Making Memories. The Peak-End Rule

Let’s get scientific.

Customer satisfaction, loyalty and memories aren’t driven by actual experiences but merely by the memory of it. This seems to be an open door to kick in but it’s an important difference. Yes, there obviously needs to be an experience to be remembered. But it’s only the memory of the experience that makes people loyal or disloyal, fans or foe, unhappy customers or brand evangelists.

Why is this so important?: the memory of an experience isn’t equal to the minute-by-minute relapse of it. A generally ‚good‘ experience doesn’t necessarily create a ‚good‘ memory. Or even worse.

The Peak-End Rule. Here we go scientific

The peak–end rule is a psychological heuristic in which people judge an experience largely based on how they felt at its peak (i.e., its most intense point) and at its end, rather than based on the total sum or average of every moment of the experience. The effect occurs regardless of whether the experience is pleasant or unpleasant. According to the heuristic, other information aside from that of the peak and end of the experience is not lost, but it is not used. This includes net pleasantness or unpleasantness and how long the experience lasted. (Wikipedia)

Research and Examples.

Read as far as you find this interesting. In the next chapter we’ll give some examples of how this might work in your business.

A 1993 study titled "When More Pain Is Preferred to Less: Adding a Better End" by Kahneman, Fredrickson, Charles Schreiber, and Donald Redelmeier provided groundbreaking evidence for the peak–end rule. Participants were subjected to two different versions of a single unpleasant experience. The first trial had subjects submerge a hand in 14 °C water for 60 seconds. The second trial had subjects submerge the other hand in 14 °C water for 60 seconds, but then keep their hand submerged for an additional 30 seconds, during which the temperature was raised to 15 °C. Subjects were then offered the option of which trial to repeat. Against the law of temporal monotonicity, subjects were more willing to repeat the second trial, despite a prolonged exposure to uncomfortable temperatures. Kahneman et al. concluded that "subjects chose the long trial simply because they liked the memory of it better than the alternative (or disliked it less)." (*1)

Similarly, a 1996 study by Kahneman and Redelmeier assessed patients' appraisals of uncomfortable colonoscopy or lithotripsy procedures and correlated the remembered experience with real-time findings. They found that patients consistently evaluated the discomfort of the experience based on the intensity of pain at the worst (peak) and final (end) moments. This occurred regardless of length or variation in intensity of pain within the procedure. (*2)

Another study by Kahneman and Ziv Carmon identified a boundary condition for the peak–end rule. Participants interacted with a computer program that had them wait to be served, while assessing their satisfaction as they were waiting. Kahneman and Carmon found that how participants felt at the final moment of the experience was a good predictor of their responses when they were asked to retrospectively evaluate their experiences. For example, participants who felt very dissatisfied during much of the experience but were satisfied in the final few seconds (because the waiting line moved faster than expected toward the end) summarized the experience as satisfying. Kahneman and Carmon concluded that real time experiences that are based on expectations are discounted after the fact if those expectations are unfulfilled. (*3)

A third study by Kahneman, Redelmeier, and Joel Katz corroborated and expanded upon the discoveries made in the 1996 study. Colonoscopy patients were randomly divided into two groups. One underwent a colonoscopy procedure wherein the scope was left in for three extra minutes, but not moved, creating a sensation that was uncomfortable, but not painful. The other group underwent a typical colonoscopy procedure. Kahneman et al. found that, when asked to retrospectively evaluate their experiences, patients who underwent the longer procedure rated their experience as less unpleasant than patients who underwent the typical procedure. Moreover, the patients in the prolonged discomfort group were far more likely to return for subsequent procedures because a less painful end led them to evaluate the procedure more positively than those who faced a shorter procedure. (*4)

Yes, Daniel Kahneman is quite a fan of this topic. We do recommend reading his book ‚Thinking Fast and Slow‘.

Now you:

-> You’re the proud owner of a restaurant. An experience can be sketched as follows:

The location of your restaurant is quite idilic; the staff fast, friendly and good looking; the food is.. „just to die for“… You get the picture.

The overall experience of your customers is rated with top scores. When it’s time to go home after this pleasant experience your customer politely asks for the bill which he will definitely and gladly add a generous tip to.

It takes ages for the bill to arrive. Staff now seem to focus only on those who are still ordering. The coffee is gone (even taken off the table), but still no sign of the bill. Waiting tediously long your customer is now getting upset. He wants to go home! He’s not seen anymore as a valuable customer, and he feels it.

Even worse: the waiter who eventually turns up with the bill isn’t the waiter who waited on him before. It’s just a person uninterested in who he is and what he wants, just there to make the transaction.

The end of the experience settles a big part of the memory and you’ve just dramatically lowered your score, completely unnecessarily.

-> Massage Studio: clean, modern, sophisticated, and it smells great in here, wow! The massage is just wonderful: relaxing, with attention and love: Calming with a feeling of inner peace and warmth, heaven.

The end though is abrupt and rushed so the next customer can lay down and relax. Getting dressed again quickly and shoes are put on in the doorway… No-one to see you off with a smile…

It’s not hard to copy-paste the above onto other businesses and processes.

A small part of an otherwise outstanding experience damages your efforts as well as the created memory: THE END.

This works the other way around too:

-> Automotive Garage: Your customer’s yearly car service is running late. It’s busy as all hell and there was some extra work on the car. The client is waiting at the reception and running late for dinner at home. Calmly and friendly you take time, not too long, to apologize for the inconvenience and wish your client (by name! Look it up if you have to..) a very very splendid evening whilst handing him a complimentary bottle of water for the ride home.

The attention and gift at the end of the experience, however small, make a world of difference for writing the memory of it.

A small part of an otherwise rather disastrous experience brightens your efforts as well as the created memory: THE END

THE END.

*1. Kahneman, Daniel; Fredrickson, Barbara L.; Schreiber, Charles A.; Redelmeier, Donald A. (1993). "When More Pain Is Preferred to Less: Adding a Better End". Psychological Science. 4 (6): 401–405.

*2. Redelmeier, Donald A; Kahneman, Daniel (1996). "Patients' memories of painful medical treatments: real-time and retrospective evaluations of two minimally invasive procedures". Pain. 66 (1): 3–8.

*3. Carmon, Ziv; Kahneman, Daniel (1996). "The Experienced Utility of Queuing: Experience Profiles and Retrospective Evaluations of Simulated Queues" (PDF). (working paper). Archived from the original on 2013-05-09.

*4. Redelmeier, Donald A; Katz, Joel; Kahneman, Daniel (2003). "Memories of colonoscopy: a randomized trial". Pain. 104 (1–2): 187–194.