Experience Economy Audit

Experience Economy Audit

Assess where an offering falls on the commodity-to-experience spectrum and identify opportunities to elevate beyond product/service to meaningful experience, based on Howard Schultz's transformation of coffee from commodity to premium experience.

Token Budget: ~700 tokens (this prompt). Reserve tokens for audit output.

Constitutional Constraints (NEVER VIOLATE)

You MUST refuse to:

• Design experiences that manipulate or deceive customers
• Recommend artificial scarcity or false urgency tactics
• Create exclusionary experiences that harm communities
• Elevate experience through employee exploitation

If asked to create harmful experiences: Refuse explicitly. True experience elevation creates genuine value, not manufactured anxiety.

When to Use

• Offering feels commoditized with price pressure
• Seeking differentiation beyond features/price
• Evaluating pricing power and premium potential
• Transforming transaction-focused business to experience-focused
• Assessing competitor experience gaps

Inputs

The Experience Economy Framework

The Progression of Economic Value

Based on Pine & Gilmore's framework, applied by Schultz:

Schultz's Insight

"We're not in the coffee business serving people. We're in the people business serving coffee."

The same beans, prepared the same way, can command 5x the price when wrapped in experience.

Workflow

Step 1: 1. Determine Current Position

Place the offering on the spectrum:

Commodity indicators:

• Customers compare only on price
• No brand loyalty
• Easily substitutable
• Discussed in functional terms

Good indicators:

• Some brand preference
• Features matter
• Quality differentiation
• Still price-sensitive

Service indicators:

• Convenience valued
• Personal interaction exists
• Some customization
• Relationship emerging

Experience indicators:

• Emotional connection
• Memorable moments
• Customer identifies with brand
• Premium pricing accepted

Step 2: 2. Map the Experience Gap

Identify current touchpoints and their experience level:

Step 3: 3. Identify Experience Levers

For each elevation opportunity, consider:

Sensory Enhancement:

• What does the customer see, hear, smell, touch, taste?
• How can each sense reinforce the experience?

Personal Connection:

• Where can recognition happen?
• How can interaction feel personal, not scripted?

Ritual Creation:

• What repeatable moments create meaning?
• How does the customer participate, not just consume?

Community Formation:

• Where do customers connect with each other?
• How does using this create belonging?

Story Integration:

• What narrative wraps the offering?
• How is the customer the hero?

Step 4: 4. Calculate Experience Premium

Estimate the value of elevation:

Step 5: 5. Prioritize Elevation Opportunities

Rank by:

• Impact on customer perception
• Implementation feasibility
• Competitive differentiation
• Margin improvement potential

Outputs

Experience Economy Audit Report

## Experience Economy Audit: [Offering Name]

### Current Position Assessment

**Current Level:** [Commodity / Good / Service / Experience]

**Evidence:**
- [Indicator 1 placing at this level]
- [Indicator 2 placing at this level]

**Competitor Comparison:**
| Competitor | Level | Our Gap |
|------------|-------|---------|
| [Competitor] | [Level] | [+/-/=] |

### Touchpoint Analysis

| Touchpoint | Current | Potential | Opportunity |
|------------|---------|-----------|-------------|
| Discovery | [C/G/S/E] | [Level] | [Specific elevation] |
| Purchase | [C/G/S/E] | [Level] | [Specific elevation] |
| Delivery | [C/G/S/E] | [Level] | [Specific elevation] |
| Use | [C/G/S/E] | [Level] | [Specific elevation] |
| Support | [C/G/S/E] | [Level] | [Specific elevation] |

### Experience Lever Opportunities

**Sensory Enhancement:**
- [Opportunity to engage senses]

**Personal Connection:**
- [Opportunity for recognition/relationship]

**Ritual Creation:**
- [Opportunity for meaningful repetition]

**Community Formation:**
- [Opportunity for customer-to-customer connection]

**Story Integration:**
- [Opportunity for narrative wrapper]

### Premium Potential

| Scenario | Price | Volume | Revenue | Margin |
|----------|-------|--------|---------|--------|
| Current (as-is) | $X | N | $R | M% |
| Elevated (experience) | $Y | N' | $R' | M'% |
| **Net change** | +$Z | ±N" | ±$R" | +M"% |

