Last Friday night my husband Chris and I went out for Valentine’s Day. We booked one of our favourite restaurants. Beautiful setting, incredible food, and the kind of place where mains sit around the $50 mark and the experience is part of the occasion. It wasn’t a quick midweek dinner or a casual café. It was somewhere you go when you want to slow down, connect, and enjoy the atmosphere as much as the meal.
Before I go any further, let me say this … I am a dog person and have had a dog most of my life. I will happily stop to pat dogs on the street. I am absolutely not anti-dog, and I completely understand the rise of dog-friendly venues. There is a time and a place for it, and I am all for that.
But context matters.
About ten minutes into our meal, a couple sat down at the table next to us with two very large dogs. Not small dogs quietly tucked under the table, but two big dogs on leads, very much part of the dining experience. And you could feel the shift in the room almost immediately. It wasn’t dramatic. No one complained or made a scene. But there were glances. Subtle looks exchanged between tables. A slight change in energy.
This is not about the dogs. It is about the experience. When people choose a restaurant like that, they are not just buying a great meal. They are buying a feeling. They are buying an environment. They are buying a moment. Every element, from the lighting to the service to the way the space is set, signals a certain type of experience.
When something sits outside of that expectation, even slightly, it changes how the experience feels.
For some people, having dogs in that environment might enhance the experience. For others, it creates discomfort. And that is where this becomes a customer experience conversation.
One of the most common mistakes I see organisations make is designing for the minority at the expense of the majority. In an effort to be more inclusive, accommodating or progressive, businesses introduce elements that appeal to a smaller segment without fully considering how it impacts their core audience.
The shift is rarely dramatic. It does not happen overnight. But over time, these small decisions begin to dilute what made the experience distinctive in the first place.
Customer experience is not about trying to be everything to everyone. It is about being clear on who you are for, what you stand for, and the experience you are deliberately creating. Every decision a business makes is a signal. Who you welcome into your space, what behaviours you encourage, and what you allow all shape how your brand is perceived.
Could that restaurant choose to be dog-friendly? Of course. But every decision comes with a trade-off. And here’s the question I keep coming back to. In trying to be everything to everyone, are you quietly compromising the experience for the people who chose you in the first place? Because attracting a new audience is exciting. But losing your core audience is expensive.
