The art of choosing and its impact on business: Part I

For any business transaction or exchange of goods and services, there is a choice that needs to be made. The nature of the product/service influences the psychology of the choice that needs to be made, but there are some principles that rule how we generally make choices. How can you use those principles to make clients choose your brand?

I have started reading this amazing book by Sheena Iyengar The art of Choosing. I watched her two Ted talks about how we choose, since I do a lot of work related to consumer psychology I was very interested in the topic and picked up this book. I have only read a few chapters and the learnings are amazing, here I will share a few of my favourite ones. This topic is relevant for everyone: If you are offering any service or product, even if that service is your work and your client is internal, it is very important to consider the psychology of choice in order to influence decisions in an effective way. Here are some tips that will impact the way you do business: Even in situations where there is no advantage to having more choice, choice is still instinctively preferred, but it may not be worth it to give your customers too much choice, even if they think they prefer it, usually less choice leads to more purchase.   Control doesnt necessarily come from choice, how we view control depends on the stories we are told about it, and the beliefs that we choose to hold on to. According to beliefs and perception, control can come from believing in a higher power, letting those decisions in the hands of your parents, or making them yourself. There are cultural differences that highly impact this view of control. People are more alike than they think, but they all think that they are special. This has a great impact in quality, you could offer a very similar service to your clients and provide them with a small degree of control for personalization, and this combined with the right amount of attention given to them is the recipe for success. Sometimes, the right way to get to know your target market is not by asking them, but by documenting their behavior: when you made a change in pricing/promotion/placement in shelf/delivery of your product or service, how did this impact sales and customer satisfaction? The Art of Choosing- Book by Sheena Iyengar This is one of her TED talks: http://www.ted.com/talks/sheena_iyengar_on_the_art_of_choosing.html