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Phase 5 of ending. Settled.

Phase 5 of ending. Settled.

Confirmation that all is done

At this point both parties should be feeling satisfied that the end has come. It should resolve the financial debt, the obligations and the material exchange, with the aim of maximising closure. Everyone is being informed that the process is complete, which is vital in keeping the ending clear.

Confirmation that all is done

At this point both parties should be feeling satisfied that the end has come. It should resolve the financial debt, the obligations and the material exchange, with the aim of maximising closure. Everyone is being informed that the process is complete, which is vital in keeping the ending clear. It is a great place to summarise experiences, provide financial statements, and is, on many occasions, the last meaningful communication between the provider and the consumer.

At the hairdressers, the person could be leaving the premises and shutting the door. In education, it might be the graduation event where a student receives their diploma. In Facebook, the customer has downloaded their items and waited for 30 days while the account is purged. At the airport, the person has gone through all the security checks and has now emerged out of the doors into the Arrivals hall.

Thanking

It is also a big emotional point and for some, a sigh of relief. For others this is the time to say thanks. Marie Kondo, the declutterer, says “When we let go of something we should do so with gratitude”. In her work, she recommends thanking the objects people throw away as a method of valuing them, bringing reflection and creating closure.

According to Harvard Medical school, “In positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.” These are all things that businesses would love to be associated with their product experiences, but often do too little work on the ‘Thank you’ bit.

Un-settling back billing

Settled accounts should be permanent. Basic levels of trust are shattered when a person is told that what was settled is not the end. When Shell Energy took over the energy company First Utility, they back- dated customers’ bills, in some cases for up to 5 years. People rely on getting closure at the end. It is a critical aspect of trust. Re-opening what is thought to be permanent is shattering to trust. According to the BBC, in 2019 Clare Crisp received a bill from Shell Energy and saw her bill had sky-rocketed and her direct debit had nearly doubled from £72 to £130. Shell Energy had looked at her bill and believed she had been underpaying since 2014. So, they decided to increase her direct debit without asking.

The UK’s Energy Ombudsman banned the practice of back billing beyond 12 months in May 2018. Yet, even in 2019, the first full year of the ban, they still had to resolve more than 2,500 complaints of un-settling back billing.

End of treatment bell

In healthcare, the end of treatment can seem cold and emotionless. The delivery of the news often happens in the same place, by the same person with the same cold method that other less happy news might have generated. There are no balloons or fanfare. For many, this situation can lack closure and emotional conclusion. This is especially difficult for children. So, making the end of that experience meaningful and conclusive is key.

One initiative that can help is the End of Treatment Bell. It was introduced to the UK after a young British girl called Emma had treatment in a US hospital and saw it in action there. While getting her treatment she watched lots of other kids ring this big brass bell at the end of the ward in celebration of their treatment being completed. When she finished her treatment in the US, she was able to ring it. On returning to the UK, she told the doctors and nurses at her local hospital. They loved the idea and installed one in her ward. When she finished her chemotherapy, she was the first person to ring it. The Children with Cancer charity, that supports many of the bells installed across the UK, talk about how important it is. “For a child with cancer, ringing the bell is a huge milestone. It means they’ve finished their treatment and are ready to get on with life. It’s not just a bell – it’s a symbol of hope.” The End of Treatment Bell is great at bringing closure. It’s noisy, emotional and conclusive. It’s a great ending.

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Transaction types: Payment before delivery

Paying before the delivery of the experience reduces the consumer’s empowerment in the relationship. Transparency is reduced, with the consumer unsure of the details of the service to be provided until its completion. This limits the ability of the consumer to negotiate value or have a frank discussion with the service provider. The customer would usually have to make an effort to have their complaints heard, possibly in some formal, systematic way that further distances the service from the customer.

The beginning of the consumer life-cycle generally starts with a transaction. The type of transaction will characterise the rest of the consumer experience and, especially, the end.

Payment before delivery

Paying before the delivery of the experience reduces the consumer’s empowerment in the relationship. Transparency is reduced, with the consumer unsure of the details of the service to be provided until its completion. This limits the ability of the consumer to negotiate value or have a frank discussion with the service provider. The customer would usually have to make an effort to have their complaints heard, possibly in some formal, systematic way that further distances the service from the customer.

Fyre Festival

This was described as being an exclusive music festival, scheduled to take place on a remote desert island with beautiful people in attendance. The event became a legendary disaster due to the lack of experience of the founders – it was apparently closer to The Lord of the Flies than an exclusive music festival. Stranded flights, insufficient accommodation, people stealing each other’s’ beds, only one music act performed, no lighting, no running water... were just some of the issues. Five thousand tickets were sold before the event. The prices varied between US$500 to US$1500 for different packages. There was no one available for customers to talk to. They had no leverage. No one was refunded. Not surprisingly, the festival was subsequently the focus of many lawsuits.

Entertainment

The band Radiohead disrupted the model of payment with their album Rainbows by asking customers to pay what they thought was appropriate. It would have been interesting to extend this to their tour tickets so as to have the entertainment industry’s transaction model challenged with a more open alternative.

Train travel

A very common everyday delivery failure for commuters is a late train. Some countries require train companies to pay compensation for a late train. But to receive it, the customer is often required to fill in a form. The UK website ReeClaim.co.uk, allows users of London Transport to reclaim automatically for train delays. They have refunded £1,013,203 since the company started. This is paid automatically, straight into the customer’s bank account. Reclaiming
is automatic for consumers who have signed up. The company says “In many cases, trains are delayed without you even realising that you were delayed. In fact, most of our users who received refunds were surprised to learn that they were delayed.”4

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Phase 3 of the end. Actioned

The consumer and provider have an opportunity to action the end.

After both parties acknowledge that the end is going to happen, events with a purpose start to take place. The participants will be moving beyond words and intentions to changing states and moving matter.

