I'm not loving Unreasonable Hospitality, but it did supply me with a phrase that I've been looking for:

Eventually, that gesture became one of our steps of service. The host would ask guests, “How’d you get here tonight?” If they responded, “Oh, we drove,” he’d follow up with, “Cool” Where’d you park?” If they told him they were by a meter on the street, he asked which car was theirs so one of us could run out and drop a couple of quarters into the box while they are dining. This gesture was the definition of a grace note, a sweet but nonessential addition to your experience. It was an act of hospitality that didn’t even take place within the walls of the restaurant! But this simple gift – worth fifty cents – blew people’s minds.

I think we've correctly learned to rail against unnecessary visual flourishes within SaaS — the much-derided SVG confetti craze of 2019 springs to mind — but that doesn't mean there aren't room for grace notes, nice little microinteractions that make the user's life a little bit easier. Sniper links are an example that I am obviously quite proud of; there are many others, things where going the extra mile might not make sense from a prioritization perspective but are the things that, over time, can make the aggregate userbase much happier in a "warm and fuzzy" way that transcends NPS.

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About the author

I'm Justin Duke — a software engineer, writer, and founder. I currently work as the CEO of Buttondown, the best way to start and grow your newsletter, and as a partner at Third South Capital.

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