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- [00:00]
Melina Palmer
Welcome to episode 562 of the Brainy Business Understanding the Psychology of why People Buy Today's episode is all about the paradox of choice. Ready? Let's get started.
- [00:17]
Podcast Announcer
You are listening to the Brainy Business Podcast where we dig into the psychology of why people buy and help you incorporate behavioral economics into your business, making it more brain friendly. Now, here's your host, Melina Palmer.
- [00:33]
Melina Palmer
Hello. Hello everyone. My name is Melina Palmer and I want to welcome you to the Brainy Business Podcast. Have you ever found yourself scrolling through Netflix or wandering the produce aisle, or even trying to decide where to go on vacation and felt so overwhelmed by options that you were somehow less satisfied after finally picking something? Or perhaps you quickly realized that the best option was to deal with this whole thing later and somehow found yourself backstorming scrolling through TikTok as a customer, you feel this constantly. You probably complain about all those companies and how hard they make it to buy from them or get what you need. So why is it that when it's time to create your own offers, your pricing tiers, product line, sales packages, website text, it's all somehow forgotten? It feels like people want more options and choices and sizes and colors and you have to accommodate everything because of course more must be better. But the science shows us it's anything but. This episode, which originally aired back in September 2021, is all about the paradox of choice. A fascinating concept. So no wonder. This is one of the most downloaded episodes in the history of the show. And with more than 560 episodes, that's saying something. Whatever led you to choose to listen to this one today? I'm glad you're here and confident you're going to enjoy it. As you listen, I encourage you to consider where you have too many choices and options in your offerings. How could you reduce those and make it easier to buy from you really quickly? Before we get into the episode, I want to be sure you know there are links in the show notes for my top related past episodes, books, ways to get in touch, and more. It's all within the app you're listening to and@the brainybusiness.com562 now let's jump right in and talk about the Paradox of choice.
- [02:24]
Guest Expert
The Paradox of Choice is a term and concept popularized by Barry Schwartz, whose book and popular TED Talk have been shared around the world many times over. I highly recommend checking them both out and they're of course linked for you.
- [02:37]
Melina Palmer
In the show notes.
- [02:39]
Guest Expert
One of the things I found fascinating is his explanation of why this conundrum really exists and getting to the root of the problem and why it can be so hard to overcome. It's one of those connections I. I.
- [02:51]
Melina Palmer
Don'T think I would have made on my own.
- [02:52]
Guest Expert
But that really smacks you in the head when you hear it. So what is that? Root freedom. As he says, most people and nations would agree that freedom is a good thing. We generally want people to be free and believe that's tied to their overall well being. Increased freedom is therefore tied to an increase in well being. And freedom can't really exist without choice. This makes me think of the Model T and when Henry Ford was famously quoted as saying that the customers could have the car in any color they want as long as it's black. Being told you're free to pick whatever you want, but not having real options to choose from is an empty benefit. It doesn't really mean anything. And the ability to choose without choices means you aren't actually free at all. Logically, we can then connect that if freedom is needed to increase our well being and choice is needed to be truly free, then the more choices we have, the better off and more free we're going to be, right? Unfortunately, as Schwartz has shown and many research studies have proven, this logic is flawed. When presented with too many choices, like we have in most societies today, people become paralyzed, stressed and feel stuck. It can cause mental anguish and regret. Some choice is good, but too much and we are definitely worse off. This is why it's called paradox. And while it would be great to have an exact number say that three or eight or 25 choices was ideal, and anything more than that is too much, it doesn't really work that way. As with so many things I talk about on this show, context matters. While two might be the right number of options, in one scenario it could be six for something else. The really important thing to know is that adding some choice is important. I'm linking to the episode on Relativity, which goes into more detail about why we need comparisons to help us value things. Because we humans can't value one off items. Having at least some choice and comparison helps us to make a decision and feel good about it. But too many and we get overwhelmed. The original study that inspired Schwartz to write his book and go all in on the paradox of choice was about jams in a supermarket. You may have heard about this before, but I'm still going to summarize it here for you. Anyway, it was a simple test promoting gourmet jams and jellies, which included a table where people could try some to help generate interest and then they were given a coupon for a dollar off to encourage them to buy right then and of course help with tracking. In one scenario there were 24 types of jam and in the other only six. On the surface, we would likely think that more is better and having 24 choices makes it more likely that people find something they like and want to take advantage of their coupon, whereas if there are only six options, people might not find anything compelling enough to get them to buy. What the study found is that people were a