Products produce behaviors

A couple of weeks back I bought a new ereader from Kobo. My goal was to get out of the Amazon ecosystem which has been getting steadily worse and worse.

Since then I've been reading more and more, especially since I found a way to get longer web essays onto it (e.g. 20-30 minute reads that are too long for the computer or on a phone).

Even though I already had an ereader, my behavior and habits locked me into reading in one specific way. The new ereader was different enough that I experimented with how I read and ended up creating new behaviors around it.

When selling or communicating with brand new customers, you should take this behavior creation into account. What new behaviors can your product enable? Are the customers expecting a new behavior to arrive with the product or will that be unexpected? How can you help guide a customer to start and stick with a new behavior?

A customer buying a sample pack of running gels is probably looking to start running marathon distances. One buying easy-on-the-stomach ones is probably already running long and having "issues". The behavior the first expects (e.g. long weekend runs) will vary greatly from the second (e.g. only running with pit-stops nearby...)

We are all bundles of habits and behaviors. The more you can cater to and support your customers' intended and unexpected behaviors, the more satisfied they'll be.

For analyzing buying behaviors, Repeat Customer Insights uses a few different models to tease out what buyers are doing. With a focus on long-term customers, it can help you find and keep your most loyal customers.

Eric Davis

Market to your customer's timing

Figure out how long customers wait in-between purchases and you have a key component for your marketing timing. This is the basis of the Average Latency metric and Order Sequence Report in Repeat Customer Insights.

Learn more

Topics: Customer behavior

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