Closure in services, presented at Livework Insights

Closure
Experiences
Joe Macleod. @mrmacleod @ClosureExp 
closureexperiences.com
Death, Denial and Debt

What
What is a Closure Experience
Why the customer life cycle is biased
What created this situation
How it has impacted us
Good and bad Closure Experiences
Techniques and models

The satisfactory conclusion to a product or
service relationship. Each party feeling
satisﬁed with the completed transaction, it
being a fair, just conclusion without
negative consequence.
Closure
”
”

1. 2. 3.
Any consumer experience can
be broken down into 3 stages
On-Boarding Off-BoardingUsage
The stable, committed
relationship between the user
and the service they use, or
the product they own.
It is the effort it takes to get the
customer to commit to the
product or service relationship.
The start of the relationship.
It is the effort it takes to neutralise the
effects of the engagement. To
complete the agreed engagement. It is
the conclusion of the relationship.

engagement
time
Starting
Experiences
Closure
Experiences
Fuelled by commerce Fuelled by society
Language of self actualisation Language of safety and security
Joe Macleod. Closure Experiences.

Packaging
Advertising
Marketing
engagement
time
Examples include…
T&Cs
Inactivity / dormancy
Break the contract
Examples include…
Recycle
Starting
Experiences
Closure
Experiences

engagement
time
The
interest
gap
Packaging
Advertising
MarketingExamples include…
T&Cs
Inactivity / dormancy
Break the contract
Examples include…
Recycle
Starting
Experiences
Closure
Experiences

The customer life cycle
is biased
There is a gap of interest
Consumers and industry in
codependent denial

services
products
digital
…the consequences
we see in

Life was hard,
El Ángelus. Jean-François Millet. CCJoe Macleod. Closure Experiences.

death was familiar,
Ars Moriendi. Meister E.S.Joe Macleod. Closure Experiences.

funerals were meaningful,
A Burial at Ornans by Gustave Courbet. CCJoe Macleod. Closure Experiences.

heaven was an
attractive reward.
Belshazzar’s Feast. John MartinJoe Macleod. Closure Experiences.

Plague arrived
Antonis MilanosJoe Macleod. Closure Experiences.

Meaningless death
Scène de la peste de 1720 à la Tourette by Michel SerreJoe Macleod. Closure Experiences.

Miss-managed
Raphael's Portrait of Leo X with cardinals Giulio de' MediciJoe Macleod. Closure Experiences.
Hacking access with indulgences

Protestent uprising
Scène de la peste de 1720 à la Tourette by Michel SerreJoe Macleod. Closure Experiences.
Day of reckoning

Work in the eyes of God
Joe Macleod. Closure Experiences. Eisenwalzwerk. Adolph Menzel

Re-invest in the eyes of God

Increased wages
Joe Macleod. Closure Experiences. CWD Negative Collection, Orange & District Historical Society
work less? buy more?

Medicine learnt to
control death,
Portrait of Dr. Samuel D. Gross.Thomas EakinsJoe Macleod. Closure Experiences.

and hid it away.
Gross Clinic on display at the Army Post HospitalJoe Macleod. Closure Experiences.

Consume
Heaven on Earth
without end
Joe Macleod. Closure Experiences. American Abundance for allVintage ad Wheaties sweepstakes 1958

Death gave birth to
Heaven
Work was un-Godly
Death was an expected
part of life
Heaven is abundant
on Earth
Work and
investment Godly.
Death is hidden
from life
So…

Closure changed…
Closure had value
and a vocabulary
Closure is hidden,
overlooked and
unwanted

The Psychological
Impact of Closure

Ernest Becker
Denial of Death
Terror
Management
Theory
“most human action is taken to ignore
or avoid the inevitability of death”

Terror
Management
Theory
We are all in denial
that things end.

Terror Management Theory
Kasser and Sheldon
2000
Researchers attempted to
connect consumption to
Liberation. M.C. Escher 1955Joe Macleod. Closure Experiences.

Kasser and Sheldon
2000
“suggested that concerns
about mortality, although sub-
conscious, strongly influence
our behaviour and aspirations
about material goods and
economic status”

Kasser and Sheldon
2000
“suggested that concerns
about mortality, although sub-
conscious, strongly influence
our behaviour and aspirations
about material goods and
economic status”
this impacts our relationship
with consumption

Role Exit
Helen Rose Fuchs Ebaugh
1988
“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.”