The consumer and provider have an opportunity to action the end.

After both parties acknowledge that the end is going to happen, events with a purpose start to take place. The participants will be moving beyond words and intentions to changing states and moving matter.

The Actioned phase is probably the most critical point in off-boarding. It can take many forms, but broadly it is the point of no return. Given this importance it might take the form of an endorsement, like signing a legal paper, or clicking a confirm button, or some sort of check.

Taking action is an important experience for the consumer. It can
help to embed responsibility, requiring the ownership of consumption’s consequences. This might involve the practical exercise of assembling the assets. This could be the simple process of collecting recycling to take to the recycling bins or taking second-hand clothes to the charity shop or packing items to send to an e-bay customer.

Emotionally it can also be a moment of enormous meaning, involving satisfaction and closure. A crescendo to the wider experience, it might also be the most tangible phase in off-boarding. The outcomes might involve more physical assets or clearer actions.

Designing for action at the end

Currently, the approach to recycling is about what material it is made from and the specification that this is recyclable. These are neither emotional nor action-inducing issues. The action of recycling doesn’t present the consequences of not recycling. It does not engage with the consumer emotionally.

The Green Dot

The Green Dot scheme is run by the PRO Europe (Packaging Recovery Organisation Europe), founded in 1995. It is the umbrella organisation for European packaging and packaging waste recovery and recycling schemes. They describe the purpose of the Green Dot on their website as.

“The Green Dot is the financing symbol for the organisation of recovery, sorting and recycling of sales packaging. When you see the Green Dot on packaging it means that for such packaging, a financial contribution has been paid to a qualified national packaging recovery organisation.”

Accidental action

In 2016, Marco Marsala posted an enquiry on a user forum called Server Fault.

“I run a small hosting provider with more or less 1535 customers and I use Ansible to automate some operations to be run on all servers. Last night I accidentally ran on all servers, a Bash script with a rm -rf {foo}/{bar} with those variables undefined due to a bug in the code above this line.”

As the answers came into his enquiry it was clear he had done something critically devastating to his business. One person described the situation better than others. “I won’t even begin enumerating how many errors are simultaneously required in order to be able to completely erase all your servers and all your backups in a single strike. This is not bad luck: it’s astonishingly bad design reinforced by complete carelessness.”

Abbreviations and shorthand are quite common in Unix. But they also require experience and knowledge to master and use with confidence.

In Unix language...

RM = remove
R = recursive
F = force removal

The combined “rm -rf” means the recursive removal of anything it is pointed at. So, if that is your entire computer, back up and server, then you’re in trouble. Not requiring confirmation is risky. So, asking for an actionable confirmation at the end makes a lot of sense and can make all the difference when managing critical situations.

Delete confirmation

In digital products, there are often times when the user needs to delete items. This can happen in a wide variety of contexts, from removal of old files and creating space on burdened hard drives to deleting a digital account. These are important decisions, and most can’t be undone. So, it is critical that confirmation is sought from the consumer.

This example from Tumblr is a great example. It is clear about what the consequences are. It is warm and collaborative. And, importantly it requires a confirmation login to approve the deletion.

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Ending Type: Broken / Withdrawal

This may be defined as an unplanned, and often uncomfortable separation between the provider and the consumer. For products, we experience items ending through poor manufacture or exceeding the expectations of normal usage. Common examples could be burning through a pan in the kitchen or finding a newly-purchased item shattered on delivery.

For services, consumers often have to sign some sort of contract. This could be an agreement between the provider and consumer describing the service delivery. Such an agreement usually has a planned type of ending written into it. It might be that a Time Out ending, or a Task/Event has been completed.
If the service breaks outside these planned endings, then the situation often gets legal and uncomfortable.

This may be defined as an unplanned, and often uncomfortable separation between the provider and the consumer. For products, we experience items ending through poor manufacture or exceeding the expectations of normal usage. Common examples could be burning through a pan in the kitchen or finding a newly-purchased item shattered on delivery.

For services, consumers often have to sign some sort of contract. This could be an agreement between the provider and consumer describing the service delivery. Such an agreement usually has a planned type of ending written into it. It might be that a Time Out ending, or a Task/Event has been completed.
If the service breaks outside these planned endings, then the situation often gets legal and uncomfortable.

Legislation

An increase in laws in recent years has helped consumers to defend themselves. Privacy laws have empowered digital consumers around the world. GDPR in Europe, the California Privacy Act in the US and the updated Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI) in Japan have all emerged in the last few years.

There has been an increase in the number of governing bodies and industry watchdogs. These defend customer expectations and set higher industry standards. They may also help the consumer fight bad practice from providers. For example, the UK Energy Ombudsman has recently announced compensation for bad endings, automatically paying customers who have had their switch to a new energy provider go wrong.

Software complexity

In previous generations, complex products might work independently of support for decades. A car or television was a standalone object – beyond the requirement for fuel and electricity. But now many complicated products use software, which is often supported from a remote location. Businesses don’t support that software forever, which means that a hidden lifespan is created, which was not mentioned at the on-boarding phase.

Apple has a guideline (2021) around the length of supporting products. This should be ‘5 years after the product is no longer manufactured—or longer were required by law.’ They break down these products into two groups thereafter: ‘Vintage products are those that have not been manufactured for more than 5 and less than 7 years ago.’ ‘Obsolete products are those that were discontinued more than 7 years ago.’ There are some extreme cases, such as Monster-branded Beats products, which ‘are considered obsolete regardless of when they were purchased.’ This leaves the consumer of Beats products in a hopelessly vulnerable situation.

Sonos fumbled product endings for thousands of loyal customers in 2019. First with a badly executed e-waste reclaim strategy followed shortly afterwards by an announcement about withdrawing support for legacy products. The issue was publicised on Twitter and Sonos apologised for their poorly thought-through ending.

