The Peak-End Rule in Action: When a Good Ending Covers a Bad Beginning
A few weeks ago, something happened in my family that perfectly illustrates Daniel Kahneman’s peak-end rule — and also reveals a slightly uncomfortable truth about customer experience.
Here’s the story.
A family member signed up for a credit card from a well-known department store in Brazil. Nothing unusual there. But soon after, something odd happened: he was mysteriously subscribed to health and house insurance policies. He never requested them. He never signed up. And yet… the charges started showing up on his bill, month after month.
Like many of us do, he procrastinated. He sighed, complained a little, but didn’t act right away. Until finally, he picked up the phone to call customer service.
Here’s where it gets interesting.
The agent was fast, polite, and incredibly efficient. Within minutes, the charges were cancelled, the subscriptions terminated, and the matter resolved. The call ended with my family member saying: “Wow, that was actually a great service.”
And here’s the kicker: he was so relieved and happy with how easy it was that he didn’t even bother asking for a refund of the previous months’ charges.
Think about that. The company had wrongly (or “wrongly”) charged him for services he never wanted — yet the quick, smooth resolution left him with a positive emotional memory.
Enter the Peak-End Rule
Kahneman’s research shows that we don’t evaluate experiences rationally. We don’t remember every detail. Instead, we judge them based on two things:
- The peak — the most intense moment (positive or negative)
- The end — how the experience concluded
The “middle” becomes fuzzy, almost irrelevant.
In this story, the months of unfair charges were overshadowed by the positive end. The fast resolution became the highlight of the memory, not the injustice.
Accident or design?
Now, was this intentional?
We can’t know for sure. But it does raise an uncomfortable question: are some companies designing experiences where the ending is engineered to erase the pain of the journey?
Think about it:
- Airlines that frustrate you with delays but make the arrival experience smooth.
- Subscription services that make cancellation painful, then throw in a charming agent to “help you escape.”
- Banks that charge hidden fees, but train agents to resolve issues quickly with empathy.
The strategy is clear: make the last moment shine, so the customer forgets the earlier mess.
The risk of playing with memory
But here’s the danger: this works until it doesn’t. Customers may forgive once, maybe twice. But as trust erodes, the manipulation becomes obvious. And once customers feel played, no peak or ending can save the relationship.
Short-term wins, long-term decay.
What CX leaders should learn from this
The lesson isn’t that you should design bad experiences just to fix them at the end. That’s manipulation, and it corrodes trust.
The real insight is:
- Every ending matters more than you think. Customers carry it forward in memory.
- Resolution is more powerful than perfection. Mistakes happen, but how you fix them defines loyalty.
- Positive peaks should be designed intentionally, not as a band-aid. Surprise, delight, relief — these emotions can be built into the journey without first causing pain.
Final thought
My family member still thinks fondly of that customer service agent. And yes, the end felt good. But when you zoom out, the fact remains: he paid for something he never wanted.
That’s the paradox of the peak-end rule. It shows us the power of endings — but also the responsibility we carry as CX leaders. Because the choice is ours:
👉 Use it to heal and delight honestly.
👉 Or use it to mask bad practices temporarily.
One builds trust. The other builds a time bomb.
How are you designing the experiences in your customer journey?
#CustomerExperience , #HumanExperience , #BehavioralScience , #PeakEndRule , #Leadership , #Trust , #CX , #TheH2HExperiment
Link to original post: The Peak-End Rule in Action: When a Good Ending Covers a Bad Beginning
