Passive measuring is at best informative. It will go some way to improving business activity, but it will fail to achieve the deep behaviour shift we need to challenge climate change. The producer - consumer relationship needs to aspire to more. It needs bonding throughout an emotional consumer lifecycle. That achieves change and concludes the product end-of-life with producer - consumer collaboration. Scope 3 is a start for businesses to consider emotional consumer endings.

Amongst GDPR protective intent is a wealth of endings. It requires, expects and encourages endings to happen for consumer data. How this happens though is to be designed and delivered by service providers. Yet many providers care little about this aspect of the consumer lifecycle and overlook its importance to the brand and long term perception of a company.

Has Cambridge Analytica exposed Facebook to a metaphorical revenge porn experience? With no way to regain assets outside of their boundaries; drawing a parallel with thousands of victims around the world who have lost control of data, though a system that endlessly tells us to share, and fails to create ends.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)  states that “Consent must be clear and distinguishable from other matters and provided in an intelligible and easily accessible form, using clear and plain language”. This promises to be a vast improvement on the current consumer experience! A far more notable, and some would say, controversial aspect of the legislation is the expectation that it must be “as easy to withdraw consent as it is to give it”. This suggests that it provides an effective method for consumers to off-board and end their service relationship.

Businesses may panic about their data centres, customer service scripts and marketing, but quietly overlook the ending of the process. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is coming, but few businesses will be thinking about why a ‘proper goodbye’ matters. They should because, there are going to be a lot more consumers leaving services this year, empowered by GDPR. 

As the Black Friday narrative of “Consume More!” comes and goes again, it predictably ignites the counterpoint argument in many of us concerned about the pace of human consumption.

Reading articles along this theme, I am mixed with emotions of encouragement — that we are dealing with the problems of over consumption, and concern that we use the same tired story of guilt, bad big business and systematic failure. Its not that these arguments are wrong, its just they are not part of the consumer’s experience. The real failing is that the consumer experience is an incomplete story. And until the story has an emotional ending, this is not going to change.

“Apple reserves the right to disband a Family in accordance with the “Termination” section of this Agreement.“ 

I found this example so funny, I wanted to make a kids t-shirt out of it. I hoped people would take a second look at the t-shirt on the beach while my kids wore it on their summer holidays. Maybe it would strike up a conversation. Maybe they would think about what it said. Maybe they wouldn’t look, and carry on, like we do when we tick Ts&Cs.

The point of the game is to get through as many cards in a meeting as possible without being found out that you are playing the game and with somewhat of your corporate ‘Humanness' intact.

I have been spending a lot of time researching and writing the Closure Experiences book. Which has been incredibly interesting and I cant wait to share it with you next year. The one aspect which I would love your help with is a title.

I have built a quick multiple choice form to get your thoughts on a few ideas. Even write one in of your own.

This short video provides an outline to Closure Experiences. It explains briefly the customer lifecycle and how this is being effected by a lack of Closure in Services, Digital and Product businesses. 

I don’t tend to punch guests as they leave the party, but some companies do the metaphorical equivalent. Not saying goodbye graciously can create a terrible reputation with your customers, and party goers. Now, I could drag up the usual suspects of big old corporations that fail to create amicable endings with their customers but I want to talk about start-ups, and the tech industry, who are sadly drifting down the path of short-termism that we usually associate with the financial services industry.