The Hidden Cost of Disengagement

The Onboarding Opportunity

The Cost of a Bad First Window * Fenergo — “Global Financial Institutions Struggle with Rising Client Losses and Compliance Costs as AI Adoption Increases” (2025 survey of 600 senior decision-makers; 70% lost clients to slow onboarding, up from 67% in 2024 and 48% in 2023; onboarding abandonment averaging ~10%; U.K. corporate banks averaging 6+ weeks) [https://resources.fenergo.com/newsroom/global-financial-institutions-struggle-with-rising-client-losses-and-compliance-costs-as-ai-adoption-increases-fenergo] * Crowdfund Insider — “Global Financial Institutions Are Losing Clients Due To Inefficient Digital Onboarding Processes: Fenergo” (Oct. 9, 2025) [https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2025/10/254227-global-financial-institutions-are-losing-clients-due-to-inefficient-digital-onboarding-processes-fenergo/] * FinTech Global — “70% of banks lose clients due to slow onboarding” (Oct. 8, 2025) [https://fintech.global/2025/10/08/70-of-banks-lose-clients-due-to-slow-onboarding/] * OnRamp — “2026 State of Customer Onboarding: Key Findings from 161 Leaders” (Feb. 2026; companies that cut onboarding investment mostly saw churn rise within six months; 57% tie friction to revenue) [https://onramp.us/blog/2026-state-of-onboarding-report] * Business of Apps — App Retention Rates data (average app loses ~three-quarters of users within days; 30-day retention in the low single digits) [https://www.businessofapps.com/data/app-retention-rates/] The Feature: Slack’s “Magic Number” * First Round Review — “From 0 to $1B: Slack’s Founder Shares Their Epic Launch Strategy,” featuring Stewart Butterfield (Feb. 27, 2015; 8,000 invite requests day one and 15,000 in two weeks; more than 90% of teams that sign up never invite anyone or start using it; the 2,000-message threshold — “any team that has exchanged 2,000 messages… has tried Slack — really tried it… after 2,000 messages, 93% of those customers are still using Slack”; find your own “magic number” and engineer onboarding toward it) [https://review.firstround.com/from-0-to-1b-slacks-founder-shares-their-epic-launch-strategy/] The Counterweight: Super Mario Bros. World 1–1 * Game Developer (Gamasutra) — “How Miyamoto built Super Mario Bros.’ legendary World 1–1” (Sept. 8, 2015; World 1–1 as wordless tutorial; “learning through play”; “it becomes their game”) [https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/how-miyamoto-built-i-super-mario-bros-i-legendary-world-1-1] * Wikipedia — “World 1–1” (design breakdown: the opening Goomba as low-cost first lesson, the coin as reward, pipes of rising height teaching variable jump, pits with floors; sourced to Miyamoto’s 2015 Eurogamer interview and 1UP.com) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_1-1] Product Mentioned * Website Reality Check — Johns & Taylor [https://johnsandtaylor.com/services/website-roadmapping/]

The Forgotten Middle

The Gym: Paying Not to Go * DellaVigna & Malmendier, “Paying Not to Go to the Gym,” American Economic Review 96(3), 2006, pp. 694–719 (members on flat monthly contracts averaged ~4.3 visits/month, >$17 per visit vs. a $10 ten-visit pass; monthly members slower to cancel than annual) [https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257%2Faer.96.3.694] * Full working-paper PDF (UC Berkeley) [https://eml.berkeley.edu/~sdellavi/wp/gymempAER.pdf] Loyalty Programs: The Forgotten Member * Bond Brand Loyalty — The Loyalty Report 2023 (U.S. consumers belong to ~18 programs, active in about half) [https://info.bondbrandloyalty.com/growth-of-customer-loyalty-strategies-raises-bar-on-innovation] * McKinsey — “Next in loyalty: Eight levers to turn customers into fans” (programs built around top-tier customers; active members spend ~10% more, redeemers ~25% more than inactive) [https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/next-in-loyalty-eight-levers-to-turn-customers-into-fans] The Design Principle: Perpetual Intermediates * Alan Cooper, About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design — most users are “perpetual intermediates”; interfaces neglect the majority in the middle [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23597064-about-face] The Office Ribbon: Jensen Harris * Jensen Harris, “The Story of the Ribbon” (Microsoft Learn archive of his Office UI blog) [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/jensenh/the-story-of-the-ribbon] * Jensen Harris, “No Distaste for Paste (Why the UI, Part 7)” — command-usage data from the Customer Experience Improvement Program (Paste ~11%; top 5 commands ~32% of all usage in Word) [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/jensenh/no-distaste-for-paste-why-the-ui-part-7] * “The Most Frequently Used Features in Microsoft Office” — summary of Harris’s Word 2003 command data [http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/02/most-frequently-used-features-in.html] * Harvard Business Review, “Why Microsoft Had to Destroy Word” (2009) — customers kept requesting features Office already had, just buried; the Ribbon was built to surface them [https://hbr.org/2009/06/why-microsoft-had-to-destroy-w] Product Mentioned * Website Reality Check — Johns & Taylor Services [https://websiterealitycheck.com]

