I have lied about this. I’d wager you have, too. Moreover, per Groupon’s latest survey, most people lie about being happy about the gifts they receive at the holidays.
When I read this study, I wondered if we lie to people about our gift receiving experience, isn’t it also likely we lie about other experiences too? Does that also mean our customers lie to us about how they feel about their Customer Experience?
For my part, I’d say the answer is a resounding yes.
The Groupon survey revealed many significant findings:
- 73% of respondents admitted to faking their reaction to a gift on a regular basis
- Eight out of ten people will pretend to like a gift they receive even when they don’t
- Only ten percent of respondents said they would tell the truth if they didn’t like a gift
- Women are more likely to fake it than men (77% vs. 63%)
Only 8% of the 55 and older group would tell the truth about how they feel about a gift received.
On a positive note, it appears that most people are nice—at least where a gift-exchange is involved. However, it also means that people are likely to hide their true feelings in certain situations. That last bit has me rethinking whether my dad sincerely liked his gift this year! However, it also reminds me of a concept that my co-author Professor Ryan Hamilton and I present in our latest book: customers don’t always tell you the truth because sometimes they don’t know it themselves.
Why Customers Lie to Us
The Groupon Survey showed that it takes a gift recipient five seconds to know whether he or she likes the gift or not. Our brains take in information and, using both conscious and subconscious cues, decide on an appropriate response. When receiving gifts, we know the appropriate response is pleasure, because “it’s the thought that counts.” So, if our subconscious and conscious analysis conclude that we don’t like the gift, our brains decide to smile and say that we do anyway because that is the appropriate response.
Now, let’s adapt this scenario to a Customer Experience. Say you are dining at a restaurant and your server explains she is straight out of training. Your resulting dining experience reflected this fact; you had to ask for water more than once, and the food was a touch cold when it arrived. However, you also saw the new server was trying. Just before you leave, the manager stops by the table to ask how your dining experience was. Do you:
A. Tell the truth that the experience was not as good as you expected?
B. Give the earnest if inept server an excellent review to his or her new boss?
My guess is that most of us would choose B. For those of you that would choose option A, be sure you are seated in someone else’s section when you return to that restaurant, or you might get an extra ingredient in your special sauce. Of course, I’m joking, I think…
People Don’t Always Know the Truth
However, not hearing the truth isn’t always because people want to be “nice.” People do not always know the real reasons why they do what they do. However, they think they do. Humans like to make sense of things. When we do things and then are asked about the reasons behind them later, we tend to assign cause and effect per what “makes sense,” even if it isn’t the actual cause.
The same thing happens when you ask customers how to improve an experience. They say they want one thing, but their behavior shows what they really want. For example, a while ago Disney asked Customers what they wanted to see more of in their restaurants, people answered salads. But in truth, people didn’t order salads at the park; they ordered hamburgers and French fries because “they were on vacation and deserved a treat.”
In my example, customers weren’t necessarily “lying” about wanting the salad option. It could be that these people said they wanted a salad option because they wish they had the willpower to order it. It could be that they might have ordered one in different circumstances. But they didn’t order one, and it still isn’t true that they wanted a salad at Disney properties.
So, we all lie sometimes. Even your customers lie sometimes. Sometimes they lie to spare a gift giver’s feelings. Sometimes they lie to avoid getting an employee in hot water with his or her new boss. Sometimes they lie because they don’t know the truthful answer to the query because it’s buried in their irrational, emotional subconscious and only revealed in their actions.
So, go ahead and give your customers a gift, ask them about their experience with you or how to improve your experience for the future. But know that when you do, there is a good chance the response could be a lie, intentional or not. In future, don’t just listen to what they say, watch how they behave and use that data to find the truth.
Learn and understand more about this fascinating subject of human behavior and how to use it to improve your Customer Experience in our new book The Intuitive Customer: 7 Imperatives for Moving Your Customer Experience to the Next Level
If you liked this article, you might also enjoy these:
- Revolutionary Thinking on Customer Loyalty
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- Act Now to Turn Customer Pain Points into Pleasurable Profits
Colin Shaw is the founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy, one of the world’s leading Customer experience consultancy & training organizations. Colin is an international author of five bestselling books and an engaging keynote speaker.
Follow Colin Shaw on Twitter @ColinShaw_CX