The Quiet Middle: Why Companies Overlook the Most Valuable Part of the Customer Journey

A personal trigger: an 85-year-old and a modern bank

Are your users like dinosaurs—sleeping records in your database? And are you afraid to wake them by reaching out?

A few days ago, I completed what felt like a full-scale IT migration project: switching my mother’s bank account from a paid model to a free one — with the same bank (one with three letters).

She is 85, lives in a small village and depends on her local branch for cash withdrawals. She’s been a customer for over 60 years. Over time, her account accumulated fees here and there — while competitors began offering free options. A few months ago, her bank finally introduced free accounts as well (presumably due to the merger with the “two-letter” bank that already offered them).

Sounds promising. But instead of converting her existing account, we had to open an entirely new one — and rebuild everything from scratch: standing orders, eBills, social security payments, insurance deductions. There was no upgrade path, no automatic porting, no migration tool. Just manual labour — wrapped in banking regulation, compliance, and legacy IT systems.

Note: Some of you dear readers might argue now, if it’s free then why shall a bank invest into the user? I will reply, what if the competitor does and starts targeting these users with their wealth?

The final step required calling the back office. After confirming both her and my identity, a patient woman on the other end said: “Everything is now settled.”

I hung up — relieved, but also strangely annoyed. Why did this feel like such an effort? Why did it fall on us to do all the work? Why was there no recognition that this was the same person, the same customer, with the same bank, only trying to move with the times?

And then it hit me: this isn’t about one bank. This is about how most companies treat long-time users — not as people in motion, but as sleeping records in a database.

Welcome, goodbye, and nothing in between

When you become a customer, companies roll out the red carpet: onboarding journeys, welcome messages, smooth first-use experiences. When you leave, they launch exit surveys, discounts, and win-back campaigns.

But in the long middle — the months and years when you actually use the product?