Amplifying Customer Experience By Looking Through a Behavioral Science Lens
The emerging fields of Customer Experience (CX) and behavioral science have steadily grown in popularity over the past few years. Leading organizations worldwide are adopting and implementing CX to achieve great success. However, highly impactful tactics that lie at the intersection of CX and behavioral science are being overlooked and underutilized. By using a behavioral science lens, organizations can amplify CX initiatives to multiple their already impressive results.
If there is one thing behavioral science has taught us, it is that people don’t actually know what motivates them. In fact, our assumptions as to what motivates people or how they experience something are often incorrect.
Behavioral science itself can help reverse this trend and identify how customers will feel and respond when interacting with Government organizations. By applying alternative methods to both customer and employee-related challenges, the Government can nudge its customers towards making smarter, mutually beneficial decisions and leave them feeling positive and comfortable with their interaction.
Government organizations can apply the following behavioral science ‘hacks’ or strategies to improve CX and promote or prompt specific behaviors —
Framing – Present choices in a positive, approachable language. Customers will respond more agreeably to this when making decisions and will feel better about their experience
Social Proof – Let customers know that most other people are choosing “X” or doing “Y.” They will be more inclined to go with that option if they know others are doing it
Defaults – If you want to incentivize a user to opt-in to something, set the default to “opt-in.” People are biased towards the default, since they must take deliberate action to change it
Loss Aversion – Make clear any potential losses that could result from a bad decision. People dislike loss more than they appreciate gains
Strong Finish – Complete interactions on a positive note. We tend to remember our experiences towards the end of an encounter more, so finishing strong will help people walk away feeling better about their interaction
When considering people’s interaction points with their organization or communications materials, Government entities can use methods such as the ones outlined above to influence outcomes and experiences. For example, consider how social proofing could nudge customers to sign up for a program that will benefit them, or how including a positive message at the end of an interaction could leave someone with a more positive outlook and trusting attitude towards your organization.
These ideas are just to get you started on combining CX and behavioral science to drive quantifiable results for a Government organization. Behavioral science offers room to experiment, identify areas for improvements, and take action to grow in ways that were unthinkable in the past.
