Don’t give me choices!
One of my biggest pet peeves, is going to a restaurant and being greeted with a huge menu. For me the dining experience is specifically linked to the cuisine and the dishes specifically selected to showcase this, a good restaurant in my humble opinion should only have 20–30 items on it, encompassing all courses. I’m not someone who easily gets startled or flustered but just a few weeks ago I walked into a restaurant that had 8 different cuisines on the menu and well over 300+ dishes to choose from, I was flustered and didn’t know what to choose!
To me, the consumer experience is one where we feel empowered to make the right choices and as a marketer it's our job to provide this. A company needs to find a very specific niche and service them, if they are too broad they don’t attract anyone. The famous saying goes “ A jack of all trades, master of none”. When a company knows its market and they are good at what they do, they don’t need to lots of options, the consumer has inherent trust and won't look elsewhere.
Godin in Chapter three of This is Marketing gives us insight into how choice for consumers, can really impact the sales experience and lower the conversion rate. Godin tells of how 65% of the people who needed glasses but didn’t have, would pass on buying these relatively inexpensive life changing glasses. He wondered how he could change the customer experience for the potential customers. He took away choice from the customer, you might be thinking how would that change anything? Amazingly this doubled sales, all he did was take away all the different types of glasses being showcased and only showed one pair to the consumer, they tried it on and they were told these are yours, take it or leave it. They had only one choice, they weren’t choosing the frames, the color or anything else, just to buy or not to.
In my opinion, choice can be good, however it should be a limited and calculated choice. When phone manufacturers like Samsung and Apple release their new phones, they usually have a few choices, however never more than 3–4, this allows them to focus on making great quality products and also keeps down the production costs. For me this is the correct way, giving the customer a few, very high quality choices and letting them make an informed and easy choice.
As always would love to hear any feedback and please feel free to get in contact.
Best,
Zak
