One answer to the first question is found in the July 5, 1989 episode of “Seinfeld Chronicles,” the pilot for what became “Seinfeld.” George Costanza keeps nagging Jerry to check the clothes dryer to see if they can leave the self-serve laundry shop already. But Jerry had put in his coins, and he wants the dryer cycle to finish. “You can’t over-dry,” he proclaims.
As to the question about dishes, researchers at University of Bonn concluded the answer is, instead, yes. They presented each of the study participants a set of dirty dishes with instructions to wash the dinnerware. Then the researchers did this a second time, and then a third time. The dishes differed in the amount of food on them. The experimenters were watching what difference this made in the hand washing techniques.
The amount of soil made no difference. Each study participant had a habitual routine and followed that, using the same amount of water, detergent, and scrubbing effort. The dishes that started out dirtiest ended up under-washed, and the dishes starting out cleanest were, indeed, over-washed.
Consumer habits become rigid rituals, even when those rituals waste electricity, water, detergent, or effort. Nourish the in-store habits which create purchase opportunities benefitting both the shopper and you. To maintain good will with your customers, tolerate the other habits and rituals which do little or no harm.
Have you noticed how some shoppers will complain and complain about a product or service that seems ideally suited to the shopper's needs and desires, and then after all the complaining and what seems to be arguing with the salesperson, the shopper will go right ahead and buy the offering?
Other shoppers come into your store asking for a specific product and brand, but before buying it, as they'll end up doing, they want to hear about at least a few alternatives, as if to convince themselves they're making the right decision.
And then there are those customers who refuse to buy a product until they can take it out of the packaging and run their hands over it.
Most shopping rituals are deep-seated in the personality because they were introduced early in life as the child watched others shop and was coached by parents. Some shopping rituals, have their origins before birth, being hardwired in as the brain developed in the womb.
Click below for more:
Let Shoppers Go Through Their Rituals
Turn Customer Habits Into Rituals
Peek Into Bathroom Rituals
No comments:
Post a Comment