Services

Wonga was a Pay-day loan company which was launched in 2007. It ended on 30th August 2018, when it went into administration. At launch It was a revered member of the FinTech world, celebrated as a no-nonsense, tech-savvy credit solution. It was the first to provide an instant lending App for Apple mobile phones, with a fully automated, risk processing technology.

Once the dust settled on the business ending, someone needed to sort out the mess. What happened to the customers? Where were the approaches of communication, customer support, legal adherence, etc? These jobs fell to a creditor. A company called Grant Thornton was commissioned to do this work and won the Creditor Engagement Award at the TRI Awards 2019 for it.

Grant Thornton explained that the team undertook a ‘multi-pronged approach’ to ensure coverage, clarity and consistency, to all customers throughout. There were in excess of two million individuals involved when the collapse happened, so not a small customer base. They created various channels of communication, including email, online updates and SMS campaigns. To do this they drew on a large call centre and clear access to support and answers for worried customers. This aided the resolution of claims and the speed at which they could respond.

Endings after theft

Theft is not an uncommon experience for consumers. Bags may be stolen from bars, bikes from gardens. In the past, insurance has provided a safety net for consumers. Recently, though, technology has provided a different approach. It has enabled the consumer not only to track a stolen device, but to erase content and even kill the device remotely, making it useless for the thief. And, strangely, more empowering for the consumer!

What we need to consider

  • Broken / withdrawal endings happen as a last resort.

  • Expectations have broken, so this ending starts with disappointment.

  • Risk assessments can aid preparation.

  • It can quickly become a legal matter.

  • Stolen items can now be tracked and ended, which makes a far more engaging end.

  • Insurance is often sold because of the fear of something breaking.

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Your product story needs endineering.

Branding often talks about telling the authentic story to the consumer. Telling the story of the product. But how far does that really go? It’s rarely all the way to the end. Are brands and product missing the best part of the story?

Branding often talks about telling the authentic story to the consumer. Telling the story of the product. But how far does that really go? It’s rarely all the way to the end. Are brands and product missing the best part of the story?

We can all be inspired by the way literature and film deal with narrative and closure: a wealth of knowledge, spanning centuries of creating meaning, laid out in a sequence of events that tells a story. But most of our product and service stories fade out before we get anywhere near a clear ending. Commerce is overly focused on the starting and usage phases of the consumer experience, overlooking the ending as a useful and meaningful moment.

Endings are important. They establish important fundamentals for ourselves and wider society. In his book The End, Narration and Closure in Film Neupert says that “solid closure in conventional narratives and histories satisfies individual and social desire for moral authority, a purposeful interpretation of life, and genuine stability”. In parallel, Elizabeth MacArthur in her book Extravagant Narratives calls it an “attempt to preserve the moral and social order which would be threatened by endlessly erring narratives.”

We could easily describe many of our human-made consumer experiences as having ‘endlessly erring narratives’. Adding coherent closure experiences would add ‘purposeful interpretation’ to our consumer endings. It might also improve our ‘social desire for moral authority’ which, let’s face it, is lacking when we discuss the negative consequences of consumption.

Despite recognising the enormous, world-changing issues we face as a direct result of consumption – things like climate change, peak oil and the miss-selling of financial services - we appear totally unable to come to a conclusion about vital issues. Some see this as an example of a lack of moral authority brought upon us, thanks to bad or absent endings.

Ends in questions
The current consumer lifecycle often ends with indifference, waste and lots of questions for the consumer – what shall I do with this type of material? Is it recyclable? How do I get my data back? Missing the opportunity to add purpose to the end and throwing away a load of brand equity along with it.

Ends with purpose
What we should be doing is building staged, branded experiences at the end. That capture assets and neutralise the negative outcome. We should build experiences that bond the consumer and the provider in joint responsibility. Creating positive memories that bring closure.

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Role Exit stage two

Role Exit second stage

Now the individual has come to the acknowledgement (First Stage of Role Exit) that they need to change roles, they will start to actively seek alternatives.

Now the individual has come to the acknowledgement (First Stage of Role Exit) that they need to change roles, they will start to actively seek alternatives.

A key part of this is measuring the Comparison Level (Thibaut and Kelly, 1959). The Comparison Level is established from previous experiences in the individuals life. These form a baseline that all subsequent experiences are judged either, above (attractive and satisfying) or below (unattractive and dissatisfying) the Comparison Level. 

After assessment of these alternatives, the individual will seek reinforcement off significant others. If reinforcement is given, the individual, feeling sense of freedom and confidence, will start to shift their references and engage in role rehearsal of the potential new role.

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Role Exit stage one

Role Exit stage one.
The wonderful book, Becoming an Ex, by Helen Rose Ebaugh, reflects what people go through when considering changing their role in a variety of situations, whether this is a job, a relationship, or their services and products.

The wonderful book, Becoming an Ex, by Helen Rose Ebaugh, reflects what people go through when considering changing their role in a variety of situations, whether this is a job, a relationship, or their gender.

Initial doubts are often ignited from organisational changes, personal burnout, a change in relationships, or the effect of some event. These doubts are then reflected to peers or friends as cuing behaviour. Indicating their doubts in the current role. These cues, being recognised by others, are then reinforced or quelled prompting a re-evaluation of the situation and a halt in the doubting process.

Once the individual has reassurance that their is strong basis in their doubts, they will expand the areas that come under scrutiny. Subsequent events will now be considered negatively as a way of reinforcing their point of view. 

This will kick start the Second Stage of Role Exit (See Below) - the search for viable alternatives.

First Stage of Role Exit. Helen Rose Fuchs Ebaugh

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Ending Type: Proximity

Moving out of reach of the service or product relationship brings the end.

