It doesn’t take much to tip rational people (like me) into making emotional decisions. One word did it for me the other day. Walking past an optician’s shop I noticed (when I was close enough) a sign saying “Appointments Available Today”. What was it about the word “today” that injected pace, excitement and a positive response from me? Five letters on a sign and I’m a customer. “KERCHING”.
I deeply enjoyed reading Brian and Jeffrey Eisenberg’s Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results book and love the passion with which they talk about “persuasion architecture”. It’s the little things that can make a huge impact on a customer journey, they say, and come up with countless strategies for improving web page successful outcomes. In an earlier blog I talked about the value of short, succinct copy in digital marketing. I also blogged about the “Aggregation of Marginal Gains” and how lots of little improvements can end up with one whacking great big business win. So, armed with these 2 pearls of wisdom I have been impressed with a few little touches from our friends at the world’s favourite airline. So let’s fly. “Cabin Crew, doors to automatic and cross-check...”
Recently the British Airways site has improved, although there are still a few painful moments as I’ll share in a minute. However, it’s the small things they have been doing that I like (and fall for). On a recent trip to Helsinki I was checking in on-line and up popped an up-sell. “Upgrade this flight for £138.50” they enthused. So I did. “KERCHING” went the BA cash register. How easy was that? It goes to show that if you don’t ask, you don’t get. Can’t we all learn to adapt that simple technique to increase average-order value?
Not only that, I loved the way that they took me to a page with the “riff-raff” fare crossed out and “Club Europe” now proudly displayed as if to confirm my new-found social status. It’s not often that we get to play with “strike-through” fonts but this time it persuaded me that my action was a wise one. “Hello” Executive Lounge and “Goodbye” Post-Purchase Dissonance.
Later that day I had to book another flight and I was seduced again by the BA Persuasion Team. Just recently they have unleashed into the booking process every salesman’s 3 greatest friends – Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. Looking at my fare options I was persuaded to take a positive action and generate a successful outcome for BA. All because of 64 characters...
The word that hurt the most? “Disappointment”. How would I live with myself if I let this golden opportunity slip through my fingers, I wept. ”KERCHING”
So, BA recognises the value of using every single character to their advantage and I’ve been taken for almost £400 as a result... not bad for a day’s work in the persuasion architecture team. But there are 5 characters they still use to humiliate me. Sometimes in my breathless haste to book a flight I miss one of their mandatory check boxes. No chance of an “Ooops” Message or a “Sorry something didn’t quite work out there” Message, or even a “we sneaked an extra tick box that you missed” Message. Nope. It’s an “Error” message. And of course it’s in red font just to ram the point home. With an exclamation mark! Might be enough to put me off one day, just as the 5 characters in “Today” made me become a customer for another company. Maybe not quite as appalling as Ford's £1 million Error Message but it makes you think about every single letter, doesn’t it?
As a post-script to this blog I just came across another use of strikethrough font - the hugely impressive Avinash Kaushik used it at the end of his latest blog to display to everybody that a great offer (to upgrade to Clib Class Google Analytics) was at an end. Oh Woe those who dithered - the offer is crossed uot before your eyes...take action next time it presents itself or you too will be disappointed.
