A few weeks ago a Permanent Equity post on ‘extreme reliability’ caught my eye. In it they describe what it is:

Extreme reliability is a conscious attempt to only say what you mean, do what you say, and do so when you said you were going to do it. Again, it’s not rocket science, but it’s surprisingly rare.

Who wouldn’t want to interact with a business that uniformly does what they say they are going to do? If, and it’s a big if, what comes after extreme reliability? It might just be ‘unreasonable hospitality.’*

Restaurateur Will Guidara has a new book Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect. In a recent interview he stated:

“A lot of people have never actually taken the time to think about that facet of their business and the extraordinary impact that can have, not just in growing the business in a positive direction but the way in which it enhances the experience of whatever you do.”

You can’t enhance the customer experience until you already have it buttoned down. You might think that if your business isn’t a fancy restaurant doesn’t have room to surprise its customers, but if you think about it for awhile you may come up with something. In a world full of unhappy surprises, customers won’t forget a business that jolts them with unexpected joy.


Guidara has been out promoting his book with the above TED talk, and podcasts with David Chang and Simon Sinek.

*Admittedly this is my own take. I have no idea how Permanent Equity or Will Guidara would respond to the juxtaposition of their concepts.