This kind of ending occurs when the experience ceases because the location has changed. When a person has moved away, they might be outside the distribution of service coverage. In digital, consumers experience a proximity type ending when they move from one digital platform to another. This could be Apple to Android, for example. Apps and data that were once available have now moved out of reach.

Moving out of reach of the service or product relationship brings the end.

This kind of ending occurs when the experience ceases because the location has changed. When a person has moved away, they might be outside the distribution of service coverage. In digital, consumers experience a proximity type ending when they move from one digital platform to another. This could be Apple to Android, for example. Apps and data that were once available have now moved out of reach.

Privacy

An important aspect of proximity is the boundary of privacy. Individuals may feel that their privacy has certain limits. But this is threatened when cookies or other technological methods are found to be digging deeper than the person expected or wanted. This changes their perception of where their privacy ends and their public profile begins.

Trade traffic

Unbeknown to many consumers, their consumption is dictated to a large degree by trade agreements between countries. This helps to break down proximity boundaries for goods as they travel over borders. This has generated a stark contrast with the UK’s departure from the European Union’s trade area. To the surprise of many UK consumers, they are now being charged custom fees for goods that they order online, but don’t realise they come from Europe.

VPN

A technology that has emerged recently, partially as a result of proximity limitations, is the mass market VPN (Virtual Private Network). Originally, the technology was used by corporations needing increased security for their travelling staff. But more recently, mass- market versions have become popular for people wanting to hide their location, usually to watch TV from other countries. This has invited people to engage in low-level fraud. They pretend they are in one location but seek the benefits of another.

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Ending Type: Exhaustion / Credit out

Services or products that are based on a finite or numeric value. Once that value is exhausted the service or product end.

Examples included: batteries being discharged, food being consumed, and tyres being run bald. In digital we can see examples of storage being filled up. A currency is common - Dollars, Pounds, Euros, for example. But it may also be represented by a pseudo currency, such as points or credits which have been created by the provider. Some national authorities use a points system such as points on your driving licence (UK) or 3 strikes law in the (US).

Services or products that are based on a finite or numeric value. Once that value is exhausted the service or product end.

Examples included: batteries being discharged, food being consumed, and tyres being run bald. In digital we can see examples of storage being filled up. A currency is common - Dollars, Pounds, Euros, for example. But it may also be represented by a pseudo currency, such as points or credits which have been created by the provider. Some national authorities use a points system such as points on your driving licence (UK) or 3 strikes law in the (US).

Currencies

The exhaustion of currency has characterised peoples’ perception of each other for thousands of years. Yet running out of money is common across cultures, race, class and genders. It is probably the most common ending consumers have ever experienced. It is a frequent source of conversations, purpose and exploitation.

In recent centuries pseudo currencies have been seen in loyalty programs. Copper coins were given out to loyal customers by stores to redeem later. Green Shield stamps were very well known in the 20th century. Box-top coupons were often integrated into the product and collected by customers. These locked the consumer into a system where they had to use the chosen pseudo currency of the brand. Once they’d run out, they were like any other consumers again. So, they were downgraded to normal and their loyalty was exhausted.

Physical exhaustion

Ice blocks were an early, tangible and visible system which ended clearly with wet exhaustion. In 1805, Frederic Tudor and his brother came up with a business proposal to ship ice to the West Indies so that people could enjoy a cold drink in the sun. Unsurprisingly, that idea failed. But with a pivot any start-up would be proud of, Frederic decided to sell ice to restaurants and bars instead. With a great deal of effort, he finally established, not only a business but a whole industry of shipping ice. By 1847, 52,000 tons of ice was being moved around the United States.

Industrialisation established brand specificity in consumer products. Where in previous centuries items were unbranded and defined by weight or size, new marketing and packaging changed this. The branded box increased the tangibility of the ending. From ‘We are running low on cereal.’ to ‘The box of Cornflakes is empty.’

Some products end when they are full. A full vacuum cleaner bag means that the consumer’s vacuum cleaner has a lack of suck when it has reached capacity. Bin bags have similar usage. And as consumerism fills our homes and exhausts our storage, we resort to off-site storage and start again.

Services

Service costs can be expensive and quickly exhaust a person’s custom with a company. A clear example can be seen in the US health care system. This becomes difficult for people to afford unless they have insurance cover. According to a recent study, 66.5 percent of all US personal bankruptcies were caused by medical costs. The report estimated that 530,000 families file for bankruptcy every year because of this. Savings are also quickly exhausted without proper cover. A further study by Bankrate, found only 40% of people could even afford a medical expense of $1000 from their savings.

Digitisation

In June of 2000, BT Cellnet launched the world’s first General Packet Radio Service, (GPRS). This moved billing from per-minute or second, to billing based on volume of data. This changed the consumers’ perception of the pseudo currency. Now they became aware of the exhaustion of data when it ran low. Translating how much data was needed to download a song became a common consumer perception related to the service ending.

Mana

In gaming, Mana has been used as a form of currency for decades. The term goes way back to indigenous people in the South Pacific who used the word to describe a magical force. In gameplay, gaining and losing Mana becomes a source of progression and purpose for the player. So, it is being used for casting magic spells and other game-world activities.

Planning

If there is an inaccurate representation of credit, people get caught out. Fuel gauges are a good example, especially those that estimate the remaining distance. If the consumer drives fast and inefficiently, the remaining distance specified becomes different. This undermines trust in the representation of the currency (fuel). Consumers with electric cars need to plan far more than regular fuel drivers. This is due to the lack of charging stations, the length of charging and the limited range of the charge. Risks like this provide an enormous incentive to plan the exhaustion of your battery.

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Ending Type: Time Out

Time Out Ending Type

A Time Out type ending is a product that is delivered over a fixed period.
Such endings could include: a 3-year education course, or a 2-week holiday. Once that period has expired, then so does the service.