Role Exit
First doubts
cuing
behaviour
• Organisational changes
• Burnout
• Changes in relationships
• Events
assess following
situations
seeking out individuals
who will reinforce doubts
re-evaluation of the situation
and temporary halting of the
doubting process
negative interpretation
of subsequent events
agreement
of others
reinforcement of
doubts
Seek
alternatives

Closure is started with
a doubt
Role Exit

Closure in the
Service Landscape

Government
The only service your born into.
Petr Kratochvil. CCJoe Macleod. Closure Experiences.
To leave; vote, move or die

By English: Gerry J. Gilmore [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsJoe Macleod. Closure Experiences.
Nuclear deterrent
UK spends £205 Billion on Trident
“A nuclear weapon must be always at the
ready, yet never used” Bernard Brodie
Never ending story
Multi-billion £ oxymoron

By English: Gerry J. Gilmore [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsJoe Macleod. Closure Experiences.
Divorce
Never ending story
£205 Billion
Divorce rates doubled between 1970
(58,239) and 1980 (148,301)
Marriage/Divorce
Marriage ended by husband
by saying “Talaq" 3 times
5 reasons considered
grounds for divorce in UK
1. Adultery,
2. Un-reasonable behaviour,
3. Desertion,
4. Lived apart for 2 years and agreed to
get divorced
5. Lived apart for 5 years without
agreement
UK Government
Divorce with
Blame
Immediate
Divorce
JanVan Eyck.Arnolﬁni Wedding Portrait
Russian revolution in 1918.
• Helped people leave abusive
relationships.
• Lowered the incidents of wives
committing suicide by 8-16%
• 30% decrease in domestic
violence
Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers
No Fault
Divorce
• 1 in 11 Muslim women are
survivors of triple Talaq
• Vast majority receiving no
compensation.
Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA)

Thad Zajdowicz. CCJoe Macleod. Closure Experiences.
Credit cards
US household debt as of Q1
2016, is $132,086
www.nerdwallet.com
Credit cards US average $15,310
Consumer rewarded for more debt.
Never rewarded for paying back.
Gaming debt.
Not celebrating
good debt payers.

Switch Guarantee
Energy industryFinancial industry
“people change their bank accounts, on average, every 26 years”
“75% of personal current account holders have never switched, with nearly 1 in 5
saying this was because of the hassle and potential risks.”
Current Account Switch Service will let
consumers safely and reliably switch their
accounts between banks in 7 days. Sept 2013
Independent Commission on Banking Report
(a) 36% did not think it was possible to change one or more of the following:
tariﬀ, payment, method and supplier.
(b) 34% said they had never considered switching supplier.
(c) 56% said they had never switched supplier, did not know it was possible or
did not know if they had done so.
Competition and Markets Authority
Energy Switch Guarantee is a commitment
that promises a speedy and safe switch from
one energy provider to another. June 2016
Big industry ﬁnd it hard to create endings.
So watchdogs have to do it for them.

Gyms
Attrition rate of gyms 30-50%.
Even the best gyms are losing 30% each year
www.ptdirect.com
2 in 5 people had trouble canceling contracts.
1 in 4 people had a notice period over 1 month.
1 in 5 found they couldn't leave due to being
tied in for minimum term.
which.co.uk
Gyms deny endings
with contract lock-ins.
Opportunity to create a best in class Closure
Experience - celebrate the ending.

Ofﬁce of War Information Photograph Collection . CCJoe Macleod. Closure Experiences.
UK Financial
Ombudsman
Negotiate settlements between
customers and companies in UK
2009 considered 127,000 cases.
In 2014 this leapt to 512,000
£13.4bn cumulative payouts mis-
selling PPI UK

Cultural bias towards On-Boarding
Users trapped in contracts
Business fail to create closure
Oﬀ-Boarding lengthy, legal and hidden
Services

As an industry,
services don't do endings well.

A good
Closure Experience
will be…

Consciously Connected to the
rest of the experience through
Emotional Triggers that are
Actionable by the user in a
Timely manner.
A good Closure Experience will be…

Consciously Connected
Closure is Consciously Connected to the rest of the
experience through Emotional Triggers that are
Actionable by the user in a Timely manner.

