One of my favorite movies is Stripes. Starring Saturday Night Live comedians Bill Murray and John Candy, the 1981 hit movie features a scene in which new Army recruits (including Murray and Candy) are in a “get-acquainted” circle with their basic training platoon sergeant. Each recruit tells the backstory for why he decided to join the Army.

It is finally Murray’s turn. “Now I know why I have always lost women to guys like you,” he tells his fellow trainees, “I mean, it’s not just the uniform. It’s the stories that you tell. So much fun and imagination.”

There has been a lot of research done to conclude what moves the needle on a customer’s affinity scale. Some have claimed that reducing the effort (aka hassle and red tape) can have far more of an impact on a customer’s evaluation than customer delight—a catchall phrase for taking customer expectations and adding to it (aka value-added).

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