For physical products, this could be a sell-by-date or a warranty period. Past which the manufacture or supplier believes the product will be subject to ware & tare or decay that risks the ideal product experience.

For digital products this might be a 1-year subscription to a computer application, or a 24-hour rented film.

Time Out

A Time Out type ending is a product that is delivered over a fixed period.

Such endings could include: a 3-year education course, or a 2-week holiday. Once that period has expired, then so does the service.

For physical products, this could be a sell-by-date or a warranty period. Past which the manufacture or supplier believes the product will be subject to ware & tare or decay that risks the ideal product experience.

For digital products this might be a 1-year subscription to a computer application, or a 24-hour rented film.

Historical changes in timekeeping

The industrial revolution introduced the modern concept of time, thanks to mechanisation. People moved to the cities in search of work in the new factories. Here time was different: it was divided into three equal 8-hour sections, punctuated by factory clock and bells. These were – work time, your time, sleep time. This increased awareness across societies of defining time, where as previously, in rural communities time had been based on observation of natural cycles of the season, sun and the moon.

Preserving time

Packaging advances meant that food could be preserved for much longer. The tin can was patented by Peter Durand in 1810, who later started the world’s first canning factory in England with John Hall in 1846. This extended the life of beef, mutton, carrots, parsnips and soup. It changed the consumer relationship with one of the most common consumer endings - the decay of food. Time is often defined clearly now on many food products though sell-by or consume by dates.

Countdown

Decisions over time are one of the most common gaming models. When
I was at the digital studio ustwo, some of the games we created had models that enhanced the decision-making process over a limited period. We also used these same models when designing trading platforms for banking clients. Auctioning is a similar variant of this, when the seller has created a time-based event to intensify the selling experience.



Carbon Offsets

When a company buys a carbon offset it will be attached to a year of maturity - called a vintage. Although the experience of buying an offset is very transactional and immediate, its delivery is far from that. Taking years, if not decades to deliver its benefits.

When tackling future consumer engagements, one of the challenges will be to communicate the end date of off-setting or neutralising of product decay.




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Phase 2. Acknowledged.

Phase 2. Acknowledged.
Both parties acknowledge the relationship should end.
After the crack of doubt, both parties will seek to formalise the ending. This could be a verbal announcement to service staff for example, asking for the bill in a restaurant.

Both parties acknowledge the relationship should end.

There are 7 phases the consumer commonly goes through when they leave the consumer provider relationship.
After the crack of doubt (Phase 1), both parties will seek to formalise the ending. This could be a verbal announcement to service staff for example, asking for the bill in a restaurant. Other arrangements might require the consumer to use a more tangible, traceable method, like a letter. We can see this when people resign from their jobs or give notice as a tenant. This leaves a paper trail, some sort of evidence that a formal procedure is taking place. Such evidence might be part of taking control of old assets or specifying dates for leaving the relationship.

Further on down the process still, digital systems have routes the consumer can navigate themselves as part of a website. Maybe they might log into their account and seek the end by shutting their account via an online interface.

The Acknowledged stage can also be characterised by the type of ending that is already established. For example, if you have car insurance that is paid annually (a Time-Out ending type) the provider might contact you to acknowledge that the end is coming and you should think about renewal. Likewise, if the relationship is a Credit-Out ending, then the provider might contact the customer to inform them that the end has come as they have run out of credit. Either way, an acknowledgement is happening. Parties are informing each other of the end.

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What is Endineering?

What is Endineering?
This is a definition of Endineering and the practice of designing consumer off-boarding experiences.

‘Endineering’ is a shorthand term which refers to the practice, philosophy, tools and methods of creating consumer off-boarding experiences of a product, service or digital product. This is as opposed to on-boarding, which relates to the beginning of the product experience and involves a wealth of established industries who supply meaning, instruction and encouragement to transport the consumer from passive observer to engaged customer. The off-boarding experience takes an engaged and active customer through the final stages of ownership or usage to a meaningful ending of the product relationship – an engineered ending.

‘Endineering’ aims to increase understanding of the off-boarding experience in the consumer lifecycle, inspiring specific elements which can be incorporated into product experiences. These elements combine to mitigate problems which may occur in the last phase of consumerism. They aim to guide the consumer through the final stages of their engagement to achieve a better and less damaging ending. These improvements can be broad-reaching across environmental, humanitarian, technological, social or emotional areas.

‘Endineering’ can be applied across many factors. At a high level it draws comparisons across sectors to reveal common societal problems in consumerism. From these insights I propose principles, processes and tools thoughout the Endineering book, training and the Andend website. These can then be applied more specifically across industry sectors and inspire product development, creating tangible touchpoints throughout the customer journey. The type of transaction model a business uses at on-boarding influences their ability to engage meaningfully at off-boarding. An example is a packaging solution that empowers a consumer to return items once concluded. A further example could be a method of sharing a photo that helps the un-sharing of it later.

’Endineering’ aims to improve consumerism. Although it is not anti–business, it recognises clearly that our current pace, approach and philosophy around consumerism cannot continue. It also sees failures in our current approach to sustainability, which so often seems to be created without the consumer experience being a considered aspect.

‘Endineering’ aims to change many of the outdated and damaging practices in consumerism by inspiring a new way to look for solutions to some of consumerism’s most challenging problems.

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Ending Type: Cultural

Cultural ending: Consumers experience cultural endings of their products, services, or digital products when they perceive them to be out of fashion or culturally unacceptable.

Cultural ending: Consumers experience cultural endings of their products, services, or digital products when they perceive them to be out of fashion or culturally unacceptable.

This could be a service that was previously considered fantastic, but now feels wrong due to social perceptions or a particular look or feel. It could be a product that has a physical style or colour palette that has become less attractive. The problem might be a deeper, socially unpalatable point of view about race, gender, or the behaviour of company directors. A whole range of inappropriate points of view can bring an end to product, service, or digital products.

