Context is Everything

In the stifling heat of northern Colombia, an everyday moment brought a core service principle into sharp focus.

My partner, Nico, and I were staying at a remote hotel, keen to reach the backpacker haven of Palomino. Naïvely, I asked, “Is there a bus stop near the hotel?”
He laughed. “There are no bus stops out here. You just flag the bus down when it goes past.”

Sure enough, we stood by the roadside, waved at a white-and-blue minibus, and it slowed to a halt. No signage, no fixed stop — just the expectation that a bus would eventually pass, roughly every fifteen minutes. From a customer’s perspective, it felt like brilliant service. I didn’t have to trek through the heat to a formal stop or risk missing it by seconds. All I had to do was wait, and the system would meet me where I was.

But convenience for me wasn’t efficiency for everyone. As soon as we boarded, Nico checked the time — he had a video call in 30 minutes. According to Google Maps, we were still 40 minutes away. The attendant, moving down the aisle to collect fares, assured us we’d probably hit signal in time. Then the bus stopped again. And again. Every few hundred metres, another flag-down, another delay. The quick ride we'd expected gradually stretched out.

That’s when the lesson hit: this system works perfectly here — in a rural region with long distances, brutal heat, and a relaxed approach to time. But in a dense city, it would collapse. Buses already run slow; letting them stop anywhere would grind everything to a halt.

🧠 The CX Lesson

As customers, we often think we’ve spotted the smarter, simpler way. But we don’t always see the full operational picture — the trade-offs, constraints, and context.

I’ve seen the same in business. At a global agency, many of our booking tools were built around the US market. There, they worked seamlessly — automating complex tasks and saving time for both customers and teams. But in other regions, the same tools often clashed with different airline systems. What ran smoothly in one context suddenly broke down in another: calculations came out wrong, giving clients inaccurate information, and the “automation” ended up creating more manual work than it saved.

What worked brilliantly in one context caused breakdowns in another.

🔍 Takeaways

• A service model that thrives in one setting may fail in another. Context is everything.

• Customers see the experience, not the hidden complexity behind it.

• The best CX ideas aren’t about copying what works elsewhere but understanding why it works — and where it works.

💭 What about you?

Have you experienced a service that felt great in one setting but wouldn’t work anywhere else?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.