Do you want to increase your sales and improve your customers? opinion of your operation without spending a cent on advertising? Well of course, who doesn’t? But how is that possible? It might be easier than you think. There are several studies showing that a simple touch can have a profound effect on our purchasing decisions as well as our perceptions of what we are experiencing.
In a 2010 study by Josh Ackerman, an evolutionary psychologist at MIT's Sloan School of Management, and his colleagues, it was revealed that people often project the physical qualities of objects they touch with their surroundings. In fact, it actually altered their perception of what they were experiencing.
“Folks holding a heavy clipboard were more likely to judge someone as serious; touching a rough texture was linked to judgments of harshness. Sitting in a hard wooden chair seemed to make people more rigid in a negotiation.” Ackerman cautions, however, that the phenomenon only works if you're not aware that it’s happening.
“If you pay attention to the fact that you're touching something hard or heavy, your mind will overrule it,” he explains.
In similar studies, one of Ackerman's coauthors, Yale University psychologist John Bargh, found that holding a hot drink makes people rate strangers as warmer, more caring and generous, and that the feeling of loneliness can be mitigated by experiencing physical warmth such as holding a warm pack.
Finally, in the retail powerhouse book Why We Buy by Paco Underhill, the author devotes an entire chapter to the power of touch in our purchasing decisions. “Almost all unplanned buying is a result of touching, hearing, smelling or tasting something on the premises of a store- which is why merchandising can be more powerful than marketing.”
So how can you turn this information into increased sales and a better perception of your company? Here are a few simple ideas to make your business warm and memorable:
• On cool mornings provide warm, fragrant drinks like hot cocoa or mulled cider
• Create displays of finished plants in high-end, decorative containers, ready for customers to grab
• Encourage people to touch things. Instead of pointing to where something is, instruct your staff to bring the customer to the bench and hand them the product
• Provide a comfortable seating area with heaters if necessary
• And most important, reassure your customer with a smile, a warm handshake, or a pat on the back.
We hope that this will help make your business a thriving, welcomed oasis in this tactile-starved world we live in.
You can read more about this in Psychology Today’s article https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201303/surface-impact and Why We Buy The Science of Shopping by Paco Underhill.