Usually cultural change is historically slow, steeped in generational differences in attitude. In recent decades such change has moved faster as a result of digital communication amongst other things. Many argue that social media has fuelled this acceleration. Some examples of cultural endings can be quite clear and strongly felt. Other examples like fashion or style are more nuanced and subjective.

Uncanny valley

A more human gauge of tolerance is demonstrated in the ‘uncanny valley’. First proposed by the robotics professor Masahiro Mori. He suggested ‘As the appearance of a robot is made more human, some observers’ emotional response to the robot becomes increasingly positive and empathetic, until it reaches a point beyond which the response quickly becomes strong revulsion'.

Twitter

In the last few months people on Twitter having been experiencing a cultural type of ending. Some would say that cracks have been building for years as Twitter became an increasingly vocal place for people to spread hate. These cracks opened further with the acquisition of the platform by Elon Musk. His ego centric persona and erratic leadership style have led many to feel the platform has culturally shifted. Changing the brand too far for some people and businesses. In essence a cultural ending has taken place on Twitter for many.

Understanding the different types of ending helps businesses and product developers appreciate the experience a consumer is going through. In turn this helps a business create better off-boardings and endings from the their product.

Find out more about Ending Types in the Endineering book.
Or on the Endineering course.

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Joe Macleod Joe Macleod

Phase 4. Observed.

There are 7 phases of the consumer off-boarding experience. Each one has different characteristics, needs and opportunities. The fourth of these phases is Observed, where the consumer experiences visible or tangible evidence that the end is progressing.

Phase 4 of the consumer off-boarding experience is Observed.
Visible or tangible evidence that the end is progressing.

At some point in the off-boarding experience the consumer might be shown a representation of the end happening. This could be the crushing of a plastic bottle, or a graphic depicting the deletion of files, or a piece of paper with evidence that actions are in progress. This is a useful method of informing the consumer of progress and encouraging the idea of closure at the end of the consumer lifecycle.

Sometimes this might be a difficult experience for the consumer to witness. In other situations, it might come as a relief. As an experience it helps to re-enforce a negative situation or a legal status. In other cases, it helps build trust that a conclusion is imminent.

A crescendo of fireworks

Fireworks have often been a feature of endings. They bring an awe–inspiring visual thrill that helps punctuate an event, bonding large groups of people together in reflective wonder. National holidays and New Year celebrations are common reasons for fireworks. As a world leader in creating experiences, Disney does a great job in bringing an end to a visitor’s day.

There are seven daily alternative shows. Some are located around the Disney Castle, which provides an impressive foreground feature. Others are located around different parts of the parks. They seem to be universally loved by guests, helping to embed memories for years to come. Here is a reaction from a visitor to the Florida park.

However, when researching this aspect of phases of the end in 2020, we were all locked down, as were the park attractions. Putting the crescendo out of reach at the time. As the Disney website puts it - Happily Ever After, Temporarily Unavailable.

Microsoft UX guidelines

The Microsoft UX guidelines describe how animations can help the consumer observe the deletion of a file. An added level of graphics helps the consumer see the difference between recoverable deleted files and permanently deleted files.

“The progress bar for the Outlook Delete command displays the Recycle Bin for the destination if the files can be recovered, but no Recycle Bin if the files can’t be recovered. In this example, the lack of a Recycle Bin reinforces that the files are being permanently deleted.”

The lack of a destination brings up a recurring problem with deletion of data, which is that there is no evidence to prove the end has happened.


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Joe Macleod Joe Macleod

Ending Type: Task / Event completion.

Ending type No. 3. Task / Event Completion.

A single task achieved by packaging (protect product while shipping), or a previously-defined event offered by the provider (flight to Paris), or a task agreed between the consumer and the provider (fix my tap). Once this task / event has taken place to the satisfaction of parties, the experience has ended.

Amongst the eight types of endings experienced by the consumer is the Task / Event Completion.

A previously-defined event offered by the provider (flight to Paris), or a task agreed between the consumer and the provider (fix my tap). Once this event has taken place to the satisfaction of both parties, the service has ended.

This can likewise be applied to products - disposable packaging has a single task and once completed, despite the obvious environmental problems with that, the consumer experiences the end of the product. In digital, games provide an example. A task is presented to the player, they complete that task - maybe a conclusion includes a big-boss fight - and the game finishes.

The ending of the task / event completion varies a great deal. In some cases, it is immediate, forgettable and disposable. In others, it is celebrated, honoured and detailed.

Disposability

Probably one of the biggest and most impactful endings is for disposable products. Initially celebrated for convenience in the consumer boom of the 20th century, disposability has now become the scourge of consumerism. The fallout of single-use items with one short function has critically impacted the environment. The ease with which the experience ends - without friction, instruction, responsibility or reflection - has to change. A great many of these disposable products have fallen outside the waste capturing systems. Their disposal is beyond the care of the consumer or responsibility of the provider. We, as a collective consuming species, have been blinded by this convenient ending. Improvements have been attempted by using biodegradable materials. But these fail to change the underlying behaviour of the consumer or the experience of a badly defined end.

Sadly, more and more products are falling into this category of task event type endings, which are short and disposable. Furthermore, these products are made of increasingly complex materials. Many ewaste products are emerging as short lifespan convenient solutions. For example disposable chargers for mobile phones.

How we design the experience for the consumer indicates how the consumer should respect the complexity of the product as a peice of waste. Suggesting something as chemically complex as a battery is “disposable” does not set the right intent for its placement at end of life.

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Joe Macleod Joe Macleod

Multiple engagement and an ending strategy

The best of future businesses will look at the ending as part of a longer strategy. This would be one that considers a customer’s situation across multiple engagements. These may be scattered over years, maybe even decades. In such a case a business needs to consider itself a multiple engagement provider. It would take the off-boarding as seriously as the on-boarding.