The Review Revolution Reversal

The Research: Why Perfect Doesn’t Sell * Northwestern University Medill Spiegel Research Center — How Online Reviews Influence Sales (purchase likelihood peaks at 4.0–4.7 stars; “five stars is too good to be true”) [https://spiegel.medill.northwestern.edu/how-online-reviews-influence-sales/] * PowerReviews & Northwestern’s Spiegel Research Center — Five-Star Product Ratings Are “Too Good to Be True” [https://www.powerreviews.com/powerreviews-partners-with-northwestern/] * PowerReviews — How Fake Reviews Destroy Consumer Trust (only 6% of shoppers say a perfect 5.0 is ideal) [https://www.powerreviews.com/research/how-fake-reviews-destroy-consumer-trust/] The Trust Crisis * Pangram Labs — Three Percent of Front-Page Amazon Reviews Are AI-Generated [https://www.pangram.com/blog/ai-amazon-reviews] * Bazaarvoice — Shopper Experience Index 2025 (authenticity as the top shopping frustration) [https://www.bazaarvoice.com/press/bazaarvoice-shopper-experience-index-2025-as-ai-search-grows-in-popularity-ratings-and-reviews-feed-llms/] The Law * FTC — Final Rule Banning Fake Reviews and Testimonials (August 2024) [https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/08/federal-trade-commission-announces-final-rule-banning-fake-reviews-testimonials] The Fashion Nova Case * FTC — Fashion Nova Will Pay $4.2 Million to Settle Allegations It Blocked Negative Reviews (January 2022) [https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/01/fashion-nova-will-pay-42-million-part-settlement-ftc-allegations-it-blocked-negative-reviews] * FTC — Finalizes Order with Fashion Nova Over Blocked Reviews (March 2022) [https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/03/ftc-finalizes-order-fashion-nova-over-allegations-it-blocked-negative-reviews] * FTC — Sends Refunds to Consumers Affected by Fashion Nova’s Deceptive Review Practices (January 2025) [https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/01/ftc-sends-refunds-consumers-affected-fashion-novas-deceptive-review-practices] The Amazon Origin Story * Inc. — Jeff Bezos on why Amazon allowed negative reviews: “we make money when we help customers make purchase decisions” (quoting John Rossman’s Think Like Amazon) [https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/jeff-bezos-says-1-thing-separates-successful-people-from-everyone-else-and-will-keep-you-from-giving-up-on-your-dreams-too-soon.html] Product Mentioned * Experience Helpdesk [https://experiencehelpdesk.com/]

