Customer Experience Podcast

So, you think the sale is in the bag. The customer signed the paperwork and everything. However, when you log in the next day to email, there is a cancellation. You think, what happened?

People change their minds all the time for a lot of different reasons. Sometimes, it is about something they ordered or bought; sometimes, it is about paint color or springing for the upgrades. Why they change their mind has a lot of influences, and understanding how a customer’s mind works can help you manage these situations to the best possible outcome. 

The customer’s mind is a complicated thing. We think of ourselves as unitary, meaning the only version of ourselves. However, psychology shows we have multiple versions of ourselves that activate under different circumstances. These versions might not always agree on the decisions made, so once a new version gets control, it might reverse a previous version’s decision. 

Plus, these versions of us also have two ways of thinking. There is the fast and automatic thinking provided by our Intuitive System and the slow and deliberate thinking employed by the Rational System. The outcome could be quite different depending on which system controls the decision. Moreover, sometimes the Rational System will come in and overrule the Intuitive System later, which can be the impetus behind that cancellation you just saw. 

In this episode, we explore why customers change their minds and how you can build into your experience ways to manage this. So, go ahead and listen; the future version of yourself will thank you for it. 

Here are some other critical moments in the discussion:

• 03:50  We introduce the concept that we have multiple versions of ourselves and multiple thinking systems that influence decision-making and mind-changing.  
• 07:50  Ryan shares a story about research showing how one can reach different decisions and sometimes less-than-optimal results. 
• 11:05  Colin explains how the two systems of thinking work off each other about decisions, and Ryan explains how wish lists on purchases rarely come to fruition.      
• 16:55  We share a practical example of customers changing their minds in the real world on a buying decision and how the company responded to manage this change. 
• 20:40   We talk about Cognitive Depletion and how it affects customer behavior.
• 26:35  We share practical tips and suggestions that can help you manage customers’ changing minds in the future. 

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