*Even the best trigger is worthless if customers don’t perform the intended behavior in the second phase of the Hooked Model: Actions. To sustain a trigger’s momentum and increase the likelihood of customers performing the intended behavior, make the action phase as simple to complete as possible. In this video, you’ll learn the most common hurdles customers face and how to overcome them with heuristics. *

Sustaining Engagement

In this module, you’ll learn the next two phases of the Hooked Model: the action phase and the variable reward phase. In the action phase, customers perform the behavior your product intends to habituate. The action phase is closely followed by the reward phase, where customers get the relief they came for. To learn more about how to ensure customers complete the action phase and receive a satisfying reward, watch the two lessons and case studies below.

I. Hooked Model - Actions

Psychology of engagement - customers must take action. Triggered by boredom users are thrust into action of Instagram - scrolling feed

Make it easier for customers to take action - reduce friction, reduce steps = more likely to do behavior

Ex. Keurig - 1 button to make coffee, 1 button to make tea. Keurig takes half of 5 minute brew time of regular coffee
- even though way more expensive

Customer Journey Map

Map out all the steps a customer takes to get to a desired outcome

Start feel internal trogger to take action

Six hurdles

Time - the longer it takes, less likely we are to do it

Google drive reduces time to view teammate docs

Money - the more it costs, less likely we are to do it

Amazone partners with Affirm buy now pay later

Effort - the more effort it takes, less likely we are to do it

Physical effort of pumping breastmilk - willow reduces this effot with breatsmilk pumping

Cognitive Load - The harder it is to understand, less likely to do

Most apps use similar icons to make it easier to understand - accessibility

Non-routine - Less familiar we are with a behavior, less likely to do it

Headspace and 10% happier - incorporate routines into meditation

Social deviance - Less socially acceptable, less likely to do it

Michael Phelps and mental health with talk space
Next step is to remove friction points WE've developed heuristics - cognitive shortcuts to help us make decisions in a world full of choices
Thinking fast book

Four Brain biases

Anchoring: Anchoring price of discount to original price - using old info
Scarcity: Value things more the less available they are
Framing: Making something more attractive by changing the way it is presented. Southwest airlines, slogan reduces cognitive load with a question "wanna get awayu"
Endowed Progress: More effort we put into something, the more likely we are to complete it because we have invested effort

Identify how heuristics can reduce friction

Not all actions should be made easier. If we want the user to think about something, we want them to take more time and think about it

ex. trading app want them to think more instead of recklessly trading
ex. GitHub - finds potential conflicts and makes you review it before making it live

Key Takeaways

The action phase is a temporary relief of the action model
Each hurdle is specific, and depends on the customer and context
Consider the long-term consequences before you apply heuristics -example discounting products habituates users to expect discounts
Leverage heurristics to help customers do the things they want to do, rather than have to do

II. Actions: Gusto

For small businesses, back-office tasks like payroll can be a frequent and time-intensive undertaking prone to costly errors. Recognizing this need, Gusto simplified payroll into a simple and reliable feature that runs payroll in 60 seconds. Today, 98% of trial users convert to Gusto’s paid plan.

Small businesses spend 21 days a year doing payroll
Gusto - payroll, benefits, and HR software
ENtire backoffice in single Platform
Helps overcome time physical effort and cognitive load and money
Uses framing and endowed progress to help small businesses navigate a resource draining activity
hurdle 1: time
Takes a whole day to process payroll and 2-3 days to deposit
Most small businesses do payroll manually - but with gusto it takes 60 seconds

hurdle 2; physical effort and cognitive load

storing payroll and employee info in cloud to leave historical record to make it easy to accomplish HR tasks
8% error rate it reduces
Business owners describe payroll as confusing, frustrating, and time consuming
Sends out email reminders before payroll process initiates

hurdle 3: money

Customers avoid tax penalties and late fees
40% of businesses get fined $845 for payroll tax penalties

Takeaways

Hurdles can have more than one solution, and one heuristic can solve many hurdles
Go further than simply addresing obvious hurdles to show value to the customer