The best of future businesses will look at the ending as part of a longer strategy. This would be one that considers a customer’s situation across multiple engagements. These may be scattered over years, maybe even decades. In such a case a business needs to consider itself a multiple engagement provider. It would take the off-boarding as seriously as the on-boarding.

Much of current marketing can be broken into short term and long-term plans. A short-term plan considers tactical issues, matters such as engagement on differing channels, price changes or promotional activities. Long term plans might consider economic, consumer, and market trends.

At off-boarding emotional messages would be sent that engaged the consumer right up to departure and build in long-term meaning and brand equity for the business. This will help encourage collaborative efforts around sustainability, reclaiming assets in a controlled way and establishing a responsible partnership in the long term.

Creating a memory

The second area that shows an enormous potential opportunity is the creation of long-term memory in the consumer experience. By the end of the consumer relationship, a lot of the original meaningful communication has been lost. The consumer often experiences the off-boarding of a product independently from the provider. Their personal perception is rich and meaningful, even if it is not satisfactory or enjoyable. This ending has a significant impact on memory.

Peak End rule is the process of creating memories from two points. Described by Daniel Kaheman,  it suggests there are two moments of influence that create memories - the peak and the end. For a business it ideally means having a really good product experience within the consumer lifecycle and being present at the end to embed the best memories. But this is, of course, impossible if the business has already left the consumer experience behind. This leaves the end out of control. In essence, the business loses fifty percent of memory to chance. This is an enormous risk.

Businesses spend a great deal of money building brand equity through advertising and marketing. Not all of this money ends up with customers, or even potential customers. Yet it has been spent. Imagine having a significant influence on people who are already your customers and will carry personal endorsements to other people after they leave – they are the most trusted type of customer. Now think how much equity is lost failing to create good memories at the end of the lifecycle.

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Joe Macleod Joe Macleod

Single Engagement Fails the Future

The problem with the single engagement model is that ends happen.

Business models are changing. Consumers don’t stay with one brand forever. They move between brands, embracing mobility in the modern marketplace. Customers enjoy the benefits of faster account creation, more convenient payment mechanisms and delivery times counted in minutes. Very few customers are really new to any market nowadays.

The problem with the single engagement model is that ends happen.

Business models are changing. Consumers don’t stay with one brand forever. They move between brands, embracing mobility in the modern marketplace. Customers enjoy the benefits of faster account creation, more convenient payment mechanisms and delivery times counted in minutes. Very few customers are really new to any market nowadays.

Loyalty isn’t the bond many assume. Byron Sharp, in his book How Brands Grow, argues that many people buy out of habit, not loyalty. “Loyalty is everywhere but it’s seldom exclusive – buyers purchase more than one brand, and the more purchases an individual makes the more brands he or she buys. Polygamous or divided loyalty is quite the norm. So, no brand should expect its buyers to be 100% loyal.”

Business innovation has been focused around the on-boarding and usage experience. They overlook the need for a business to offer the consumer a good off-boarding experience. This results in a proliferation of cliff edges where the consumer experience drops off suddenly when the end happens.

Diagram showing the single engagement of a consumer.

In this fallout, assets are lost, responsibility is shunned and opportunity for long term engagement disappears. We can define this approach as a single engagement model. This is where a business is structured around a single engagement of sales, onboarding and usage.

Everything comes to an end, and so will the engagement a business has created with a consumer. When the end happens, shards of broken experiences break off. These fragments then linger in the physical, service or digital environments. Examples of such broken shards of experience are the plastics in the sea. They are resources a company failed to keep within the consumer lifecycle so as to be able to reclaim them in a controlled way. Or they may be the lingering images that a consumer was encouraged to share online by a company that failed to design a way to un-share those assets. They might also be a financial product, like a pension, that someone created decades ago, but is now lost because the company failed to create an ending that would last for the length of a career, life or marriage.

Opportunities lie in moving away from a single engagement model towards a world that imagines and innovates around the end stage.

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Joe Macleod Joe Macleod

Legacy Number - A consumer centric way to measure impact.

Measuring consumer impact is one of the most critical issues in the coming decade. Climate change has to become more tangible and actionable to the consumer. We can’t go on being good consumers by only buying “better” stuff. We have to get better, personal and meaningful data at the end and have visibility of the impact until its is neutralised.

There are three elements that I think undermine the consumer experience of measurement at the end of consumption.

Measuring consumer impact is one of the most critical issues in the coming decade. Climate change has to become more tangible and actionable to the consumer. We can’t go on being good consumers by only buying “better” stuff. We have to get better, personal and meaningful data at the end and have visibility of the impact until its is neutralised.

There are three elements that I think undermine the consumer experience of measurement at the end of consumption.

  • Firstly, the units of measurement don’t stretch across different consumer sectors – carbon tonnage, megabytes of data, credit rating.

  • Secondly, the metrics used are sourced from either science, technology or legal language. Making it hard to visualise and quantify for the consumer – ‘what does a tonne of carbon look like?’

  • Thirdly, the way we measure improvement is by making “better” products – ‘this product took 2kg of carbon to make’. So the measurement stops at the point of purchase, yet it needs to measure to the point of neutralising.

Together these three issues stop the consumer gaining insights to their consumption or improving their behaviour.
What consumer measurement needs in the future is…

  • Measurement that has the consumer experience at its core.

  • Measurement that can be applied to a wide range of products – physical, digital, or service.

  • Measurement that looks forward to a point where the consumption has been neutralised.

Legacy Number

I have created this proposal to example improvement, and as a platform for further discussion.

Example of how Legacy Number works

The legacy number approach starts by using the duration of the consumers experience as the base unit of measurement. The consumer experiences this duration in tangible terms because they are immersed in it.

