Does your company need a "Bring Mom To Work" Day? Probably.

Joe Gebbia from Airbnb weighed in on a Wall Street Journal soapbox about making mistakes, by telling a story about how he and his fellow internet savvy 20-somethings at Airbnb failed to think about things like font size and language choices when developing their site.  Then they realized that their fastest growing group of hosts is seniors, followed by 50-somethings.  Oops. 

So what did they do?  They held a "Bring Your Mother To Work" Day and asked their mom's to use the site while they observed them.  I am sure that it was an eye opening and productive exercise. (2016)

Maybe it's just me, or the fact that I have been buying lots of stuff online lately, but I am shocked to discover how many dysfunctional websites there are out there; particularly if one tries not to use Amazon.

Here's a short recap of some of the problems that I have encountered in the past few weeks...

1. Entering my address and being told that it was incorrect because I either abbreviated NY or didn't. (Ikea)

2. Being unable to redeem miles because the name on my airline credit card does not match my legal name. (American Airlines)

3. Not being able to include my apartment number in my address because the company hadn't delivered to that address before. (Lego)

4. Couldn't order a comforter and have it sent directly to someone else as a gift. (JC Penney)

Really? 

So here's a suggestion.  Have a "Bring Your Mom To Work Day" to fix your website problems before they put you out of business.

Some nudges work better than others.

If you have traveled lately you may have seen a sign in your hotel room urging you to reuse your towels.  What you may not know is that the wording of that sign greatly impacts whether or not you will comply. 

In a 2008 article published in The Journal for Consumer Research, three message variations were tested with the following results.

1. Reuse your towels because it is good for the environment = 35% compliance

2. Reuse your towels because other guests in this hotel do = 44% compliance

3. Reuse your towels because other hotel guests who stayed in this room did = 49% compliance

(Goldstein, Cialdini, Griskzvicius, 2008)

Nudging works because it uses what is called ‘social proof” or “consensus” to pressure non-participants into joining the crowd – something that most of us want to do.  And as the research demonstrates that the best result comes from the most specific reference to the individual’s immediate situation.

In The New York Times Visionaries section published on 5/27/18, Nathaniel Stinnett of Environmental Voter Project, was profiled based on his efforts to get the 16 million environmentalists who did not vote in 2014 midterm elections to show up this fall.  His weapon of choice? Nudges.  An example from a sample mailer – “Did you know that last time there was a City Council election, 87% of your block voted and you didn’t?”  Hmm.  That certainly demonstrates an understanding of the importance of matching a person’s immediate situation. (Schlossberg, 2018)

Similarly, when I recently considered booking an airline trip, the following message was added to the question about whether or not I wanted to buy trip insurance – “66,929 American Airlines customers protected their trip in the last 7 days.” 

Interesting, although I couldn’t help wondering how many customers they had in the past 7 days and where they were going.  Perhaps they would have been more persuasive if they had said “75% of the people who booked this trip in the past 6 months bought trip insurance.”  The research certainly suggests it.

Goldstein, N., Cialdini, R., Griskzvicius, V. (2008, October) A Room with a Viewpoint: Using Social Norms to Motivate Environmental Conservation in Hotels. Journal of Consumer Research. Retrieved June 13, 2018, from https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/586910?seq=6#page_scan_tab_contents

Schlossberg, T. (2018, May 24) Taking On Climate Change. nytimes.com. Retrieved June 11, 2018, from,  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/24/science/taking-on-climate-change.html