Wouldn\u2019t it be great if you could truly predict Customer\u2019s behavior. Well you can! Welcome to the world of behavioral economics.<\/p>\n
I have recently been included in Brand Quarterly’s \u2018Top 50 Marketing Thought Leaders over 50\u2019<\/a> and they asked me an interesting question: \u201cWhat do I think the next industry trends would be for the year?\u201d I thought I would expand on my thoughts here and give a better explanation. For those of you that do not know about this, \u00a0behavioral economics embraces the fact that often Customers make irrational decisions and as a consequence this affects what they buy. In short, you need to embrace the fact that Customers are irrational.<\/p>\n In our bland world everything is the same to many marketers who still only focus on the 4P\u2019s (Price, Place, Product and Promotion) \u00a0and use this as a crutch. Marketers need to recognize that human decision making is far more complex than this. They need to elevate their thinking to a new level of \u00a0understanding and embrace behavioral economics to break through the glass ceiling that is engaging them.<\/p>\n Let us start with three simple questions:<\/p>\n Not sure? Well you should be. To do your job effectively you should understand how emotions are evoked and design this into your Customer Experience<\/a> or campaign. You therefore need to understand behavioral economics \u00a0and how to make the most of Customer\u2019s irrationality. When you have mastered this I then suggest \u00a0you look into the whole area of predictive analytics and define how you can predict customer\u2019s true behavior.<\/p>\n The last piece of the jigsaw is making this \u2018live\u2019 in an experience. Imagine that you have just designed a campaign that drives the customer into a store and they then have an interaction with \u00a0store personnel. How are you going to ensure that the emotion you want to be evoked is actually evoked during the \u2018in store experience\u2019? The answer is that the store personnel need to be trained on recognizing how the Customer is feeling when entering the experience. This is achieved through advanced soft skills training. This covers \u00a0recognizing Customer\u2019s verbal and non-verbal cues (facial expression, body language, tone of voice ,etc.) in order to identify how the Customer is feeling. Then the store personnel can \u00a0implement their training to convert how that Customer feels, \u00a0maybe from \u2018confused\u2019 to one of the specific emotions that drive value for their organization.<\/p>\n Sounds far fetched? It\u2019s not. This is what our more advanced clients are doing today with great success. One client moved their Customers from:<\/p>\n So, understanding that Customers are irrational, embracing behavioral economics, using this to predict their behavior and finally designing your experience and training people on how to convert customers emotions is the new world. Welcome to the new world of practical behavioral economics!<\/p>\n Colin Shaw<\/em><\/a> is the founder and CEO of<\/em> Beyond Philosophy<\/em><\/a>, one of the world’s leading Customer experience consultancy & training organizations. Colin is an international author of<\/em> five bestselling books<\/em><\/a> and an engaging keynote speaker.<\/em><\/p>\n
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