By
Justin Tucker
•
August 27, 2026
We've spent the last decade obsessing over customer experience. Every conference talks about it. Every company says it's a priority. Every customer relationship management (CRM) promises to improve it.
But here's the problem.
A good customer experience isn't memorable anymore. It's expected. As AI makes it easier to automate communication, answer questions, and streamline every interaction, simply providing a "great experience" becomes table stakes.
The companies that stand out won't just create better experiences. They'll create better hospitality.
Consider hotels.
One chain might hand every guest a warm cookie when they check in. That's a great customer experience. It's thoughtful, repeatable, and consistent.
Hospitality looks different.
Hospitality is knowing one guest loves chocolate chip cookies while another would rather have a blueberry muffin and giving each person exactly what matters to them. One is designed for everyone. The other is designed for someone.
That distinction is becoming incredibly important.
One of the most interesting books I've read recently is The Feeling Economy.
The premise is simple:
As AI becomes more common, we'll place even greater value on things that feel unmistakably human.
Think about the Mona Lisa.
Millions of people have seen it online. You can zoom in farther than you ever could standing in front of it.
And yet people still buy a plane ticket, stand in line, and squeeze through crowds just to see the original.
Why?
Because authenticity has value.
The same thing is happening in business.
The easier AI makes it to generate content, emails, and marketing, the more customers will notice, and appreciate, the moments that could only come from another human being.
Years ago, I stayed at a Ritz-Carlton with a friend who has severe food allergies.
We arrived late and the kitchen was closed. The bartender explained that all they had available were the complimentary mixed nuts. My friend mentioned he couldn't eat them. That conversation could have ended there.
Instead, a staff member quietly disappeared and came back a few minutes later with a fresh fruit plate they had found in the kitchen.
No policy required it.
No automation triggered it.
Someone simply noticed another person.
That's hospitality.
One of the best experiences I've ever had buying a home had nothing to do with paperwork.
After closing, my real estate agent called and asked me to stop by the house. He said movers sometimes accidentally unplug refrigerators and wanted me to make sure everything looked okay.
I opened the fridge.
It was completely stocked with my favorite beer. He remembered conversations we'd had while touring homes. He paid attention. He created a story I'll probably tell for the rest of my life.
Years later I bought another house.
That agent was great too.
But two weeks after moving in, I received an automated email asking if I was thinking about selling my home.
Nothing malicious happened.
The automation simply kept running.
Guess which experience I still remember?
Sometimes people hear this and assume I'm saying automation is bad.
I'm not.
Automation should help you identify opportunities not replace the human moment.
Restaurants do this exceptionally well.
The best ones keep notes on returning guests.
Favorite wine.
Food allergies.
Special occasions.
Preferred table.
When they welcome you back, it feels personal because they remembered.
Mortgage professionals already have this tool.
It's called a CRM.
Use automation to remind yourself a birthday is coming. Then look up something that actually matters to that person. Maybe they love baseball. Maybe they always talk about hiking. Maybe they own three golden retrievers.
The reminder can be automated but the response shouldn't be.
One of my favorite ideas comes from the book Help the Helper.
Imagine someone drops a fork in a high-end restaurant. The general manager doesn't step over it because it's the busser's responsibility. Everyone picks up the fork.
Why?
Because hospitality isn't a department.
It's a mindset.
The same thing should be true in mortgage, title, and real estate. If you notice something that could improve someone else's experience, do it.
Don't wait for permission. Don't assume someone else owns it.
Nobody calls their friends because a company met expectations.
They talk about the things they didn't expect.
The waiter who remembered.
The lender who sent pizza after moving day.
The agent who stocked the refrigerator.
Those are the stories people retell.
And those stories become marketing you could never buy.
I think we're entering a world where AI handles more of the routine work than ever before.
That's exciting. But it also means the moments that matter become even more valuable. The companies that win won't simply have the fastest response times or the smartest automation.
They'll be the ones that make people feel seen. Customer experience gets you in the game.
Hospitality is what people remember.
About Justin:
Justin empowers FNTG’s sales associates and the realtor community in the space where technology, marketing & strategy overlap. He collaborates every day with industry leaders to forge comprehensive & effective business plans that lead to substantial growth.
As a strategies, Justin believes in breaking down the silos between CX, marketing, tech & operations to create meaningful plans that understand both the art and the science of selling. By using creative techniques focused on gamification, common language, skill development & repeatable methodologies, he’s able to forge a new path in, what sometimes can be, a stagnate industry.
In 2017 Housing Wire commended him among its class of Rising Stars in the real estate industry and has spoken at such events as Inman Connect and NS3. In 2024, he was awarded Housing Wire’s Tech Trendsetter award, as he pushes the limits of gamification, AI & consumer-centric tech. Justin also has a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Oregon State University and an MBA with concentrations in Marketing & Real Estate from Marylhurst University.
