Editor’s note: Graham Tutton is global head of consumer products and services at computer software firm In Moment, Utah. 

There’s no understating the power of a single moment when it comes to a customer, employee or even a non-buyer’s overall experience with a brand. One exceptional interaction – or a particularly disappointing one – can mean the difference between a life-long relationship and defection.

The bad news? Negative experiences are inevitable. But if you leverage a powerful experience program that can ingest customer, employee, operational and market data – and then apply advanced analytics – you can predict and even alter the outcomes of everyday interactions in a way that helps you meet business goals.

Let’s start at the very beginning. The goal of experience-minded individuals is to help organizations create interactions that inspire attitudes that ultimately produce desired outcomes.

This relationship is called the attitude-behavior relationship in social psychology, and experts have been researching and detailing this concept for decades. I’m sure there is a more scientific way to explain it, but here is the best basic explanation I’ve heard: 

A snake bites you (negative interaction) > Snake = bad (negative attitude) > Run away from snakes (predicted behavior/ outcome)

Let’s think about this from a customer experience angle. Let’s say your business is retail apparel. A customer comes in looking for a special occasion outfit. They are immediately greeted by a helpful salesperson who asks about their reason for coming into the store and offers helpful advice. The customer finds multiple options, all available in their size, and leaves the store with a smile on their face and exactly the items they had in mind.

If we map this out according to the model above, the customer had an overwhelmingly positive interaction with your store, therefore, their attitude...