Some people like change – but most people don’t. This is the central barrier of persuasion. And overcoming this barrier is the most important task when engaging an audience through a user interface. The secret? Make your product the consumer’s status quo.

Most decisions come with a status-quo alternative. We can change our ideas, attitudes, and behavior – or we can change nothing, choosing to accept things as they are.

A phenomenon called the Status Quo Bias, or the tendency of people to systematically favor maintaining status quo rather than switching to an alternative state, is important in audience engagement. Below is information on how you can create the persuasive nudge that pushes the consumer over the edge of the status quo barrier into adopting your product.

Tipping the Status Quo Scale

When you think about how many times the consumer prompted by influential labels such as brand logos and slogans, it’s easy to understand why most experience cognitive paralysis and choose not to make a decision at all.

According to classic research compiled by social scientists William Samuelson and Richard Zeckhauser, the Status Quo Bias is the result of three things:^[1]

1.    Rational Decision-Making – Humans tend to replicate previous decisions in effort to avoid the cost of transitioning. Sometimes, the change from status quo to something new is too overwhelming of an undertaking.

Take for example, the computer keyboard. Even though it could be revamped to improve efficiency, not a single soul wants to take on this task due to the overwhelming amount of time and money it would take for the entire globe to convert to the new keyboard. Basically, people are rational and have little desire to ‘rock the boat.’

2.    Cognitive Misperception – Also, losses have a larger cognitive impact than do gains. Therefore, in a psychological phenomenon termed loss aversion, the possibility of loss that is present in a decision is more cognitively salient than the possibility of gain.^[2]

Another cognitive misperception, termed anchoring, occurs when the consumer uses an initial value as a comparison tool for all other aspects of the decision.^[3] These comparisons, while they typically tip in the right direction, are frequently ineffectual against the Status Quo Bias.

3.    Psychological Commitment – Research also indicates that consumers want to justify previous decisions they have made, even if this means adhering to a status quo that is failing. They do so in effort to avoid the feeling of regret.  Regret is uncomfortable, and consumers will maintain the status quo just avoid acknowledging previous mistakes in decision-making. ^[4]

The Application: How to Make The Status Quo Bias Work In Your Favor

Interestingly, when the Status Quo Bias is used to connect with your target audience, it can work in your favor.  By using the two simple tricks below, you can address the three elements listed above, and overcome brand-switch inertia created by the Status Quo Bias. The trick is to make your website, product, or brand the consumer’s status quo.

• Be Available – It seems that SEO has psychological importance. Research shows that consumers will use the first or second website they visit as their ‘status quo.’ Thus, are less likely to change their mind as they visit other sites, and usually their search ends with them choosing the products from one of the first few sites they visited. This highlights the importance of quality content as well as top notch SEO technique to make your site among the first viewed by the consumer.
• Give A Little to Gain A Lot – You must lead the consumer to make a psychological investment in the buying process. One way to achieve this is to offer trial processes with low obligation. Such tactics makes the consumer abandon their search for other products because your trial product is now their status quo, and thus they are less interested in any alternatives.

For other applications on how to apply the Status Quo Bias to marketing, public policy, and even scientific advancement, review the academic article Status Quo in Decision Making.

References

^[1] Samuelson, W. & Zeckhauser, R. Status quo in decision making

^[2] Tversky, A. and Kahneman, D. The framing of decisions and psychology of choice

^[3] Kahneman, D. and Tversky, A. On the psychology of prediction

^[4] Bell, D. E. Regret in decision making under uncertainty.

Have you ever found a specific product after an endless search, only to realize you have to first enter the litany of personal information necessary to create the ‘membership’ required to purchase it?

The answer is most likely a resounding yes.

The online purchasing process has become exceedingly complicated, causing even the most Internet-savvy online shoppers to struggle, or often give up altogether.

This poses substantial loss for companies with B2C websites. The popularity of online shopping is skyrocketing, yet many companies are being left behind due to the inability to provide their online consumers with an easy way to purchase their product.

