The secret life of cues

In an ever more complex world customers increasingly rely on small cues in your experience that act as heuristics or rules of thumb in the process of deciding whether to buy from you or not.

To illustrate the point take the case of a large hotel chain that found its customer satisfaction scores always remained the same in one room no matter what action they took. It was only after a member of staff decided to sleep in the room that the answer was found, a small wet patch on the ceiling at eye level. This detail was in effect a cue for lack of cleanliness no matter how much effort had been previously put into the room.

This can of course also work to your advantage. An inherently poor or bland experience can be enlivened by the simple addition of ‘fun elements’ or wow moments of surprise. This is something that Stew Leonards, a convenience store in the USA, learnt when they introduced animatronics into their stores. Likewise, a focus on the human to human relationship side whether this is through tone of voice in a call centre (First Direct), the way staff smile (South-West Airlines) or the visually professional onsite approach (Overbury) can all act to alter perceptions far more than the actual delivery of the product or service.

Another example is Carphone Warehouse which makes great use of cues. Here, a show is made of determining the correct mobile phone for you by logging details into a computer system that delivers the top few phones of relevance to your needs.

These cues exist everywhere and are often critical in the first few seconds of an experience, setting the mood for what to expect. Interestingly, they can also work quite well dissonantly, cutting against the grain of expectation. Consider the launch of Microsoft’s Bing.com with its focus on nature scenes and even slightly quirky format, its ambience is almost Apple-like.

On the negative side it is also important to realise that a noticeably ‘bad’ experience can also stick in the memory and impact consumer decision-making.

So how are you handing your heuristics? Indeed do you even know what cues consumers and clients use?