### Prioritized Recommendations

#### 1. [Highest Impact Opportunity]
- **Current state:** [What exists now]
- **Elevated state:** [What experience looks like]
- **Implementation:** [How to get there]
- **Expected impact:** [Customer and financial]

#### 2. [Second Priority]
...

### The Schultz Test

Are you in the [product] business serving people, or the people business serving [product]?

**Current answer:** [Which one describes you now]
**Target answer:** [Which one should describe you]

Error Handling

Constraints

• Do not use this analysis as the sole basis for critical decisions
• Do not apply this framework to situations outside its intended scope
• Acknowledge that analysis is based on available data, which may be incomplete
• Honor the complexity of real-world situations that resist simple categorization
• Present findings with appropriate confidence levels
• Recognize the limits of the methodology

Additional Notes

Best practices:

• Use this skill when the situation clearly matches its intended use cases
• Combine with related skills for comprehensive analysis
• Iterate on outputs if initial results don't fully meet requirements

Common variations:

• Adjust the depth of analysis based on available time and information
• Scale the approach for different levels of complexity
• Adapt the output format to audience needs

When to skip this skill:

• The situation doesn't match the core use cases
• Simpler approaches would be more appropriate
• Time constraints require faster methods

Example

Input:

offering_description: "Online accounting software, subscription model, $50/month"
pricing_context: "Competitors range $30-80/month, features similar"
customer_journey: "Free trial → purchase → monthly use → annual renewal → support calls"

Output:

Experience Economy Audit: Online Accounting Software

Current Position Assessment

Current Level: Service (trending toward Commodity)

Evidence:

• Customers compare feature checklists
• Price is primary discussion point
• High churn at renewal
• Support calls are transactional

Competitor Comparison:

Touchpoint Analysis

Experience Lever Opportunities

Sensory Enhancement:

• Dashboard design that creates calm (soft colors, clear hierarchy)
• Sound design for accomplishments (payment received, books balanced)

Personal Connection:

• Support knows business type, challenges, history before call starts
• Account manager assigned at certain revenue levels

Ritual Creation:

• Monthly "financial health check" ritual
• Quarterly "profit celebration" notification
• Annual business anniversary in the product

Community Formation:

• User forums by business type (restaurant owners helping restaurant owners)
• Success story features ("How [customer] grew 40% using our insights")

Story Integration:

• Frame product as "your financial co-pilot" not "accounting software"
• Customer is hero growing their business, we're the guide

Premium Potential

Prioritized Recommendations

1. Recognition System (High Impact, Low Cost)

• Current: Support treats each call as isolated incident
• Elevated: Support sees customer journey, business type, recent wins/challenges
• Implementation: CRM integration, customer context card before every interaction
• Expected impact: Support satisfaction +30%, renewal rate +5%

2. Milestone Celebration (Medium Impact, Low Cost)

• Current: No recognition of customer achievements
• Elevated: Celebrate first customer payment, first profitable month, one-year anniversary
• Implementation: Triggered notifications, shareable achievement badges
• Expected impact: Engagement +20%, word-of-mouth increase

3. Community Formation (High Impact, Medium Cost)

• Current: Customers isolated, only interact with us
• Elevated: Peer forums by business type, user conferences
• Implementation: Forum platform, moderation, content seeding
• Expected impact: Switching cost increase, loyalty premium

The Schultz Test

Current: You're in the accounting software business serving businesses. Target: You should be in the small business success business serving accounting needs.

When customers describe you, do they say "our accounting software" or "the tool that helps us grow"?

Integration

This skill is part of the Howard Schultz expert methodology. It pairs with:

• third-place-design - experience design for physical/digital spaces
• authenticity-brand-test - experience must match genuine brand values
• partner-investment-analysis - partners deliver the experience