Companies with B2C websites cannot dare to ignore the importance of creating convenient and barrier-free websites, but many are at a loss as to how to make this possible. The reality is, however, that this can be easily achieved through modest improvements to interface design, as well as the amount and type of merchandise information provided..

Who Is The Online Customer & What Do They Need?

While the majority of online consumers are young people who are typically adept in their Internet usage, a growing population of elderly online shoppers has appeared on the horizon. This population is often hindered in terms of computer skills, which compounds the problem of complex online purchasing processes tenfold.

A study conducted by Kuo, Chen, & Chen found that there exist four critical factors that make or break the success of a B2C website:

1. The act of searching for products
2. The act of examining products
3. Evaluating and comparing products
4. The final payment process

These 4 elements were found to be the most important to online consumers, yet they were also found to be the most difficult and complex processes, especially for the elderly survey respondents. Thus, it is the best interest of companies to address these four areas when creating or modifying their B2C websites.

The Application: How To Connect With The Online Consumer

Kuo, Chen, & Chen offer several suggestions, and conclude with a case study to serve as an example of an effective method of addressing these problem areas.

First, they emphasize that interfaces must be designed to support the elements mentioned above, and that website designers must integrate “searching for products” “examining products” and “evaluating and comparing products.” They provide an interesting case study as an example of successful implementation of these suggestions.

They created a site where the consumer could select his search criteria (i.e. brand, price range, etc.) then click ‘search.’ The following page consisted of an organized table of information pertaining to products that fit the search criteria. Any products the consumer did not want could be removed immediately by simply selecting the associated ‘x’ button. This made it easy to narrow down product selections, and eliminated the need to jump from page to page, as all the product information was presented on the same page. It also integrated the “searching for products” “examining products” and “evaluating and comparing products” processes, making it easy for the consumer to select and purchase their product. There was no need to remember prices and functions, which made the overall process enjoyable as opposed to cumbersome.

By creating a purchasing process such as the one above, and streamlining the final payment process, you can guarantee customer satisfaction, loyalty, and repeat business.

References

Kou, HM, Chen, CW, Chen, CW (2011) A study of merchandise information and interface design on B2C websites

Ever wonder if testimonials really work? Are they merely traditional components of a website, or is there really power behind their words? Research indicates that testimonials are indeed impressively effective, and that the timeless art of storytelling lies at the heart of their persuasive power.

Researchers Melanie Green and Timothy Brock from Ohio State University conducted a study to determine the effectiveness of narratives in persuasive advertising.

They asked participants to read several short stories, each of which implied different beliefs and opinions. After the participants finished reading, the researchers measured how much each participant agreed with the persuasive messages associated with each story.

The results indicated that certain participants reported stronger levels of agreement than other participants. It seemed that the more participants were emotionally connected to the characters and events of the story, the more likely they were to be persuaded by the message. Green and Brock attributed this difference to varying levels of the psychological principle of transportation.

Transportation, which can be described as ‘immersion into a story,’ is the level of a reader’s emotional response to the characters and events in a story. According to Green and Brock, the more readers become wrapped up in the characters and events of a story, the more likely they will be persuaded by the underlying message. This is due to the fact that their emotional immersion leads them to be less likely to develop counterarguments. Which, in turn, means they will be more likely to be persuaded by the message imbedded within the story.

Therefore, because testimonials are, in essence, a story of another’s experience with a product or service, the principle of transportation can explain their effectiveness. The more emotional response a testimonial can evoke in the reader, the more persuasive that testimonial will be.

This highlights the importance of including testimonials that speak to the emotions of the audience. They should address areas of doubt, and counter common consumer objections associated with the product. They should also evoke positive emotions from the readers. An exceptionally effective way to achieve this kind of connection is through the use of ‘before-and-after’ scenarios.

In sum, there is no need to enlist a celebrity to endorse a product or service. In fact, readers are more likely to form an emotional connection to real stories from ‘real’ people. Thus, generate as many testimonials as possible through the use of comment boxes and even forums. The more positive testimonials displayed on a website, the more emotionally connected the readers will become.

References

Green, MC & Brock, TC (2000) The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives