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What Customers Say, Do and Feel

People don’t think what they feel, they don’t say what they think, and they don’t do what they say.

Craig McCulloch

2 minutes

/ 26th January 2021
  • Group
  • Sales & Distribution
  • Category Insight

What Customers Say, Do and Feel

For a business to be truly customer-centric, it needs to understand and form a balanced view of what its customers say, what they do and what they feel.

Why do humans go to pubs?

It may be because they were thirsty! But there are much cheaper and quicker ways to quench your thirst. The real answer lies in what they feel. They value the social experience.

Psychology plays a crucial role in shaping human behaviours. Sometimes what we say and what we do are out of line with what we feel. Humans today are more socially influenced than ever, not just through their immediate home & work community, but by the all-pervasive 24/7 shared social media channels.


Understanding human contradictions

When humans are on an online path to purchase, they are influenced by many “micro-moments”; moments of purchase intent where their feelings can be influenced. During these moments, we can shape what they do.

Individual human decisions are influenced and shaped by many, many different triggers. “My close friends bought this product, it must be good.” “I don’t know anyone who bought this product, but it has positive reviews, and it must be quite exclusive.” “I saw this product in a film, it must be a luxury brand.” “I heard about this product on a chat show, it’s very popular and cheap, I’m going to Google it.”

Two categories of retailing have weathered disruption well – those at the top and those at the bottom of the price spectrum. Regardless of wealth or status, most of us enjoy finding a bargain and indulging in a treat.  This is because of how it makes us feel.

 

Beware the rise of marketplaces

Marketplaces (Amazon in particular) have totally disrupted everything we do and feel. They even influence what we say. They have cleverly managed to trigger our interactions dynamically, by blending bargains, indulgences, essentials, entertainment and everything in-between, to influence and increase our purchase behaviours.

All this from what was a simple online bookstore! Understand what they have done! Created an Ubermarket that stocks everything, for everyone, everywhere. Utility, hyper convenience, trust, customer service. They have created the online benchmark for influencing our behaviours and managed to turn the quote below on its head!

David Ogilvy said:

People don’t think what they feel, they don’t say what they think, they don’t do what they say.