Seth Godin on remarkability: give customers something worth sharing
A claim that your service is exceptional is easy to write. A specific moment that a customer wants to tell someone about takes more design.
Build a useful difference into delivery, then find out whether customers notice it.
A useful difference must belong to the customer
Godin connects remarkability with conversations customers choose to have about a business. Our practical question is what a customer could explain to a peer after using your service. A memorable brand gesture is less valuable if the underlying job remains difficult.
Look for a moment that matters in the customer’s work: uncertainty before a project starts, a difficult handover or an unexpected problem after delivery. Those moments offer more useful design opportunities than adding decoration to an already crowded experience.
Find the sentence a customer might repeat
Imagine an equipment repair company. “They provide excellent service” is vague. “Before the technician arrived, they showed me exactly what to photograph so we could identify the likely fault” describes something observable and useful.
The second statement is an invented example. It suggests an operational change the company could test: a concise preparation guide, clear boundaries about what a photo can establish and an easy way to send the right information. It does not require a theatrical campaign.
Ask actual customers which moments reduced uncertainty or saved effort. Their answers may differ from the features your team is proudest of. Keep the original wording in internal research notes, with appropriate care for personal information.
Design the delivery behind the promise
For every candidate improvement, identify the work needed to provide it consistently. Who writes the preparation guide? Who updates it when equipment changes? What happens when a customer cannot follow the instructions?
Estimate the recurring cost, not just the launch cost. A handwritten report from the founder may delight three clients and become impossible at thirty. A clear annotated handover prepared through a reliable process might remain useful as the business grows.
Make the limits visible. A repair company should not imply that photographs replace an inspection when they do not. A distinctive experience should increase understanding rather than create another exaggerated claim.
Test a moment before launching a slogan
Try the improvement with a manageable group of customers. Ask what they noticed without first telling them what they were supposed to appreciate. Observe whether it helped the practical job and whether it introduced extra friction elsewhere.
Then check the language. Can a customer describe the benefit in one ordinary sentence? If they need your marketing explanation to understand it, the experience may not yet be as clear as the team thinks.
Do not manufacture word of mouth by presenting staff comments as customer endorsements. If you collect a real testimonial, preserve its meaning and the context of the experience. An honest narrow statement is stronger evidence than a sweeping claim you cannot support.
Keep expectations and capacity aligned
Once you promote the improvement, it becomes part of what people expect. Assign a delivery owner and review failures as well as compliments. A detail worth talking about stops being a strength when customers regularly find it missing.
The workshop is successful when it produces a better experience and a more accurate promise. Public sharing may follow, but it is not something the owner can guarantee by adding a clever phrase to the website.
Try it in your business
List three customer moments with unnecessary uncertainty. Choose one and write a service improvement, the person responsible and the cost of delivering it repeatedly. Ask five customers what they noticed after trying it, without prompting them with your intended answer.
Sources & editorial note
- Seth Godin: The pyramid of modern marketing — remarkability and customer conversations
NEXT MBA editorial analysis, prepared with AI assistance from the public sources above. The applications, scenarios and exercises are NEXT MBA examples, not quotations or transcripts. Product recommendations are ours; they do not imply the speaker’s endorsement of those products. Sources checked on 1 October 2026.