Beware the Rushin’ Language

Store visitors who feel rushed find the shopping experience to be less pleasant. Researchers at Stanford University, Duke University, and Erasmus University noted that those feelings could be turned to a retailer’s advantage. The visitors might pay a higher price to have the time pressure reduced, such as by the retailer assuming responsibility for making decisions and taking actions. However, in many other cases, rushed shoppers will put off completing the purchase and, instead, scurry out the door.
     To address that issue, the researchers investigated what leads store visitors to feel under tight time pressure even when time is not, in fact, tight. They discovered it has to do with goal conflict. Shoppers who perceive they’re in a rush often are having trouble balancing tradeoffs among item alternatives or between buying and not buying anything at all.
     Other research finds that shoppers who feel in a rush make unwise decisions. In a study at University of Memphis, Wayne State University, and India’s IFHE, participants were presented with a deal that was clearly phony on close examination. Those who felt under time pressure gave the phony deal twice as much credibility as those not feeling under time pressure.
     When words and body language indicate your prospective customer is rushing, choose from these research-based remedial actions:

• Simplify those decisions the shopper needs to make on their own. A pressure cooker shopper may be accompanied by children or a spouse. They respond best to methodically considering one purchase choice at a time. 
• Assess whether the shopper is in a positive mood or negative mood. The parent shopping for children’s medicine is probably feeling bad. The Valentine’s Day bouquet bon vivant is likely to be in a positive mood. When a shopper is in a positive mood, their decision making is more flexible than when they’re in a negative mood, and they’re more likely to persevere in the shopping process. Decide on your recommended purchase alternative and talk about how the positives outweigh the negatives. But when the shopper is in a negative mood, quickly decide on your recommended purchase and then talk about how it is the least bad alternative. Be ready to answer questions about the negatives of each alternative. 
• Have the shopper take one or two deep breaths. How to accomplish that? Take a deep breath yourself and smile gently. Like a yawn, deep breathing and gentle smiling are both contagious. 

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

Click below for more: 
Stomp Discount Scams from High Time Pressure
Simplify for the Shopper
Clock Customer Actions to Fit Time Metaphors
Let Customers Take Their Time
Attend to Negatives When High Time Pressure