lot more likely to stop and sample when there were 24 GMs, so if you were working the table it would likely feel like it was the better success. But people were much more likely to buy when there were only six options. With the 24 jam display, only 3% of those who tasted bought jam. When there was a limited number of only six jams, it was 10 times that. 30% of the tasters ended up buying. Now why would this be? It's because when there are too many choices, our brains get overloaded. In the case of the jam, you may want to mull it over and think about getting some next time, but it's just because your brain doesn't want to evaluate all those choices and make the wrong one. Have you ever scrolled through Netflix or any other streaming service and felt like there was nothing left to watch? Like you've made it to the end? You know what I'm talking about? There are actually a gargantuan amount of options within these streaming services with more being added all the time. I'm confident no one has actually ever made it to the end of Netflix. So why does it feel like it? Why do you get frustrated and abandon the whole thing or just rewatch old episodes of Friends you've seen a million times? It's because there are too many choices, like the table of 24 jams. You may poke around and feel excited about the idea of watching something, but when it comes time to commit, nothing is compelling or perfect enough to move forward with. This search of perfection presents its own problem within the paradox of choice, which I'll introduce using Schwartz's example of trying to buy jeans. He explains how back in the day, the only jeans that were available were very uncomfortable with no give, and once you finally broke them in so that they were comfortable, it was just about time to go get another pair and.
- [08:01]
Melina Palmer
Start the process all over again.
- [08:03]
Guest Expert
Everyone still wore jeans and accepted that they were uncomfortable and didn't fit well, there was only one option and therefore nothing to be stressed or concerned about. If you want jeans, this is it. So one of these times in his cyclical nature of jean buying, he went in to get his newest pair of jeans and realized the whole world had changed while he was wearing in his denim. Upon entering the store and asking for his size of jeans, the salesperson asked, do you want relaxed fit, boot cut, wide leg, straight leg, and on and on? To which he reportedly answered, I want the ones that used to be the only ones. They told him they didn't have those anymore, but it is important to note if they had, he probably would have taken those uncomfortable jeans and been just as happy with them because it was the easy choice and it would have been overwhelming to have to deal with looking for new types of jeans. Sort of that devil you know is better than the devil you don't scenario, which is basically, it's easier to stick with what I've always done than to look for something that may or may not be better. But because he was forced to have to try on new jeans if he wanted any, he spent over an hour trying on tons of different pairs and left with one that he explains as being the best fitting and most comfortable pair of jeans he had ever had. But he felt worse about it. Can you relate to that feeling, even if it wasn't? With jeans, you've probably been there with one choice or another, and you might wonder why. There are a few things at play. First off, as I just alluded to, when you can try on so many pairs, you expect perfection. Now there must be something that's like a glove for you, and even though they fit better than your old ones and the gajillion pairs you just tried on, it may feel like if you had given just a little more time and effort, searched a little bit more, you could have found them. Nothing can live up to that dream of the perfect pair of jeans that also doesn't really exist. But your brain has a hard time accepting that and think about where the blame lies. When there's only one kind of jeans and they don't fit, you can blame the company, and any dreams you have of the perfect pair are completely hypothetical. Your optimism bias can help you to believe that it could happen. Maybe you will even invent them and become a gazillionaire, and it can actually be a strangely positive experience for you. But when there are countless options to choose from and you tried on a bunch and didn't get that perfect pair, who can you blame now? There's no one to blame but yourself. If only you had tried a little harder or searched a little longer, you could have found that perfect pair. But you gave up, you settled, you failed. It might not always seem that dramatic, you know, it's just genes, but your subconscious is dealing with this sort of letdown constantly. It can get very taxing over time, and it's no wonder our brains rebel at the idea of evaluating too many options. Another really telling example from Schwartz was from online dating. In a lecture I watched of his, which is also linked for you in the show notes, he talked about speed dating and how when they were asked what they were looking for in a date, women listed off a bunch of attributes they needed to be kind, caring, empathetic, funny and good looking. When they were only presented with six potential matches, they were more likely to consider those main attributes and chose more people they were interested in having a second date with. When they were presented with 12 potential matches, they chose eight less people and were more likely to select people on looks alone. To recap, more options made the women choose less people overall that they wanted a second date with, and they used more superficial criteria that would make them less happy with the choices in the long run. It became too challenging of a decision and analysis with 12 people, so the brain defaulted to the easiest decision to make physical attractiveness and let everything else.
