Member-only story
How to make unhappy customers happier and happy customers happy x2
We all know that an unhappy customer would steal 10 more people from you. It’s a fact and nothing can be done about it, right? Wrong!
In December 2002 Daniel Kahneman, Donald A. Redelmeier and Joel Katz from University of Toronto ran an interesting experiment. They tried to measure how bad were the memories of people who went through one of the most unpleasant procedures — colonoscopy. They actually had one theory in mind, and colonoscopy memorability was just a peculiar way to prove it right or wrong. The results were stunning.
It turned out the level of unhappiness or how bad the memories were correlated with the length of the procedure. And no, patients who had it tough but fast did not have better memories — surprisingly, it was all the way around. The shorter the procedure — the worse were the memories about it. When those who had it longer had actually better memories and were more inclined to repeat the experience. How was that possible?
Quite simple. As scientists explained it, it has a lot to do with primacy and recency biases. Our brian tends to remember the first thing in a row and the last thing in a row much better than anything in between. Therefore, if negative experiences happen…