The Hidden Cost of Disengagement

The Cost of Disengagement * Gallup — The World’s $8.8 Trillion Workplace Problem (State of the Global Workplace) [https://www.gallup.com/workplace/393497/world-trillion-workplace-problem.aspx] Employee Experience Drives Customer Experience * Glassdoor Research — The Link Between Glassdoor Reviews and Customer Satisfaction (Chamberlain & Zhao) [https://www.glassdoor.com/research/employee-customer-satisfaction/] * Harvard Business Review — Engaged Employees Create Better Customer Experiences (April 2023) [https://hbr.org/2023/04/engaged-employees-create-better-customer-experiences] * Harvard Business Review Analytic Services — The Impact of Employee Engagement on Customer Experience (report PDF) [https://hbr.org/resources/pdfs/comm/achievers/hbr_achievers_report_sep13.pdf] Costco Case Study * CFO Dive — Costco raises minimum hourly wage to $19.50 [https://www.cfodive.com/news/costco-raises-minimum-hourly-wage-20-compensation/742075/] * Macrotrends — Costco (COST) Market Cap [https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/COST/costco/market-cap] * The Motley Fool — Jim Sinegal on Costco’s “Promote From Within” Strategy [https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/06/21/jim-sinegal-on-costcos-promote-from-within-strateg.aspx] * Yahoo Finance — Nine Out of Ten Costco Members Renew [https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nine-ten-costco-members-renew-134101228.html] * A-Z Quotes — James Sinegal: “When employees are happy, they are your very best ambassadors” [https://www.azquotes.com/author/13642-James_Sinegal] Products Mentioned * Experience Helpdesk [https://experiencehelpdesk.com/] * Website Reality Check [https://johnsandtaylor.com/website-reality-check/]

The True Cost of Bad Customer Experience

What do a billion-dollar retail collapse, a broken app, and an abandoned shopping cart have in common? They’re all part of the same hidden bill, and most companies don’t realize they’re paying it until it’s too late.    In this episode of Marginally Better, Joe Taylor, Jr. breaks down the true cost of bad customer experience. Not as isolated mistakes, but as a slow, compounding erosion of trust that quietly drains revenue, loyalty, and brand value. From JCPenney’s infamous pricing overhaul to Domino’s brutally honest turnaround, this episode reveals a simple truth: the most expensive decisions businesses make are often the ones they never test—and the ones their customers never forgive.  Episode Links: * Forrester: US Customer Experience Index 2024 — A Quality Crisis [https://www.forrester.com/press-newsroom/forrester-2024-us-customer-experience-index/]  * Fast Company - CX scores hit a low, Forrester reports [https://www.forrester.com/blogs/us-cx-index-2024-results/]  * Sonos app redesign timeline [https://www.macrumors.com/2025/01/13/sonos-ceo-steps-down-after-app-redesign/]  * Sonos warns of app remediation costs [https://www.fastcompany.com/91259432/sonos-ceo-steps-down-following-a-disastrous-app-redesign]  * Baymard Institute - 49 Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics [https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate]  * J.C. Penney’s “Fair and Square” Pricing Strategy [https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=43132]  * Understanding J.C. Penney’s Risky New Pricing Strategy [https://hbr.org/2012/01/understanding-jc-penneys-risky]  * Was Ron Johnson right? [https://www.retaildive.com/news/was-ron-johnson-right/414481/]  * NPR — His Makeover Strategy In Shambles, J.C. Penney CEO Ron Johnson Is Out [https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/04/08/176605624/his-makeover-strategy-in-shambles-j-c-penney-ceo-ron-johnson-is-out]  * J.C. Penney CEO Ron Johnson out after troubled tenure [https://money.cnn.com/2013/04/08/investing/ron-johnson-jc-penney/index.html]  * 5 Critical Errors That Triggered Ron Johnson’s Removal at JC Penney [https://chiefexecutive.net/5-critical-errors-that-triggered-ron-johnsons-removal-at-jc-penney/]  * Washington Post — J.C. Penney files for bankruptcy (May 15 2020) [https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/05/15/jc-penney-bankruptcy-chapter-11/]  * Domino’s CEO Patrick Doyle: Tech with a side of pizza (Kai Ryssdal interview, Sep 25 2015) [https://www.marketplace.org/story/2015/09/24/dominos-ceo-patrick-doyle-tech-side-pizza]  * Restaurant Business Online — How Patrick Doyle changed Domino’s, and the restaurant industry [https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/leadership/how-patrick-doyle-changed-dominos-restaurant-industry]  * J. Patrick Doyle (career summary, with cited sources) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Patrick_Doyle]  *