What’s stopping people buying?
The key to survival in an uncertain world is the ability to accurately predict what’s likely to happen next and ensure resources can help meet that prediction. In a survival situation, errors have the potential to be fatal, so – to be most effective – prediction mechanisms must have two central facets:
- The capacity to process sensory feedback constantly, and to respond immediately should any discrepancy between prediction and reality be detected.
- Having survived such a situation, to learn from the experience by committing the circumstances to memory, so that future predictions can be more accurate.
We no longer have to face sabre-toothed tigers, but human brains have not yet caught up with the subtle nuances of the modern world. Fundamentally, our brains are predicting machines that use a simple binary system to alert us to prediction/reality mismatches – which, in turn, helps learning and improves future predictions.
In any new environment, for example, our brains will assess whether it is ‘safe’. This is an unconscious process; we may consciously know we are not in danger, but the hardwiring in our brain doesn’t distinguish between a jungle full of predators and a shop full of people. So, if a customer entering a retail environment is approached unexpectedly, their brain may not have completed its risk assessment and could interpret this as a threat, causing them discomfort and stress.
We all encounter moments such as these on our customer journeys – moments when our expectations and reality do not match. On the surface they may appear trivial, but such moments influence our behaviour, whether we realise it or not. They can test our commitment to the purchase, make us reconsider, and can even have the power to make us quit the process altogether. We call these moments ‘tripping points’.
Tripping points activate a cascade of physiological and neurological responses that the customer experiences as stress and must evaluate to continue. A single, major tripping point can trigger stress, and several small ones – much like a dripping tap – can, cumulatively, have a similar effect. Humans’ natural ‘fight or flight’ response means it’s an uncomfortable experience for the customer at best – and, at worst, they will walk away if the stress reaches an unacceptable level.
The level of stress that a customer is willing to tolerate is dictated by how much they want and need the product or service. It is possible to ‘buy’ tripping point tolerance by presenting an irresistible offer, but the converse is also true; the need for purchase inducement is reduced if the level of stress experienced by customers at each tripping point is minimised.
We now have the ability to identify tripping points as they occur and to measure the resulting stress levels. By using psycho-physiological research to reveal the moments when customer expectation is at odds with reality – and then matching this to video and audio data – we can identify exactly what causes tripping points.
This process generates a Tripping Point Index – a scientific analysis of the customer’s experiential journey that provides objective measures of stress, compared with a template of data from customer experiences in that specific environment. The Tripping Point Index also allows us to calculate how much each tripping point matters to the overall customer experience – and, so, how likely it is to hamper the sales process.
Over several years of research for our clients, we have identified many and varied tripping points. Some of the most common ones are:
- Not offering a hot drink to customers looking to spend a significant amount of money – on a new car, for example. Worse still, the salesperson is enjoying a drink and doesn’t offer the customer something. The importance of offering a hot drink may appear insignificant, but it can demonstrate warmth and empathy with the customer. Not to do so is basically saying: ‘I’m the important one here; this is my territory and I’m comfortable in it, but you and your feelings don’t matter.’
- Pricing. It’s essential that brands and their salespeople are transparent about pricing. There can be a tendency to try to fudge pricing to win the sale, but openness is key and sales staff should not be afraid to be honest about it. The customer will find out sooner or later if they have been misled and – though they may still proceed with their purchase – they may not return or recommend the brand to others.
- Lack of patience when handling browsers and general enquirers. Sales staff should be coached to take a longer-term view about the value of the customer.
Our responses to tripping points are largely unconscious and instinctive – customers may never know why they felt, or reacted, the way they did. Since they rarely recall what the actual tripping points were, and often drop out of the buying process without consciously understanding why, simply asking them why they didn’t buy is pointless. People don’t know – or don’t remember accurately – why they responded as they did, so they can only offer a rationally filtered response that may have little or no bearing on the actual reason.
But tripping points can be measured biometrically, and by analysing them individually – and in relation to each other – it is possible to see: when and where they occur in any customer experience; what is causing them; and how they might be fixed.
Tripping points may be the result of the sales process, the environment – both real and virtual – and/or the behaviour of customer-facing staff. Some tripping points may be obvious: an overly complicated pricing structure, for example. Others – such as whether a salesperson smiles or not – may seem inconsequential. Some can be easily eliminated, while others – such as mandatory finance documents – are an inescapable part of the process and so need to have their impact ‘softened’. However, all tripping points affect our behaviour.
So to encourage potential customers to buy – to complete their journey – we have to make the environment, the process and their human interactions as ‘trip free’ as possible. Interestingly, the reverse is also true; if you want to change behaviour, you can introduce tripping points to make customers consider alternatives.
The potential to identify tripping points to ensure the customer journey is less stressful – and that the goal is more likely to be achieved – has obvious commercial applications for those responsible for the design and delivery of such experiences. Almost all customer journeys contain many tripping points but, whatever their nature, our evidence is clear – finding and fixing them will increase sales, profit, customer retention, staff retention and productivity.
Tim Routledge is chief experience officer at Experience Insight

We hope you enjoyed this article.
Research Live is published by MRS.
The Market Research Society (MRS) exists to promote and protect the research sector, showcasing how research delivers impact for businesses and government.
Members of MRS enjoy many benefits including tailoured policy guidance, discounts on training and conferences, and access to member-only content.
For example, there's an archive of winning case studies from over a decade of MRS Awards.
Find out more about the benefits of joining MRS here.
0 Comments