Looking at a question through a behavioural lens can often help us see things in a new light, and it’s an approach that pairs perfectly with the research methods we’re so familiar with.
One of the most important lessons behavioural science can teach us is about how much of human decision-making is influenced by our environment. We have preferences, sure, but when we’re choosing what to watch next on TV or signing up for a phone contract, we’re constantly receiving cues about what choice to make from the systems we’re navigating. We want to know what’s worth the time, money and effort required – and please don’t make me think about it too much. This leaves us open to persuasion, and with a general preference for what seems low risk.
Crucially though, we’re not always conscious of how the “choice architecture” is influencing us, or quite how much. The same can be said about consumers and businesses alike. What exactly is driving consumer decision-making is often elusive.
How can behavioural science help?
Behavioural science combines a vast amount of scientific theory with a research approach that maps the behaviours and influences involved in decision-making.
A typical research project would look like this:
- Begin with understanding the goal – whose behaviour are we trying to change, and what do we want them to do?
- Researchers audit the current system, whether that’s an online platform or an in-person experience. We aim to get a sense of what users experience for ourselves, viewed through a behavioural lens. Consumers are unlikely to be conscious of biases and heuristics impacting their experience, but it’s key that we can identify these ahead of the next stage.
- We carry out primary research with users, delving deeper into the behavioural influences identified previously; this could involve immersive observation with screen sharing, in-person walk-throughs as they interact with your product, in-depth interviews or large-scale quantitative surveys with behavioural and psychological analysis.
- We’ll propose changes you can make to address behavioural barriers and help facilitate your goal behaviour.
- Finally, we can mock-up examples of online environments or messaging and test it quantitatively and qualitatively with consumers to gauge impact
The purpose of this research process is to map out what users are actually doing and combine this with an in-depth understanding of how choice heuristics affect behaviour.
Projects it’s great for
A behavioural research approach is best suited to projects where there’s a key behaviour you want to encourage or understand. For example, you want to encourage sign-ups to a service or understand churn from your platform. On the other hand, if you’re mostly interested in understanding perceptions, attitudes or beliefs, a traditional approach is better-suited.
For example:
Improving online marketplaces: Any website where we directly compare products and choose what to buy is the prime opportunity to understand consumer behaviour. What motivates choice, and how do users respond to the options they are presented with? What do they consider when making their choice?
Understanding search and discovery behaviours: How are users looking for content and deciding what to engage with? What barriers do they encounter and how do they respond to the existing navigation and discovery environments? What pushes them off-platform?
Optimising customer support journeys: Customer support experiences are a key touchpoint for many businesses to make an impression on users and make them feel valued. How are current experiences falling short, and are there any quick wins we can implement to build trust and increase satisfaction?
At MTM, we are increasingly applying behavioural science to answer challenging questions across the business, including how to build healthy acquisition and retention strategies, which we explore in our proprietary HEART growth framework.
If you would like to learn more, we’d love to hear from you!
Email us to schedule a call on: info@wearemtm.com