- [12:20]
Melina Palmer
Go out the window.
- [12:22]
Guest Expert
When you think of the dating apps of today, Tinder and all the others, it isn't surprising to hear that choices are more superficial and people have a harder time finding dates or satisfying long term relationships. Plus, in a world where there's always another option, always a list of potential matches, and the feeling that much like the pair of jeans, perfection is just one search or swipe away. And it can be hard to settle. Even when the choice is something you'd be incredibly happy with. That constant thought of what if? Can be too much for many to bear. This conundrum includes a mix of counterfactual and pre factual thinking, which both already have episodes on the podcast, as well as regret aversion, which will be covered in an episode very soon and be retroactively added into the show notes with the others. Once that's done, anticipated regret can have a huge impact on behavior. We want to choose wisely and frustratingly, this pursuit of perfection or even just a little bit better can cause us to make worse decisions. When nothing is permanent and there are always more options, why settle for anything less than perfect? And what else is out there that you didn't find yet. If you're constantly looking to keep up with the Joneses or the Kardashians these days, I suppose, and can never rest and just feel satisfied with a decision, just imagine how exhausted you're going to get if you're doing this. With every little decision constantly agonizing over if it was best, it's no wonder that every choice can soon feel like too much to bear. I'm going to talk a little about the two different kinds of people, maximizers and satisficers in a moment, but there are a few more points to make first, and while there are countless other examples I could list of how too many decisions and options can lead to trouble for us humans, I'm guessing you get the point by now. The important thing to know is that while it seems like lots of choice and infinite options would make us happier, increasing our freedom and well being to use the terms from earlier, that just isn't how it works. And crazily enough, even if you make the exact same choice, when presented with more options, people will often feel worse about the decision they made. So if you're debating between three houses and then choose one, you'll be happier with that house than if you debated between 10 houses and still picked that same house. As you now know, when presented with too many choices, we blame ourselves, make decisions using criteria that don't fully help us make a good decision or feel like we made a good decision, and constantly what if wondering how things could have been better if we ever do decide? We also have this weird tendency to build up all the best features of the unchosen options in our minds and make a super option that didn't really exist but still makes us feel that much worse. So let's imagine you're deciding between three cars. One is sporty, one is highest rated on safety, and the third is the most economical option. Whichever you choose, let's just say it's the safe option. You have very high expectations that it likely can't live up to when something goes wrong, or even if it just performs adequately and your excitement wanes over time as you adjust to this new item that you have, you're gonna have some version of regret in your mind and lament over the options you didn't choose. And now somehow they combine in your mind as an economical yet incredibly sporty supercar that you could have had instead. This is a totally fictitious option that doesn't really exist, but your brain doesn't comprehend that and makes the one you did choose feel even worse by comparison as you're haunted by what could have been. Before we get into the what to do about it part of the episode, I want to share a little about the two types of people. As I mentioned previously, they are maximizers and satisficers. Essentially, a maximizer is always looking for the best of the best. They want to make sure that they choose whatever is objectively the best there is. Every single time that anyone else could look at and know that it is conclusively the best choice. Then we have the satisficers. These are people who find something that's good enough and feel satisfied with that choice. Once satisficers find something they're happy with, they're good to go. And don't necessarily dwell on what might have been too much. Even if there was a better option out there, you could have made, you're subjectively happy and therefore at peace with the decision. Before listening to this episode, you may have thought that the maximizers would be happiest. I mean, they pick the things that are objectively the best. But that isn't how it works. In one example, Schwartz talked about college seniors going off to find jobs. They, the maximizers, spent more time, considered more jobs, and had on average $7,000 more a year in starting salary than the satisficers. It seems like they should be happier, right? Objectively, they made the best choice, but in reality they were more pessimistic, anxious, stressed, worried, tired, overwhelmed, depressed, regretful, and disappointed than the satisficers. Yikes. It's not really a great list, is it? I had a conversation with Aaron, my husband, about this because as a very analytical person, his natural tendency is to be a maximizer. He will research every option, every detail, and make long lists or charts evaluating which is best. Whether it's about a new car, to buy, presents for the kids, a new backpack, the best T shirt, or a trip we might want to take. As a satisficer myself, I know it's often frustrating for him when he tries to talk through the options, and my