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The Peak End Rule is one of many online persuasion techniques you can use to exceed your online goals. The rule:

We judge our experiences almost entirely on
1) their peak, and
2) how they ended”

The Peak End Rule is part of the ‘Choice Architecture‘ category in the Wheel of Persuasion (soon to be released, Beta invites here). In this post I’ll show you how you can use the Peak End Rule to boost your online kpi’s and provide customers a memorable user experience… You’ll find 5 practical tips on how to apply this persuasion technique in order to create more online profit, more enthusiastic customers, or other online objectives …

The Peak End rule learns us that, when we (people) remember an experience, we judge this experience almost entirely on how it was at it’s peak (pleasant or unpleasant) and how it ended. Other information, while not lost, is not used in the qualitative memory of the event.

A  painfully effective technique…

In a study with real patients, these patients underwent a colonoscopy (a painful medical procedure): In patient A, the pain was shorter, but heavier. Patient B underwent the same kind of pain, but with 2 differences: B had no heavy peak, but was much longer hurt. Therefore Patient B reported more pain than A during the procedure.

- So much for “experience.” Now the ‘memory of the experience’ -

Persuasion Peak end rule by Dan Ariely

When A and B (days later) were asked how they remembered their colonoscopy experience (“How bad was it?”), their memory was reverse from the experience itself. Patient A reminded the surgery as more painful than patient B…

=> A typical example of the Peak End Rule: “The climax and the end, determine how  you remember an experience”

See, here you have a painfully effective persuasion technique to improve your online return (for more background info, check out 2 of my absolute guru’s Daniel Kahneman on TED and Dan Ariely on TED)

So, here’s my happy peak-end…

5 Persuasion Tips (‘The Peak-End Rule applied’):

To ensure that your customers and prospects come back more often and recommend you to all their friends and relatives, you want them to remember your online dialogue as really positive. The Peak End Rule learns us that it is therefore important that we enrich our online dialogues with a climax and a great happy ending:

1. Collect your ‘enlighting moments‘ from your sales dialogue and bring them together in one happy climax (instead of dispersing them throughout the customer journey)
2. If possible: make sure that this happy climax is at the end of your sales dialogue (a happy ending climax!)
3. Next, map all your service dialogues, micro-conversions, and other “exit points” of your online dialogues
4. And create little happy climaxes there too
5. Use tempting happy making extras like the good old ‘unexpected gift on your thank you page!’ Or specific extra’s such as unlocking badges or access to exclusive content, games or apps…

Happy persuading!
Br, Bart

p.s. Anyone experience with applying this technique (online)?

Peak End Rule in het Wheel-of-Persuasion.com

Bart Schutz, is CPO (Chief Persuasion Officer) at Online Dialogue. He combines his knowledge of psychology,  marketing and the measurable internet to understand online consumer behavior and draw operational lessons from them. Together with the “Persuasion knowledge circle” that Bart founded, he is creating the “Wheel of Persuasion“, the online persuasion techniques aggregator.

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About the author

Bart Schutz
I am an online persuasion expert. As economic psychologist, neuroscience enthousiast, internet strategist and conversion booster, I inspire, advise and assist large companies with optimizing the ROI of their online dialogues.

I am happy to be managing partner at Online Dialogue.
Feel free to contact me:

• LinkedIn
• bart.schutz@onlinedialogue.com
• Twitter: BartS

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