Editor’s note: The following is a guest article by Mark Levy, head of consumer product and customer experience at Frontier Communications and author of “The Psychology of CX 101.”
A billing issue gets resolved. The refund is processed. The agent thanks the customer. And that customer never returns.
Sound familiar? The issue got fixed, but the experience didn't land right. The last impression was forgettable, cold or robotic.
When that happens, it's not just a missed opportunity. It's a loyalty killer.
In behavioral psychology, this isn't a mystery. It's a well-documented phenomenon known as the peak-end rule, the idea that people judge an experience largely by how they felt at the most intense moment — good or bad — and at the end, rather than the total sum of moments throughout.
The principle was made famous by psychologist Daniel Kahneman through studies showing that patients undergoing painful procedures remembered the experience more favorably when the ending was less painful, even if the procedure was longer.
In customer experience, the same cognitive bias is at play. You can get 90% of the journey right, but if the peak is negative and the ending is weak, customers may well remember the entire experience in a negative light.
A meta-analysis of over 30 studies confirms it: The peak and final moments dominate memory across various fields, from healthcare and travel to customer service and digital products.
How Atour Hotels reinvented their ending
Atour, a fast-growing Chinese hotel brand, applied the peak-end rule directly to its customer experience strategy. In a 2022 case study, the company redesigned its check-in and check-out moments to maximize emotional impact, adding personalized greetings, scented lobby spaces and heartfelt thank-yous at departure. The result? Higher satisfaction, more return visits and stronger online reviews.
They didn't add more pillows or improve Wi-Fi. They improved the ending. And customers remembered it.
Atour isn’t the only brand. In a 2018 mobile network study, researchers tracked users' ratings of satisfaction over a year of usage. The result: even though most users had stable service most of the time, satisfaction scores were heavily influenced by two things: 1) a moment of high frustration like a dropped call or streaming delay and 2) how the experience ended. Users showed a clear peak-end bias in their feedback, even if the service quality averaged out overall.
Translation for CX leaders: you can't smooth over a frustrating peak or an abrupt ending by averaging in good performance elsewhere. That's not how memory or behavior works.
Designing experiences around the peak-end rule
You may think, "It's just one bad ending, how bad could it be?"
Here's how bad:
- Nearly one-third of customers say they would stop doing business with a brand they love after a single negative experience, according to PwC.
- About half would switch to a competitor after experiencing one negative impression, according to Zendesk.
- And only 30% to 40% of customers say their journey was "flawless" end to end, even when brands achieve 90% success at each stage, according to McKinsey.
Those final moments? They're not throwaways. They're decision points.
CX leaders have the power to apply the peak-end rule at once. Here's how to make your endings stick and convert memory into loyalty:
Design the last touch point like it's the first
Don't let the final screen be an afterthought. Confirmation messages, post-call follow-ups, return instructions—these should reassure, delight or at least feel human. That's the memory anchor.
Use language like "You're all set," "We've got you," or "Thanks for trusting us," not cold technical speak.
Train agents to end strong
Whether in chat, on the phone or face-to-face, the last 30 seconds should leave the customer feeling seen and appreciated.
"Is there anything else I can do for you today?" is fine. "I really appreciate your time, hope the rest of your day's smooth" is better.
End with emotional closure, not just task completion
Even if the issue is resolved, the customer's experience isn't over until they feel it is.
Send a follow-up email with simple language confirming what happened and why it won't happen again.
Reinforce trust. Don't just close the ticket.
Measure what people remember, not just what you fixed
CSAT and NPS tell part of the story. But also ask:
- "How did the interaction end?"
- "Was the resolution clear?"
- "How would you describe the final moment?"
Your most important KPI might be how the last touch point makes people feel.
Customer experience isn't a movie people watch. It's a memory they carry. And memory isn't fair; it doesn't track every frame. It grabs a few snapshots: the best part, the worst part and how it all ended.
If you want to design for loyalty, stop optimizing averages. Design for impact. And above all, design for the ending.