answer is something like, I'm sure whatever you choose will be fine, or sure that makes sense to whatever point he's making in that particular moment. Here's a window into a typical conversation at our house. Aaron will say something like, if we're going to take the kids on a trip, do you think we should do New York, Disneyland, Harry Potter World, or Yellowstone? And I respond with, I'm sure we'll have a great time on any of them to which he says, but which would be best when I don't commit to something enthusiastically in that moment. He will then go into detail about the costs of each which one has a red eye and which ones don't, the distance from each hotel to the airport and other attractions, and the ratings and amenities of each hotel, how long we would be gone for each one, what activities we might take the kids to on each day, whether we would have a rental car or take the train or a taxi, and so much more. For him, these are vital pieces of information needed to make the best decision. And to me it's just too much to think about. I appreciate that he's done all the work and that it matters to him, but in my opinion, any of them can be a great time. Another of my standard answers that feels reasonable to me and is truly how I feel, but I know makes him a little crazy is there are too many outstanding variables for me to make a decision about that. That's my version of I don't know, what do you want to do? And he finds it just as frustrating. Don't get me wrong, if I have.
- [20:02]
Melina Palmer
A strong opinion about something like that.
- [20:04]
Guest Expert
A two day, one night trip to New York from Seattle with three kids in tow is a no go. I'll make sure it's known. But often I see the benefit in each of the options. We could have fun in all those places and make the best of any trip, in my opinion, if he's evaluated them and knows they're mostly comparable and within our travel budget. Let's just pick one and make the best of it. If we went to New York and it rained the whole time, I wouldn't be checking the weather in Orlando and wishing we had chosen to go to Harry Potter world. And to be fair, Aaron doesn't do that either. He wants to make the best choice, but will then make the best of and enjoy any situation we find ourselves in. So I'm very lucky there. It's just his nature to spend that extra time analyzing the details to maximize the choice we make. He has reigned this in a bit over the years of his entire life, not just to accommodate me. And when I asked him about it while prepping for this episode, he let me know that the way he is now is much less than what his natural tendency may be, which I find a bit terrifying. That's mostly a joke. What I do know in living with a maximizer who's very good at explaining his thought processes to me is all that analysis would make me bonkers. I can't even begin to appreciate the depth at which he considers choices. And I know he's limited what he's talking to me about, and I already find it overwhelming. That's a whole lot of stress and time that wouldn't feel valuable to me. But some level of that analysis is important for him. And I must say, when I have a big decision to make, it is nice to have someone I can send off to find all the variables and present them to me in a nice package. In Aaron's reigning in of his natural tendencies, he's employing Schwartz's first tip for approaching choice in a way that won't control his life. I'm going to summarize that list from Schwartz for you here, but for the full details you should definitely check out the book. And don't forget there is a link for you in the show notes to make it nice and easy. That first tip is to choose when to choose. If you only save the big evaluations for the really important stuff, it'll help you have that mental capacity when you need it and not be so stressed and overwhelmed with the small stuff. And you don't have to justify for anyone else why this particular decision is important enough for you. Aaron is an essentialist and has drastically reduced the items of clothing he owns. At one point he was down to a total of 19 items. He has a few more now, but not much. So for him, finding the right shirt or pair of shorts is a decision that warrants a lot of upfront analysis. He's sort of like Steve jobs with 30 of the same sweater, except he has a few of the same pair of shorts, shirt and pullover. He spent a lot of time evaluating them up front so he knows they fit his needs and then doesn't have to waste his time thinking about what to wear each day because he already knows he made the best decision for him. I don't spend much time evaluating the perfect articles of clothing before buying them, and I have many more of them in the closet, which means I invest in a daily what to wear question. I feel like it kind of evens out for us in that way. I spend more time in the day today and he spent all that time up front. But in short, don't waste a bunch of mental energy for decisions that don't really matter that much. Be happy with good enough whenever you can so you can have more mental energy when you need it. This relates very closely to the next tip, which is to become a chooser, not a picker. When you take the time to evaluate what choices are important to you and relegate everything else to more automatic processing. That subconscious brain, it frees up the mental space to choose what matters instead of picking from options that may not suit you. As Schwartz says, choosers have time to modify their goals and pickers do not. Choosers have time to avoid following the herd, pickers do not. Eliminating unnecessary mental fluff will help you to be a chooser instead of a picker. As you go to implement this, I would suggest coming at it from both angles. Pick two