I love my dentist.

How many of you can actually say that and mean it?

I first met him one weekend when an abcessed tooth blew up from nowhere, spiking my fever to 102 degrees on a Saturday night. In desperation I called my regular dentist, whose answering service told me about the on-call dentist that I had never met. My husband called the pinch-hitting dentist, talked with him over the phone, explained the situation and was amazed when the doctor told us to come to his office as quickly as we could. The next thing my fevered brain remembers is that the on-call dentist and his assistant met us in the parking garage (!) with a wheelchair and a heated blanket. They rushed me upstairs where I got antibiotics and started down the path toward an eventual root canal.

That was several years ago. Since then, I’ve recommended this dentist to countless friends and acquaintances—some of whom have taken me up on the recommendation and now think, as I do, that they’ve found the best dentist on the planet.

That’s what unparalleled customer experiences are like. It’s not just about the use of new omnichannel or e-commerce technology and it’s not just about streamlined processes with low defects—in fact, both of those take a back seat to empathy and emotion. Sure, the web site may be great and the business process for filing insurance claims may be well-oiled and you certainly hope and pray there’ll be no re-work or defects in the dentistry process itself. But none of that matters if you don’t also have empathy for the customer and take emotion into account when creating new systems for customers, especially customers who are in pain and need help fast. Let’s say the standard process at a dentist office says to return the patient’s phone call as quickly as possible and then to schedule bringing the patient into the office. How many of those processes would also stipulate to bring an assistant, a wheelchair and a heated blanked and greet the patient and her husband in the parking garage?

Continuing this story, I was wheeled into an exquisitely beautiful office done in blond hardwood floors, modern furniture finished in white leather, beautiful light fixtures, and almost floor to ceiling windows that overlooked Northern Virginia’s trees and office buildings from the 9th floor. Turns out my new dentist’s wife is an accomplished architect who built a gorgeous office and treatment area for patients to enjoy. This couple knows something innately about great customer experiences; they know that beauty and emotional design are part of the patient’s experience and healing process.

(If you want to know more about the importance of great design in products—and services—see Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things by Don Norman.)

The office design certainly resonated with me; I can’t imagine going to the doctor or to a hospital that has old, non-descript, somewhat broken down furniture, stark fluorescent lights and peeling paint. I instead appreciate healers that take beauty, serenity, calmness, sound and indirect lighting—as well as medicine, science and treatments—into the healing mix. Not only does the color of the walls matter, but even the ceiling paint can be part of the customer experience while you’re sitting in a dental chair or being rolled around on a hospital bed.

I write this post because today someone asked me for a dentist recommendation, and I fondly recalled that first experience meeting my dentist. It is one of the best examples of customer experience and great process design that I can think of. My dentist lives it every day that he goes to work (which is six days per week, by the way). Once when I described my first excruciating experience with TMJ to my dentist, he took an anatomy book and explained why TMJ occurs and described the best ways to treat it (including spa massages—he’s definitely my kind of doctor!) He didn’t say, “book another appointment and we’ll go into it,” or “I don’t have time to go over it with you right now but take this pamphlet.” Instead, he spent 20 or so extra minutes talking me through it.

That’s why his office has a sign in the reception area highlighting his philosophy of customer service and patient care, and that’s why everyone is so high on his dentistry. Because he knows how to treat the whole patient, including providing extraordinary customer experiences that start with empathy and appealing to the senses. (In case you are wondering who this super-doc is, he’s Dr. Sami Osseiran, DDS, with offices in Tysons Corner, Va. and Potomac, Md.)