Lend a Friendly Ear to Loan Debtors

Needing to pay off the purchase of an item from your store results in less enjoyment of that item by the purchaser, according to research at University of Vienna and University of Cologne. It’s in your business interest to have customers find pleasure in their purchases so they will come back to shop with you again and speak favorably to others about your store and the items you carry. To restore the pleasure, encourage customers to return to talk with you about what they’ve bought, and then listen attentively to what they say.
     A general finding in consumer psychology is that a customer’s enjoyment of a product or service slopes downward as time goes by after the purchase. The Vienna/Cologne research, which tracked the emotions of the study participants over time, indicates the slope is substantially steeper for those who pay with financing or build up a credit card balance than for those who pay cash, have saved for the item in advance, or have placed it on layaway.
     Moreover, the consumers who have placed themselves in debt don’t, in general, attribute the quick decrease in enjoyment to their having used credit. They find paying off the debt to be more of a pain than they’d predicted, and the intensity and duration of the negative emotions subconsciously contaminate feelings about the purchased item.
     The researchers propose you caution shoppers ready to make a purchase that they’ll probably end up feeling better about it if they don’t use financing or a credit card. They point to other research which shows that savoring a future acquisition gives a consumer pleasure in itself.
     In the spirit of full disclosure, I share that advice with you. However, I’ll also share my cautions about their proposal. For one thing, it will easily come across as you lecturing the shopper, and most shopper don’t like to be lectured at.
     For another, what you’d be saying to a sold shopper amounts to, “If you’re concerned about the cost of this item, don’t incur debt. Instead, leave my store now, save up your money, and when you have enough, come back.” You’d be turning away a sale. And the shopper might not return. If a shopper does express deep concern about the cost of the item and any necessary debt, I’d prefer to have you say, “I can show you alternatives which have a lower price point.”

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