things where it's really important for you to be thoughtful and choose well with your conscious cognitive brain. These are the things where you should invest time and then make a list of 10 to 20 things that are not worth that time. And yes, this is intentionally way out of proportion because a lot of what you're going to drop is trivial stuff that can still be a big time suck. The next tip is to satisfy more and maximize less. As you just heard, satisficers are happier, less stressed, less regretful, and so much more. Good enough is often good enough. Like with those 10 to 20 items you aren't going to dwell on. And if you struggle with this idea, I would like to take it a step further and suggest that if you consider your mental well, being good enough can actually be not just good enough, but even better in many ways. Give it a try and see how it feels. The next tip is to think about the costs of missed opportunities. I didn't get into this too much in the episode, but there is a lot in the book if you want to check it out. In short, you should look for the balance when thinking of missed opportunities. Don't think about it so much that it makes you miserable, but don't completely neglect it as it can falsely inflate the benefits of any one decision. Next is to make your decisions non reversible if you aren't able to. What if you're more likely to be happier with the choice you made because you won't dwell on it and then you want to practice an attitude of gratitude? I have an entire episode on the brainy benefits of gratitude which is linked for you in the show notes, so I'm not going to get into it too much here, but in short, there are lots of studies that find we are happier and better off when we appreciate what we have. Be grateful for everything you have in your life. Schwartz, like so many others, recommends a gratitude journal so you can make regular notes about what you're grateful for and it will help to not get so hung up on the paths not taken or your as yet unattained perfection. Our next tip is to regret less. Similar to the non reversible decision, if you don't think about choices you've made after the fact and don't allow the regret to control you, it'll allow you to be happier overall and then you want to anticipate adaptation.
- [26:44]
Melina Palmer
Adaptation.
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Guest Expert
As I touched on during the episode, we naturally adapt to any situation, so the new phone you're so excited to buy will soon become just another thing you have. That jacket you absolutely have to have will be less exciting once you have worn it a few times. If you know that your brain is going to adapt to these changing circumstances and bring that into your initial evaluation process, it can help everything go more smoothly so you aren't constantly chasing that high. You also want to control your expectations. He makes a great point that when there are too many choices, the expectations for something to be perfect are far too high. And because nothing can really live up to that standard, you end up with a recipe for always being disappointed with items not meeting unrealistic expectations. Even if you made the best possible choice, if you leave a little room for surprise and delight, it can help you have a better experience overall. It's also important to curtail social comparison. The question I present to you for this, especially if you are naturally a maximizer, is Even if the choice you make is objectively better, meaning that someone else could look at it and clearly see that it was better or best, but it makes you mentally and emotionally worse off, Is it actually better for you if you would be happier, less anxious, stressed and worried? Have more energy, be less likely to be disappointed and regretful, and you could spend less time analyzing every little nuance of a decision. Is that actually the better choice? What's your happiness worth and how do things change if you add that into your initial evaluation, eliminating social comparisons and several of the other tips on this list can help with that. And the last tip is to embrace constraints. Limiting options and reducing possible choices can help you to fulfill everything on this list. Instead of going into every possible store and website to find the best pair of jeans or shampoo or cologne or ice cream or vacation destination, limit your options only. Let yourself seriously consider a few options within previously set limits or set a time that you're allowed to search for things and be happy with whatever you choose. Don't worry about what else there could be or what might be invented tomorrow. Love what you have and enjoy the extra time not stressing about what could, should, or would have been. Embrace the idea of constraints and set up some firm rules for yourself to follow around choice. You'll be surprised at how much they help with your overall mental state. So I know there was a lot there and don't worry if you weren't able to get them all jotted down. There is a list on that freebie worksheet that's waiting for you in the show notes, so go check that out. It's at the brainybusiness.com 171 and before we close out the show, it's important to talk about the paradox of choice from a business perspective, because it's not all exactly the same as that advice that Schwartz provided for individuals. First, it's important to know that people are generally overwhelmed with all the decisions they're having to make every day, and presenting way too many options without organization or a logical flow is a big mistake that a lot of businesses make. We like to assume that the customer can read everything and make an informed decision for themselves. But if you give them too many options