Ask Shoppers to Estimate Multifunction Usage

To help ensure customers’ satisfaction with multifunction products they purchase, ask them to think about how often they’ll be using the various functions.
     A great deal of consumer behavior research has found that consumers tend to prefer products with many functions when shopping, but then, after purchase, often become frustrated while trying to master all the different functions. It’s called “feature fatigue.”
     Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and University of South Carolina say feature fatigue crosses product categories and is most likely with shoppers who are driven to learn a great deal about a product before purchasing it, have difficulty distinguishing important from trivial capabilities of products, and buy items in large part to impress others. With these consumers especially, asking for estimates of the frequency of use of the different functions can help ease later dissatisfaction.
     One way in which this happens is that the shoppers will end up selecting simpler products. That can have a downside for the retailer:

• The profit margins are usually higher on feature-rich than on feature-poor products. 
• With feature-rich products, there are more opportunities for you to offer training as a profit center. 
• Customers who find themselves enjoying possession of the fullest set of features are prime candidates for trading up as even greater technologies appear. 

     It also can have a downside for customers who could benefit from having the additional features. If you believe this is the case with your shopper, research findings from Georgetown University and Harvard University suggest advantages in playing to the last of those three characteristics of the person prone to feature fatigue: Highlight the advantages of the complex product in impressing others.
     When people learned that someone they knew had selected an especially feature-rich product, they saw the person as more savvy and open to interesting experiences. Shoppers turn this around to say that if they are the ones selecting the product, their friends will say good things about them.
     The Georgetown/Harvard researchers found this will most probably occur when the shopper is with others who can see them trying out the product or if the shopper sees someone else in the store trying out the product. The interest in bragging rights fades when the shopper thinks carefully about what it will take to learn how to master all the product’s capabilities before feeling comfortable showing it off to people they don’t know well.

Click below for more: 
Stimulate Bragging Rights from Complexity 
Anchor Frequency Estimates to Individuals