5 Simple Tricks To Nudge a Client To Make a Choice

Nudge is everywhere, even if we don’t notice it.

Change of places.

Carolyn caters to schools in a large city. One day she decided to check whether the order of laying out the products would affect the choice of children, while the menu would remain the same. In some schools, desserts were displayed at the beginning of the window, in the second — at the end, in others — on a separate shelf. The arrangement of the dishes was also different. Some schools had fries at eye level, while others had carrots.

It turned out that by simply rearranging dishes, Carolyn could regulate food consumption within 25%.

She learned an important lesson: both students and adults are seriously affected by even minor changes in context. The consequences can be both positive and negative. For example, Carolyn can increase her intake of healthy food and decrease her intake of unhealthy ones.

We’ll call Carolyn the “architect of choice.” It is the one who is responsible for organizing the context in which the person makes decisions. Many people become architects of choice, often unknowingly. It is also the person who designs the ballots with the list of candidates. And a doctor explaining alternative treatment regimens to the patient. And everyone who is involved in sales (well, you guessed it yourself).

Fly in the urinal.

An architect of choice can dramatically improve the quality of life for people by designing a user-friendly environment. The most successful companies helped people and even conquered the market thanks to this. Good examples of iPods and iPhones are not only because of their sleek looks but also because of their simple controls.

Small and seemingly insignificant details can have a serious impact on our behavior. A wonderful example can be found — who would have thought! — in the men’s room at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. In each urinal, a common black fly was painted. But a man sees not a fly, but a goal. His attentiveness and accuracy increase dramatically. This idea works wonders: the toilet is 80% cleaner and drier.

5 strategies for architects to choose from.

How else can you nudge customers to take the right action? Here are five easy ways.

1. Offer standard options.

People’s thinking is inert. They don’t like to make decisions. Remember how you feel when you buy a new mobile phone and it needs adjustments. The more expensive the model, the more choice: from the background to the ringtone and the waiting time for the call forwarding. You can change everything, but you can leave it as it is. Most people choose the second option, even if it is about something more important than the sound of the call.

Hence, there are two main conclusions. First, don’t underestimate inertia. And secondly, it can be used. If you think one of the options leads to the best result, anchor it as standard.

2. Ask about intentions.

Sociologists have discovered an unexpected fact: by measuring people’s intentions, you can influence their actions. Having voiced an intention, a person is more likely to implement it. If people are asked how regularly they will floss next week, respondents will be more likely to care for their teeth.

If you ask a person whether he is going to eat fatty foods next week, he will eat less fatty foods.

In a study with a representative sample of more than 40 thousand people, respondents were asked a simple question: “Are you going to change the car in the next six months?” As a result, car sales increased by 35%.

3. Remove obstacles.

Imagine the streams running when the snow melts in spring. Their course is determined by tiny changes in topography. Likewise, for humans, negligible factors can be incredible barriers to desirable behavior.

You can stimulate the right action by removing small obstacles. One day, Yale students were given a compelling lecture on the threat of tetanus. Almost everyone accepted the information and announced that they were going to be vaccinated. But only 3% made it to the medical office.

Others were also given a lecture, but they were also given a map of the campus, where the medical office was circled. They were then asked to check the weekly schedule, plan a day and time, and choose a convenient route. As a result, 28% of the students showed up for the tetanus shot.

Remove obstacles in the path of the client — and he will come.

4. Look to the majority opinion.

Numerous studies have shown that people tend to agree with the majority opinion. Here’s an example. Sociologist Matthew Salganik and his colleagues created a musical world with 14,341 registered people. They were offered a list of songs by unknown bands. You had to listen to a fragment of any song to decide whether to download it. At the same time, the participants could see how many times they downloaded a particular song.

Bottom line: Subjects were more likely to download songs that others had already downloaded many times. The same song could be a hit or a failure simply because someone decided to download it at the beginning, or vice versa.

Communicate that many have already made a choice in favor of your product — use social influence.

5. Set a starting point.

We can influence a person’s choice by proposing a starting point for their thought process. When charitable organizations collect donations, they usually offer options of $ 100, $ 250, $ 1,000, $ 5,000, and “other amount.” These numbers are not accidental. Donations will be larger with options 100, 250, 1000, and 5000, rather than 50, 75, 100, and 150.

In many areas, the more you ask, the more you get. Lawyers suing cigarette manufacturers often win astronomical sums, in part because they successfully pushed judges into a multimillion-dollar peg. Set a reference point to facilitate the decision-making process.

Remember that the architect of choice is not only nudging, but also responsible.

These simple tricks can help you gently nudge customers towards a specific option. Use them to create a convenient choice architecture and facilitate decision-making. However, don’t overuse. Because the most important thing is to bring happiness.