or variables or simply don't make it easy to choose, they could just bail or go with the default. And if the default isn't you, that's a problem. You also want to really consider what choice they're making and what the defaults are. We tend to only compare ourselves with the direct competition instead of evaluating what else someone could do with their time, money or whatever else they would exchange in order to engage with our businesses. Doing nothing, Buying nothing is always an option. Are you more compelling than keeping money in their account? Is researching and reading through all the material on your website more enticing than binge watching TED Lasso? I'm going to go ahead and guess it isn't because that show is amazing and to help you with a future choice, I'm going to highly recommend you check it out if you haven't done so yet. And that leads to the next kind of tip here, which is thinking about how you can make the choice as simple as possible. When can you reduce options and make a suggestion like I just did about TED Lasso to help the person decide? There are links in the show, notes to the episodes on herding and social proof. Knowing that a lot of people are overwhelmed, stressed out pickers who are likely to follow the herd on many choices, you need to determine how you can show them a choice that's herd worthy, like listing out when items are most popular or a staff favorite. Give testimonials and suggest items that people like them are buying and loving, you are the expert and people are looking for guidance. Make a Recommendation it's amazing to me how often people don't want to be on the hook for someone else's choice and so they leave it completely in the other person's court. In normal times, I travel a lot and will often find myself in a new place with unfamiliar options. Sometimes when going out to eat, I'll ask the wait staff what they would recommend because I expect they know more about the choice than I do. I am shocked and frustrated by how often the response is something like oh, it's all great, I'm sure you'll be happy with anything. Or even if they rattle off how they enjoy half the menu, it can leave me in the same frustrated spot. And because the brain gets what it expects and I feel like the burden is on me. If the choice really wasn't great, I just feel worse overall as a customer. When someone asks for your recommendation, give it and don't provide more than two options and be enthusiastic about it, explaining a little of why you like it. To keep with the restaurant example, if I say I'm debating between the salmon, the steak and the scallops, it's okay to ask a clarifying question to help you make a recommendation, but then pick one. If you really do think everything is great, that's fine, but still make a suggestion to help nudge their decision making process so it's easier. You could say oh, I love all the food here, but if I had to pick I'd go with the salmon or all those options are great, but tonight I suggest the scallops. The chef just picked them up fresh and they are huge and so flavorful. If you don't know which to pick, know that it likely doesn't matter too much. Any recommendation can help relieve the burden of choice making stress, but use relativity as your guide. And again, that episode is linked in the show notes. If someone asks about three options, there are likely two that are more alike. Say in my steak, salmon or scallops question, two are seafood and so recommending one of those will help it to feel like a well deliberated decision. If I had said steak, salmon or chicken, the salmon would be out and you should pick either the steak or the chicken to recommend. Even if you're selling stuff that's significantly more expensive than steak or salmon, still make recommendations to help someone in their choosing. You'll likely see more deals close and people who are happier with their choices because you made it easy on them. So no matter what, you're going to limit the options you present and show that you are the expert and did the heavy lifting for them by making recommendations and helping work with those hurting instincts by including some social proof. Sometimes you still need to show that there are more options available because people who aren't familiar with the paradox of choice will likely still expect and want options. However, sometimes they just want the illusion of choice. What I mean by the illusion of choice is even if you have a lot of options but you know and implement your social proof and relativity and structure the decision well, it can make the decision easier so they sort of self limit without getting overwhelmed and walking out. They can feel like there were a lot of options, but you can still nudge and guide them along the way to reduce the number of decisions they have to make and make them all easier. Solid choice architecture is critical for this Restaurants are an example of when you need more choices. Obviously Amazon has a lot of choices and so do clothing retailers. You couldn't have only two books to choose from or three shirts at Nordstrom. That would be ridiculous. But that doesn't mean everything gets selected in the same volume and should be presented in the same way. Some of those items are there to help help make it feel like there are options and round out the experience. As we talk a little about choice architecture, I'm going to stick to the restaurant example and I've done a seven part series on nudging and choice architecture on the show already. It's linked for you in the show notes, but we'll talk about it a little bit before closing out today. So imagine you pick up a menu and all the items were alphabetical. How awful would that experience be? Appetizers mixed in with entrees and sides.
