Evaluating
Endowed Progress Effect
Customers show increased motivation and engagement when provided with initial progress toward achieving a reward, significantly accelerating their journey completion and enhancing satisfaction.
For Example
Starbucks effectively leverages endowed progress by offering customers bonus "stars" immediately upon joining their loyalty program. This initial progress significantly accelerates customer visits, loyalty program participation, and emotional engagement with the brand.
Similar Biases
Similar biases: Goal Gradient Effect, Zeigarnik Effect, Commitment Bias Opposing biases: Status Quo Bias, Omission Bias, Procrastination Bias
We tend to remember tasks and goals that are not completed.
The Endowed Progress Effect describes a cognitive bias wherein customers invest greater effort and become significantly more engaged when provided with artificial advancement toward a goal from the outset. Even if initial progress is symbolic or trivial, customers perceive themselves closer to the finish line, dramatically accelerating their commitment and efforts toward goal completion. In Customer Experience (CX), brands leverage this effect by clearly providing initial “head starts” in loyalty programs, onboarding journeys, or product usage. Examples include offering bonus points upon sign-up, partially pre-filled reward cards, or immediate acknowledgment of progress. Effectively implementing endowed progress significantly boosts customer motivation, satisfaction, and emotional connection. However, brands must ethically and transparently communicate endowed progress to maintain customer trust and avoid perceptions of manipulation.
Car Wash Loyalty Card Experiment (Nunes & Drèze, 2006)
Researchers gave customers car wash loyalty cards either blank or with two stamps already filled in. Although both groups required the same number of future visits for rewards, customers with pre-filled cards significantly increased their visit frequency, demonstrating enhanced motivation due to endowed progress. Meaning for CX: Brands effectively employing endowed progress by visibly marking initial progress significantly increase customer motivation, engagement frequency, and positive emotional connections.
Coffee Shop Loyalty Cards (Nunes & Drèze, 2006)
Customers given loyalty cards with immediate initial progress (e.g., "two stamps out of ten already filled") significantly accelerated their purchase behaviors, completing the cards faster than customers with no initial stamps. Endowed progress clearly enhanced motivation and behavioral momentum. Meaning for CX: Strategically providing immediate initial rewards or progress significantly accelerates customers' actions toward rewards, increasing satisfaction and engagement.
Fitness Program Enrollment (Kivetz et al., 2006)
Participants enrolling in fitness programs showed significantly increased motivation when initial milestones were visibly credited ("You have already completed step 1"). Customers were far more engaged, significantly accelerating subsequent effort and participation. Meaning for CX: Brands strategically using visible initial progress milestones significantly enhance customer engagement, goal completion, and emotional satisfaction in ongoing interactions or loyalty programs.
Reduce Initial Resistance with Immediate Rewards
Ease Customer Entry
Early-stage customers often hesitate to initiate efforts. Brands offering immediate endowed progress (initial discounts, free trials, or instant points) significantly reduce initial customer inertia, enhancing motivation and emotional commitment. Dropbox clearly gives immediate free storage upon sign-up, significantly accelerating initial engagement.
Accelerate Engagement with Visible Progress
Activate Immediate Interest
Providing clear visual markers of immediate progress significantly enhances customer excitement and brand awareness. Brands showing early-stage progress toward rewards significantly strengthen initial engagement. Starbucks’s visualized loyalty stars instantly upon joining significantly boosts awareness-stage motivation.
Reinforce Commitment with Initial Achievements
Build Early Confidence
Customers assessing multiple options significantly favor brands that visibly demonstrate immediate progress or rewards. Clearly indicating initial bonuses or head-start achievements significantly enhance perceived value and customer motivation. Airlines like Delta provide immediate loyalty miles bonuses upon joining, significantly boosting consideration and perceived immediate value.
Enhance Motivation through Instant Milestones
Motivate Continuous Engagement
Brands clearly demonstrating initial milestones or progress during exploration significantly increase customer motivation to continue deeper interaction. LinkedIn clearly displays initial profile completion steps instantly after sign-up, significantly motivating further profile engagement and content exploration.
Amplify Perceived Progress Clearly
Boost Engagement Through Immediate Benefits
Brands that clearly provide early-stage endowed progress (visible initial reward tiers or clearly displayed initial achievements) significantly motivate ongoing customer research and exploration. Amazon Prime clearly communicates immediate delivery benefits upon joining, significantly enhancing perceived value and research-stage motivation.
Minimize Decision Anxiety with Early Rewards
Make Choices Easier Through Endowed Progress
Customers significantly prefer selecting options clearly demonstrating initial progress toward valuable benefits. Immediate bonus points or early-tier status significantly reduce selection anxiety. Marriott’s loyalty program instantly credits points on initial bookings, significantly enhancing decision confidence.
Reinforce Immediate Value at Checkout
Increase Transactional Commitment
Brands clearly demonstrating immediate progress toward rewards or benefits at purchase significantly accelerate transactional completion. Sephora clearly indicates immediate beauty points earned at checkout, significantly increasing customer satisfaction, reducing abandonment, and accelerating repeat purchases.
Maintain Long-Term Momentum
Sustain Motivation Through Clear Progress
Brands clearly maintaining visible progress and regular milestones post-purchase significantly enhance customer long-term motivation and loyalty. Fitbit immediately displays achieved fitness milestones, significantly motivating continuous engagement and customer satisfaction.
Customer Experience Challenges
Typical challenges in CX where the bias can be used
- Motivation: Customers significantly lose motivation if initial progress or rewards are unclear or unconvincing. Clearly visible endowed progress significantly enhances customers' intrinsic motivation, accelerating engagement and satisfaction.
- Effort: Customers perceive significant cognitive effort without clear, immediate progress indicators. Brands clearly displaying initial progress significantly reduce perceived effort, enhancing customer ease and engagement consistency.
- Confidence: Customers lacking clearly visible initial progress markers significantly experience uncertainty, reducing engagement confidence. Brands clearly offering immediate endowed progress significantly boost customer confidence, reducing anxiety and enhancing emotional security.
Customer Experience Pillars
Renascence CX pillars where it can be applied most efficiently
- Expectations: Clearly establishing immediate endowed progress significantly aligns customer expectations positively, enhancing satisfaction, reducing disappointment, and accelerating enthusiastic engagement toward goals.
- Emotions: Brands strategically offering clear initial progress significantly intensify positive emotions, enhance enthusiasm, and foster deep emotional connections throughout customer interactions.
- Convenience: Clearly demonstrated endowed progress significantly enhances perceived convenience, reducing cognitive and emotional friction, enhancing customer comfort, and accelerating sustained engagement.
Customer Experience Interfaces
Interfaces & touchpoints where it can be applied most efficiently
- Digital: Clearly displaying immediate visual progress indicators (progress bars, initial badges) significantly enhances digital engagement, reduces cognitive effort, and accelerates customer interactions.
- Promo: Strategically indicating immediate progress toward promotional rewards significantly boosts customer excitement, engagement frequency, and participation motivation.
- Product: Clearly embedding initial visible progress within products (fitness trackers showing immediate goals completed) significantly enhances emotional satisfaction, user motivation, and sustained interaction.
Renascence Tip
Brands must strategically leverage the Endowed Progress Effect by clearly and transparently providing immediate visible progress toward customer goals or rewards. Clearly establishing initial progress significantly accelerates customer motivation, engagement, satisfaction, and emotional connection. Effective endowed progress implementation involves ethical transparency, realistic goal-setting, and consistent follow-through, significantly enhancing trust, sustained loyalty, and enthusiastic customer advocacy.
