They Had the Same 8 Steps. One Group Was Far More Likely to Finish.
A car wash handed customers one of two loyalty cards. The first required eight car washes to earn a free wash. The second required ten, with 2 stamps already filled in.
19% of customers who started with an empty 8 stamp card completed it.
34% of customers who received the partially completed 10 stamp card did.
Same eight purchases. Same reward. Almost twice the completion rate.
Why?
There is a meaningful difference between telling someone, “Here are the eight things you need to do” and telling them, “You’ve already completed two of the ten steps.”
The researchers ((input study here)) called it the endowed progress effect. Starting people with perceived progress toward a goal made them more likely to finish it. (P.S. You’re already 1/3 of the way through this article.)
The head start didn't actually make the task any easier. It changed how far along people felt. And it wasn't simply that people didn't want to waste their two free stamps. The researchers conducted additional experiments suggesting that what mattered was the perception that the task was already underway.
So how many of the experiences we design unnecessarily start people at zero? There is plenty of legitimate progress that businesses simply don't bother to count. A software customer may have already created an account, supplied information and imported data before reaching the onboarding dashboard. Why hand that customer an empty progress bar? A hospital adopting a new medical technology may arrive at the formal implementation kickoff having already completed several required steps. Perhaps the implementation team has been identified, site information submitted, and technical requirements reviewed. Instead of presenting the customer with an empty implementation checklist, the vendor could begin with those steps already checked off. Those aren't just preliminaries. They're completed steps. We tend to present all of this as preparation for the journey. Maybe we should start calling it progress.
Bottom Line: For marketers, that suggests an intriguing shift in perspective: perhaps getting someone to buy, subscribe, complete, or buy-again isn't only about making the reward more attractive. Sometimes the difference isn't the incentive. It's the perception that we're already underway.
Sources
Nunes, J. C., & Drèze, X. (2006). The endowed progress effect: How artificial advancement increases effort. Journal of Consumer Research, 32(4), 504–512.