- [36:11]
Melina Palmer
And drinks and desserts.
- [36:12]
Guest Expert
It would be excruciating to decide pre sorting those into categories to help someone make a decision is really important. Also, if you couldn't filter your search when buying clothes online and had to look at every single item to find what you're looking for, it would take forever and not be worth the effort. I want to be able to filter to only see what's in my size, what style I want. So I'm not seeing formal wear when I'm looking for athletic wear or have to look at tops and pants when I'm only interested in shoes. Think about how frustrated you get when a company that you're trying to buy for isn't well structured in that experience. And now take a moment and think about your own business's Buying experience. Is it like a well thought out menu or is it more of a mashup of everything all out there for people to wade through on their own? Consider the customer experience. Who is searching? What problem are they solving? What is the best solution? And how can you make it obvious that that's the best choice for most people to help them decide, they can always go see the other options to help them evaluate whatever they may be. But whatever that best choice is, which you need to put in the time up front to know what's best for most people who are going to buy from you, you better showcase the heck out of it.
- [37:35]
Melina Palmer
So what got your brain buzzing as you learned about the paradox of choice today? For me, it's the reminder that what we feel as buyers overwhelm friction indecision is exactly what we often cause when we build out offers in our business. We want to give people options, but what we often give them is stress. And in a world where everything is customizable and AI tools and digital products multiply by the second, we're not going to start living in a world with fewer choices anytime soon. But the good news is, because you understand the psychology behind the paradox of choice, you can build out your programs and offerings smarter. You can simplify, make it easy for.
- [38:16]
Guest Expert
People to buy from you, even if.
- [38:18]
Melina Palmer
Your offer is complex when you think.
- [38:21]
Guest Expert
About it that way, being that you.
- [38:23]
Melina Palmer
Know, sort of savior for people from all the choices that exist, it can be a real win win.
- [38:29]
Guest Expert
You can make it easier for people.
- [38:30]
Melina Palmer
To buy from you so that they buy faster, which is a win for you and for them. They will also be more likely to know what they're getting and be confident in it so it works better. Also wins all around. And your staff potentially have less stuff to have to remember, reducing their cognitive load so they can be more creative and happier at work. Reducing turnover again, wins everywhere. And while the options for where to apply the insights you learned today about the paradox of choice are seemingly infinite, I don't want you to be overwhelmed by those choices and not do anything. So to help you apply and use this, here is what I want you to consider. What's the most important thing for you to sell right now? Is there a paradox of choice that's making it harder for people to see that as their best option? And how can you make it easier for people to to choose that thing? Come share it with me on social media, you'll find us as the brainy biz pretty much everywhere. And I am Melina Palmer on LinkedIn There are of course links in the show notes to make it easy, along with links for my top related past episodes, books and ways we can work together. If you want support simplifying your offers and making your customer experience brain friendly, you can email me at melina the brainy business.com to learn how we help brands create better, more streamlined and brainier experiences for their customers. It's all waiting for you in the app you're listening to and atthe brainy business.com562 and just like that, episode 562 on the paradox of Choice is done. Join me next time for another brainy episode of the Brainy Business Podcast. It's going to be a lot of of fun. You don't want to miss it. Until then, thanks again for listening and learning with me and remember to be thoughtful.
- [40:26]
Podcast Announcer
Thank you for listening to the Brainy Business Podcast. Molina offers virtual strategy sessions, workshops and other services to help businesses be more brain friendly. For more free resources, visit thebrainybusiness.com them.