Forrester: Customers are more loyal when an experience ends well or brings a pleasant surprise along the way
Forrester checked customer journey data against the psychological rule that people remember an experience by its most intense moment and its end; the results show the rule holds here too.
What's happening
According to Forrester's data, customers whose experience ends well and those who get a positive surprise along the way are both more loyal. Among banking customers who had no positive surprise in their journey, the share of very-low-loyalty customers is nearly 10 times higher than among those who did. When a journey does not end well, the share of very-low-loyalty customers is about seven times higher than when it does.
Whose desk it lands on
The executive responsible for customer experience. Does anyone in the organization own the final moment, when the customer finishes their business with us?
Our view
The CX Brief's interpretation, not a claim made by the source.
For teams trying to improve every step equally, Forrester's data points to a narrower focus: the end of the journey, plus a positive surprise along the way. A surprise does not require a costly spectacle, either: in Forrester's example, Buc-ee's stands apart from other highway rest stops with its well-maintained, clean bathrooms. (And we know this effect very, very well in Türkiye!) Every pain point that customers now treat as normal in an industry is an organization's cheapest opportunity to surprise them.
