Marginally Better

The Gym: Paying Not to GoDellaVigna & 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)Full working-paper PDF (UC Berkeley)Loyalty Programs: The Forgotten MemberBond Brand Loyalty — The Loyalty Report 2023 (U.S. consumers belong to ~18 programs, active in about half)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)The Design Principle: Perpetual IntermediatesAlan Cooper, About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design — most users are “perpetual intermediates”; interfaces neglect the majority in the middleThe Office Ribbon: Jensen HarrisJensen Harris, “The Story of the Ribbon” (Microsoft Learn archive of his Office UI blog)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)“The Most Frequently Used Features in Microsoft Office” — summary of Harris’s Word 2003 command dataHarvard Business Review, “Why Microsoft Had to Destroy Word” (2009) — customers kept requesting features Office already had, just buried; the Ribbon was built to surface themProduct MentionedWebsite Reality Check — Johns & Taylor Services

The Research: Why Perfect Doesn’t SellNorthwestern 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”)PowerReviews & Northwestern’s Spiegel Research Center — Five-Star Product Ratings Are “Too Good to Be True”PowerReviews — How Fake Reviews Destroy Consumer Trust (only 6% of shoppers say a perfect 5.0 is ideal)The Trust CrisisPangram Labs — Three Percent of Front-Page Amazon Reviews Are AI-GeneratedBazaarvoice — Shopper Experience Index 2025 (authenticity as the top shopping frustration)The LawFTC — Final Rule Banning Fake Reviews and Testimonials (August 2024)The Fashion Nova CaseFTC — Fashion Nova Will Pay $4.2 Million to Settle Allegations It Blocked Negative Reviews (January 2022)FTC — Finalizes Order with Fashion Nova Over Blocked Reviews (March 2022)FTC — Sends Refunds to Consumers Affected by Fashion Nova’s Deceptive Review Practices (January 2025)The Amazon Origin StoryInc. — 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)Product MentionedExperience Helpdesk

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 Fast Company - CX scores hit a low, Forrester reports Sonos app redesign timeline Sonos warns of app remediation costs Baymard Institute - 49 Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics J.C. Penney’s “Fair and Square” Pricing Strategy  Understanding J.C. Penney’s Risky New Pricing Strategy  Was Ron Johnson right?  NPR — His Makeover Strategy In Shambles, J.C. Penney CEO Ron Johnson Is Out  J.C. Penney CEO Ron Johnson out after troubled tenure 5 Critical Errors That Triggered Ron Johnson’s Removal at JC Penney Washington Post — J.C. Penney files for bankruptcy (May 15 2020) Domino’s CEO Patrick Doyle: Tech with a side of pizza (Kai Ryssdal interview, Sep 25 2015) Restaurant Business Online — How Patrick Doyle changed Domino’s, and the restaurant industry J. Patrick Doyle (career summary, with cited sources)