the choice to work with them how they choose. At GLORY our technology enables our customers to exceed their customers’ expectations and deliver amazing experiences. We also help them make the remarkable seem unremarkable. We do this by providing world class technology that gives our customers the opportunity to engage with their customers and build greater relationships.

So perhaps then the unremarkable which I seek – and one that GLORY aspires to for its customers – might be better defined as commonplace excellence. Just like millions of other consumers across the world, I want an experience that is proportionate to the scale and importance of my purchase, one that allows me the choice to interact with businesses however I wish and that meets, if not exceeds expectations through the complementary application of technology, infrastructure, process and delivery which means that everything just seems to fall into place.