I buy everything on Amazon. Suppose I want something; that is where I go first. Not only that, it's usually the only place I go. It's habitual, and breaking it would be difficult for anyone.
But not impossible. Today, let's look at seven ways you can change habits to improve your return on investment.
Before we launch into that, let's review what is happening with habits at a psychological level. There are a few distinguishing features of habits, which include the following:
An environmental cue initiates them.
The cue triggers the automatic part of our brain to respond with a behaviour based on memories.
The reward reinforces the reason for the habit.
The idea here is that our Intuitive System will recognize this cycle the first few times we do it and turn it into a habit. Now, it will be automatic.
Customers have habits. So, if your customer is habitually buying your competitive product or service, how do you change that? Here are seven ways.
Rule #1: Identify that habit and loop people are in.
You should be able to identify the cue, response, and reward people get from their habitual purchases. Then, you can determine why they buy from someone else.
The tricky part is that cue. The response is obvious: they are buying from the competition. The reward might also be evident; it could be a good price or more straightforward not to think about it. Whatever the reward is, it's essential to understand what it is to the customer whose habits you want to change. However, the cue is more elusive and might require more work.
For example, we have bought Aquafresh toothpaste for 40 years. We have never even considered another brand. Our cue to purchase is turning into the toothpaste aisle at our local market. Our intuitive brains say, "Oh! I know what we get here," and walk us to the toothpaste aisle.
Rule #2: Once you've identified where that habit is, introduce a new cue to replace the existing one.
Identifying the different stages in the habit loop provides an opportunity to intervene. If you want to change habits, the most effective way is to disrupt that cue.
Therefore, knowing that we are doing that walk to Aquafresh in the aisle gives you the information you need to understand what makes us buy that toothpaste. If you represented the other toothpaste brand, you could develop a strategy addressing that moment.
Can you introduce a new cue?
Can you modify the cue or the trigger so people do something else instead?
For example, getting an end cap display in the grocery store might get our attention before we zombie-walk to the Aquafresh. We are not in habit mode by encountering the toothpaste in a different part of the store. So, we might evaluate the competitive brand differently and perhaps even try it.
Rule #3: Make the transition easy.
Minimizing any barriers that might get in the way of a new behavior is essential. Making it easy to do and user-friendly is what creates rewards. Rewards create good feelings (or something else just as valuable related to the situation), which lead to happy memories. These happy memories are what the Intuitive System remembers when it starts cueing up habitual behavior, and voila! A new habit forms.
When you're approaching habit change, the vital thing to remember is that we evolved into habits to make things easier for us. Therefore, if the process of trying to break somebody out of a habit requires lots of effort on their part, there's an excellent chance it's not going to work.
Apple did an excellent job with this regarding Apple Pay. It's so easy to wave a phone near the reader. It became my go-to way to pay. I am grouchy when the system doesn't work with it. I can't believe I will have to get my credit card out of my wallet (which might not even be on my person at the moment) to pay.