This study investigates the relationship between staff-customer interactions and customer satisfaction in specialised outdoor sports retail in the Netherlands. In the growing outdoor sports market, stores and the customer experience are critical, yet customers approach them with vastly different expertise levels. The central hypothesis was that higher customer expertise would negatively moderate the positive effect of the social (the act of conversation, such as receiving advice or asking, and sharing opinions) and cognitive (the substance of the conversation, such as learning and reflection) elements of the staff-customer interaction. Beyond testing this mechanism, this study was designed to investigate which outdoor sports-related topics are valuable to customers with different expertise levels. To achieve both objectives, a mixed-methods approach was employed, combining qualitative interviews with retail managers (N = 3) and a quantitative survey (N = 52). The results suggest that the cognitive dimension of the interaction primarily drives satisfaction. Contrary to the central hypothesis, customer expertise did not moderate the relationship. The type of cognitive stimuli that correlates with satisfaction differs significantly by expertise level: Novice customers are most satisfied when interactions facilitate personal reflection and provide foundational knowledge, while they also uniquely value information that connects them to the local outdoor community. Experts value peer-level discussions on technical and trend-focused topics. For service design, this study offers a new layer for customer journey maps, which can be helpful to analyse the cognitive content linked to different customer needs. Practically, for small specialised outdoor sports retailers, this study translates into a three-step roadmap focused on suggestions regarding staff training, customer satisfaction metrics, and building a community hub. More broadly, for all small specialised retailers, the findings could evolve into a model for understanding customer needs and designing interactions.