The Five Stages
Retire the old thing kindly: nobody stranded, every segment carried to acceptance.
The job
Guides customers through the retirement of a device, network, plan, app version, card, portal or paper process. Tracks which stage of grief each group is in, sends the message that moves them on, and refuses a go-ahead while vulnerable customers are still stranded.
The moment
An old service is being switched off. A chart tracks customers through five stages of grief as switch-off day nears, with customers at risk of being left stranded shown underneath.
30 days out, 1,240 customers are at risk of being stranded, mostly elderly parents mentioned by their children.
A voice campaign, using customers' own words, offers free handsets. For the first time, more customers are in acceptance than in anger.
On the eve of switch-off, the number stranded reads 0, with 83 home visits booked. Only then does the chart show the service is ready to switch off.
What it does
- Register a change
- Approve and send a stage message
- Launch a voice campaign to a stranded cohort
- Send vulnerable cases to a human callback queue
- Sign a named exception to allow the readiness line
What you see
A river (stream graph) of five grief stages flowing toward switch-off day, with a stranded shadow underneath and message bridges marked where they were sent
What it moves
Customers left stranded at switch-off, with a target of zero, the share of affected customers who have reached acceptance, and mentions of feeling cheated by a broken promise compared with the last switch-off.
Built for
- Product & digital
- CX leaders & VoC
