{"id":1014126,"date":"2022-03-28T11:20:26","date_gmt":"2022-03-28T18:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.josephmichelli.com\/?p=5869"},"modified":"2022-03-28T11:21:13","modified_gmt":"2022-03-28T18:21:13","slug":"stick-the-landing-how-to-use-the-peak-end-theory-to-amaze-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/stick-the-landing-how-to-use-the-peak-end-theory-to-amaze-customers\/","title":{"rendered":"Stick the Landing \u2013 How to Use the Peak End Theory to Amaze Customers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In gymnastics, it\u2019s referred to as \u201csticking the landing.\u201d I\u2019ll call it \u201ccreating memorable endings.\u201d In the prior two installments of this three part-series on Moment\u2019s-that-Matter (MTMs), I\u2019ve focused on beginnings and transitions. This newsletter spotlights highs and lows across your customer\u2019s journey and how to manage those ups and downs in relation to the end of an interaction. To put a finer point on it, we will dive into the \u201cpeak-end rule.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Peak-end is a heuristic (a guiding principle) for human experience design. It suggests that the farther \u201cpain\u201d is from an interaction\u2019s \u201cending,\u201d \u2013 the more the experience will be perceived and remembered positively. (To watch pre-eminent behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman explain some of his research that supports the peak-end rule, <\/em>click here<\/em><\/a>).<\/p>\r\n

Peak-End in Real-World Application<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Let\u2019s imagine a protracted interaction between a customer and a brand (e.g., a customer spends the day at your amusement park.) Assuming you\u2019ve managed the MTM\u2019s discussed in prior installments (the arrival experience and transitions such as going from ticketing to park entry), your next order of business will be the peak, pain, and end moments. In our amusement park example, let\u2019s assume your customers generally have positive experiences for most of the day with some pain moments (long lines at popular rides) and some peak moments (ones that exceed the generally positive nature of their visit).<\/p>\r\n

From a design perspective, your goal should be to have the highest peak moment be more intense than the lowest pain moment. You should also strive to have the pain moment be as far from the end of your guest\u2019s visit as possible. To achieve this, you might offer guests a pass for expedited boarding on some of the most popular rides toward the end of the day or focus attention on positive exit experiences.<\/p>\r\n

Since you likely don\u2019t own an amusement park, I hope you and your team will design and deliver experiences considering the peak-end rule. Here are six steps to guide you:<\/p>\r\n

1) Imagine you are a person from one of your core customer segments.<\/p>\r\n

2) Step into that person\u2019s role and look for the peak, pain, and end moments.<\/p>\r\n

3) Consider which is more intense, the lowest pain moment or the highest peak moment.<\/p>\r\n

4) Work to ensure that the peak moment is elevated and the pain moment is mitigated.<\/p>\r\n

5) To the greatest degree possible, create distance between pain moments and the end of an interaction.<\/p>\r\n

6) Commit to The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Companies\u2019 third step of service by providing a<\/p>\r\n

Fond farewell. Give a warm goodbye and use the guest\u2019s name. <\/strong>In extending a farewell to our guests, we model the essentials of smiling, eye contact once again, and of course, use of the guest\u2019s name. Polite and pleasant are not enough \u2013 we need to make sure that each guest leaves feeling that he or she is the most important guest we have!<\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n

(For more on The Ritz-Carlton\u2019s approach to experience excellence, check out my book <\/em>The New Gold Standard \u2013 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company<\/em><\/a>).<\/p>\r\n

This brings my MTMs series to an end. So, I wish you a fond farewell and invite you back for next week\u2019s newsletter, which will explore ways to maximize 12 types of pleasure across the experiences you provide.<\/p>\r\n

To learn more about our team, please visit josephmichelli.com<\/a>. To speak to me about driving memorable ending experiences, please go to josephmichelli.com\/contact<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In gymnastics, it\u2019s referred to as \u201csticking the landing.\u201d I\u2019ll call it \u201ccreating memorable endings.\u201d In the prior two installments of this three part-series on Moment\u2019s-that-Matter (MTMs), I\u2019ve focused on beginnings and transitions. This newsletter sp…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6800,"featured_media":886387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[128,84,107,95],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014126"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6800"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1014126"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1014475,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014126\/revisions\/1014475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1014126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1014126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1014126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}