Why the Peak-End Rule Shapes Customer Experience

In a recent LinkedIn post, Niluka Kavanagh discusses how people remember experiences and why those memories can shape customer relationships. This article covers Kavanagh’s LinkedIn post and examines the idea she presents: people may recall an experience chiefly through its most intense moment and its ending.

“Typically, we do not remember every moment of any one experience.”

Memory gives some moments more weight

Kavanagh argues that people cannot retain every detail of daily life, so much of an experience recedes from memory. She illustrates the point with a familiar errand: a routine supermarket visit may be hard to recall, while an unusual or emotionally charged moment stands out. As Kavanagh asks, “Do you remember your last supermarket trip? Or do you remember the one where there was a toddler having a tantrum in the milk aisle?”

Her post connects this pattern to the peak-end rule, which she describes as the tendency to remember an experience through its most intense point and how it concluded. Kavanagh says this can affect judgments of meetings, workplace relationships, social encounters and dates. In her view, the rule offers a useful lens for considering how people assess interactions after they are over.

Applying the idea to customer experience

Kavanagh points out that the same principle matters in business, particularly when companies decide which parts of a customer journey deserve attention. Her argument is that every moment need not be flawless if a business deliberately creates a memorable high point and gives care to the close.

“Instead make sure you design for at least one high point and protect the ending at all costs.”

That recommendation shifts the focus from uniform perfection to the moments most likely to shape a customer’s recollection. According to Kavanagh, businesses can use the peak-end rule to think about where a service experience feels especially valuable, and whether its final interaction leaves customers with a positive impression.

Why the ending matters

Kavanagh’s post emphasizes protecting the ending because the final moments can become part of the summary people carry away. The implication of her advice is practical: organizations can review customer touchpoints for both standout moments and the way an interaction wraps up. A thoughtful conclusion may reinforce a strong experience, while a poor one could color the memory of what came before.

Kavanagh also directs readers to a full video accompanying the post. Her central point, however, is concise: customer experience design can account for how people remember, rather than aiming to make every second equally memorable. The post presents the peak-end rule as a way to prioritize moments that may have an outsized role in how customers later describe their experience.