The next step is calculating the products neutralising point in the future. This helps the consumer see the ultimate exposure to impact in the future.

The next step is to calculate the multiples of experience to duration of impact.
Which finally provides a Legacy Number that represents the difference between the length of consumer experience and the length of decay.

Lets look at some examples.

Baked beans

For example, apply this to the act of consuming a tin of baked beans. Product experience duration is recommended at 3-4 days after opening if refrigerated. Product time to decay a tin in landfill is 50 years according to the California State government.

Dilute lemon

A glass bottle of dilute lemon would provide a different number from a can of beans. This products contents should be consumed within a month after opening. But the length of time for the glass to decay in landfill is almost infinite to a million years, it is like a rock in terms of decay according to GoingZeroWaste.com.

Flight

The model can stretch across different consumer engagements. For example, a flight between Stockholm and London takes two hours. As a result, lots of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. According to The Guardian “...between 65% and 80% of CO2 released into the air dissolves into the ocean over a period of 20–200 years.” It takes up to 200 years for most of that to dissipate.

Web Cookies

The model can even be applied to digital experiences. Where a consumer might spend 20 minutes on a website, they might agree to cookies on that website that have an expiry date. These can vary greatly. In a recent article I wrote about the web cookie expired dates I found on some lasted thousands of years. These were rare, but it was common to find ones that had a duration of over 15 years.






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Phase 1. The crack of doubt

Phase 1 of the consumer off-boarding experience

The crack of doubt is a subtle, almost subconscious feeling. It is hard to define for the consumer until it happens. The run up to the end of a consumer relationship can come about through a collection of nuanced changes in situations. But generally, one issue will push the relationship to the edge.

Phase 1 of the consumer off-boarding experience

The crack of doubt is a subtle, almost subconscious feeling. It is hard to define for the consumer until it happens. The run up to the end of a consumer relationship can come about through a collection of nuanced changes in situations. But generally, one issue will push the relationship to the edge.

The crack of doubt comes from work by psychologist Helen Rose Ebaugh. Who proposed in her book, Becoming an Ex, how we experience moving between roles. She found that in the initial phases of role exit, doubts are often generated by organisational changes, personal burnout, a change in relationships, or the effect of some event. These changes ignite a crack of doubt.

We can see similar behaviour in consumers as they evaluate their loyalty to a product, service or digital product. If a failure in the product offering or function happens, a crack of doubt emerges. Further negative experiences will then reinforce the crack of doubt and the consumer will seek the end.

Of course, the crack can be mended. There is plenty of work in marketing and customer experience that looks at service recovery, retention, and considers how to stop the crack of doubt.

The consumer off-boarding experience really starts with the crack of doubt. It is hard to predict where it will emerge, and it is difficult to measure since it remains a feeling of the consumer. It is only later that it becomes tangible as a result of actions in the consumer’s behaviour. For example, announcing the intention to leave the relationship using a communication channel such as email, or reduced product usage. This next phase in the consumer off-boarding experience is called ‘Acknowledge’.

Helen Rose Ebaugh’s work offers a great deal of insight into the experience of ending human relationships. I recommend looking at it more if you feel it might resonate for your product’s off-boarding.

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Joe Macleod Joe Macleod

The ROI of Endineering. Part 3. Value on consumer experience at the end?

Some say that consumer experience needs to demonstrate its value, arguing that it can occasionally be considered as an indulgence, neither practical nor profitable. Certainly, ends are perceived as such for many people. And I understand their logic, but with fresh thinking there are clear benefits for businesses to engage in the way people leave a consumer relationship.

Some say that consumer experience needs to demonstrate its value, arguing that it can occasionally be considered as an indulgence, neither practical nor profitable. Certainly, ends are perceived as such for many people. And I understand their logic, but with fresh thinking there are clear benefits for businesses to engage in the way people leave a consumer relationship.

To consider the business case for ends, I want to look at a piece of work by KPMG that models the value of investing in customer experience. They say “Capital investments and operating costs to provide these experiences will continue to climb. To be effective and invest wisely, organizations need to gain a thorough understanding of Customer Experience (CX) Journey Economics”

KPMG’s CX Journey Economics aims to illustrate where the balance lies between what sort of experience is expected by the consumer and how much money a company could invest in that customer experience. This provides a useful basis for looking at the value of investing at the end of the consumer lifecycle.

KPMG focus

“We recommend linking investments designed to repair experience shortfalls to specific customer activity measures such as attrition, repurchase rates and/or customer lifetime value. Such measures can then be translated into a financial impact.”

Companies such as KPMG see the benefits of customer experience being focused on the acquisition and usage periods of the consumer lifecycle. Im short they value a moment in time - the present. The best of modern businesses, however, are considering external aspects far more as part of their wider responsibilities. These responsibilities can’t stay unseen in factory efficiencies, or product material improvement. The consumer experience needs to be part of a sustainable future. Not valued just by current customers, but future impact. Consumer representatives, legislation, and governments are all expecting more responsibility from companies. The most fruitful new areas will be expanding that focus to be experience-based. Improving off-boarding interfaces and methods of product disposal, deletion and returning items, are all good examples of off-boarding experiences.

Cost of the impact

The change in attitudes towards frequent flyer programs is a very good example of the consumer experience being expanded beyond the initial intention of the product. Once an accolade to be proud of, Air Miles are now considered to mark negatively against a person’s social responsibility. It is clear that the balance of customer experience with something like Air Miles has eroded over time.

Value in consumer experience investment can’t be a snap shot. An updated version of the KPMG model that represents the long-term risks might look like this. It shows an experience that fades over time. The consumer experience has a lingering shadow that exposes the negative aspects of the engagement. It also exposes the business to an unmitigated risk.

This reveals a tangible target for investment at the end of the consumer experience and a legitimate purpose – to halt the erosion of the desired consumer experience over time.

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