Ping Consumers with Cause-and-Effect

Preface the purchase by showing the item and the benefit in close proximity. During the purchase, unless the shopper is planning for or hoping for delayed benefits from the acquisition, implant in the shopper’s mind an impression of prompt effectiveness. After the purchase, encourage returning customers to share with you news of how what they obtained from your store did produce the promised benefits.

• Researchers at University of British Columbia and National University of Singapore showed study participants a picture of a facial cream to treat acne and a picture of the product benefit—a smooth face. The researchers found that participant groups shown the two pictures adjacent to each other were more likely to consider the facial cream to be effective than those shown the photos physically separated from each other. 
• London Business School researchers told some study participants there was a relationship between chewing a certain gum they’d been given and doing well on an attention task. The other study participants weren’t told there was a cause-and-effect connection. Those in the first group not only expected to do better on the attention task, but also gave shorter estimates of the time interval between the gum chewing and the attention performance. We never want to lie to our shoppers, but talk of cause-and-effect leaves the impression of speedy payback. 
• Customers usually want specifications pre-purchase, but after making the purchase, they're usually seeking reassurance. So right after the purchase, tell the customer that they’ve made a good decision. Keep it general. Then when the customer returns to your store later or contacts you to place a telephone or ecommerce order, deliver a different sort of reassurance about their prior purchase: Emphasize cause and effect. Point out to them how what they obtained from you generated benefits important to them. 

     With so much going on in their busy lives, consumers too easily forget to give credit to a service or product for the benefits the consumers obtain. And sales staff can too easily forget to hook the effect to the cause in the customer’s mind. This oversight often is because the sales staff are themselves so busy. But there’s another reason as well: Sales staff who are thoroughly familiar with how well a particular item produces benefits can take it for granted that the customer knows, too.

Click below for more: 
Expedite Results by Cuing Causes 
Clarify Cause & Effect with Users