Canon fail to link the
starting experience, and
the closure experience -
despite having all the bits.
Nearly 500ml of
redundant space in
Canon packaging.
A printer pioneer, having
operated a cartridge
recycling program since
1990.
Users don’t understand
what ‘benzisothiazol’
means and therefore can’t
action anything about it.
On-Boarding Oﬀ-Boarding
Fill in form, sign
T&Cs - 2300
words.
Usage
Canon Ink Cartridge

Sales interviews
The conversation is a ‘sales opportunity’
Sky requires the customer to have a 1 hour phone
call if they want to leave
Gavin Hackwood from UK. Attempted to leave
Sky. After 90 minute call his request was denied.

Pensions
Pensions need to connect
a Starting experience and
a Closure experience over
decades.
1 in 4 of these pension
pots goes missing through
lack of contact.
Age Concern
Average of 11 employers in
our lifetime.
Department for Work and
Pensions UK
20s 65s40 years of v i s i b i l i t y
lifespan

Emotional Triggers

Marie Kondo Tidying Technique
New York Times
Questioning: does a product
‘bring you joy?’ helps the owner
understand the meaning if
ownership and responsibility.
Encourages
emotional endings
with the clutter in
your home
‘Goodbye, and thank you for
teaching me what doesn’t suit
me’

Actionable

HTC One Mini Packaging
Some packaging
mis-places closure
Starting experiences wrapped
up as long term responsibility
Closure experience overlooked
as important or actionable

Carbon off-setting
on flights. As part
of the customer
lifecycle worked.
Carbon off-setting for flights was part
of the customer purchase lifecycle.
Sadly it has moved into the
background, and airlines do it as part
of their Social Responsibility.
Carbon off-setting
for your flight
A perfect moment to ask
about a Closure Experience

Timely

A commitment
to the perceived
lifetime of the
product
CCO by Ryan Stone
Traditional approaches
of warranty aim to
reassure against failures
in the product. KIA aims
to deliver assurance to
the lifetime of the
product.
Kia
KIA 7 year
warranty
disrupted the
market when it
ﬁrst launched.

Mortgages
Jameslwoodward
There should be a period of
reﬂection and celebration.30 years of
payback shouldn't
end in a moment
Sadly debt is only celebrated, when more debt is added.
Paying oﬀ debt is not celebrated,
avoiding a Closure experience for the user.

DNR. Do Not Resuscitate
Jameslwoodward
Occasionally resuscitation takes place
despite the existence of a DNR. Prompting
many elderly people to get their ﬁrst tattoo.
DNR is over
burdened as an
interface.
A DNR document is a humble A4 piece of
paper that informs medical staﬀ about the
life and death intentions of the user.

Closure Experiences
Consequences
Transaction types
Key moments
1. 2.
3.
Customer lifecycle

65
Consequences
Rebirth Reﬂection Rest
Released to take part in
another experience
Look back at a
wonderful experience
Provides an
opportunity to rest, a
moment of peace
Closure Experience will bring about
Resentment
I could have made more
of that opportunity
Regret
I feel cheated, and its
someones fault.
Desirable Avoidable
3.

66
Closure Experiences
There are 5 main types of closure
experiences the user has with Services.
Time out Credit out
Task/Event
completion Withdrawal Lingering
2 week holiday, 3 year
degree, 1 year
software subscription,
Pay As You Go,
Points on your
driving license
Parcel delivered, boiler
ﬁxed, car serviced,
concert watched,
operation successful,
money transferred
Break the contract,
leave the ﬁlm early, end
the relationship,
A pension that you no
longer pay into. An
unused gym
membership
2 3 4 51
2.

67
Transaction types
Payment after
delivery
Payment
before delivery
Scheduled
payment Synchronous
Continuous
observation
restaurants, plumbers,
hairdressers, taxis
ﬂights, trains, music
concert
gym membership, car
insurance, utility
payments
digitised services, pay-
as-you-go,
commissioned services
Google Maps,
Facebook, phone
manufactures, carriers
The Transaction type establishes the relationship for the rest of the
service delivery and therefore characterises the Closure Experience.
2 3 4 51
1.

Balancethe l i f e c y c l e

value death, in life.

for every start,

design an end

every emotional

deserves
a

grateful

GoodbyeJoe Macleod. @mrmacleod. @ClosureExp www.closureexperiences.com

Closure in services, presented at Livework Insights

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