When receiving complaints, Conley recommends that managers drop everything and immediately contact the offended party. Even if you cannot solve the problem, immediate response can halt deepening resentment and the viral effects of negative word-of-mouth PR. Though Conley believes that employees are actually more important than customers, it is important for employees to understand the customer's point of view and not become defensive when a customer complains.

In order to match the specific personalities of customers with the specific personalities of their hotels, Joie de Vivre implemented a creative website innovation. Using an avatar and an online survey, the website is able to provide a hotel that is tailor made to fit the individual customer. In order to meet another unrecognized need of the customer, the site provides psychographically customized travel advice that is off the beaten track. As a result of this innovation, Joie de Vivre now receives 70% of its bookings through its own website and has won E-marketer of the year awards several years running.

Conley believes that employees perceive their employment in one of three ways: As a job, as a career, or as a calling. Employees that see their employment as a career or a calling tend to build relationships through excellent customer service. Rather than increasing advertising, Joie de Vivre Hotels invests in its employees by implanting a sense of ownership. In off-site retreats, employees at all levels are asked to give their input on the company's strategy. The results can be seen in employee and customer satisfaction surveys. In an industry where employee turnover can be as high as 70-100%, Conley's company has lowered its turnover to 24%.

Conley explains his own interpretation of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, learned in the context of the hospitality industry. As an entrepreneur, he realized that just as people strive to "be all they can be", so too can companies. Conley suggests that there are three steps toward elevating to a transformative "self-actualization". Conley believes these needs can be found in employees, customers, and investors. Joie de Vivre Hotels redesigned their business model, keeping in mind the "higher" needs of these three key constituencies.

During the economic downturn that followed the dot-com bust, there were many travel bargains to be found through new websites such as Expedia and Priceline. In what is called an efficient market, customers had a flood of bargains at their fingertips. Joie de Vivre Hotels was forced to lower room prices and pay commissions to these third-party websites.

Though Expedia was able to address the base of Maslow's pyramid, they did not address the customer's higher needs. Using technology, Conley's company was able to meet customer desires by tracking customer preferences in much the same way that Amazon and Netflix do. Upping the ante, Joie de Vivre went on to meet the customer's unrecognized needs by giving each hotel its own unique personality.

In an offsite retreat, Joie de Vivre Hotels asked their housekeeping staff to describe an alternate title for their jobs. Rather than being called a "maid", the staff described themselves as "a mom away from home" or the "piece of mind police". Employees who focus the higher calling, rather than the tasks they do, have a higher sense of purpose and understand the impact of their work.

Though Conley had a great experience in business school, an area of study that has become very useful for him as an entrepreneur is psychology. The dot-com bust and other outside forces presented an unforeseen challenge in a time of uncertainty. Searching for answers, Conley came across the work of Abraham Maslow, whose theories helped him rediscover his original purpose in starting the company. Through innovation based on "higher" needs, Conley took a fresh look at Joie de Vivre Hotels, the largest Hotelier in Northern California.

During the economic downturn of 2002, instead of distributing dividends, Joie de Vivre was forced to ask investors to help out the company financially. Rather than approaching investors in a completely solemn manner, Conley explains how approaching his investors with a sense of humor helped in the negotiation and persuasion process.