Marketers have long tapped into the advantages of consumer behaviour surveys; one that asks questions about the consumer’s experience or behaviour when interacting with the business.

Consumers usually respond to these survey because they had a poor customer experience and want to provide feedback, or they were offered an incentive such as a prize draw entry or discount.

Many businesses use these surveys to understand customers desires and behaviours in order to make better business decisions, whether that’s improving their offering or working out where to spend their marketing budget. Marketers know that understanding consumer behaviour is the key to improving the customer experience, and surveys help alleviate guesswork.

But there’s a problem: the information gathered in these surveys is often inaccurate.

What customers tell you they do is not always what they actually do. This is known as the Say vs Do Gap.

The Dilemma of the Say vs Do Gap

Relying on consumers to report their past or intended future behaviour is very important, but it isn’t always accurate. Consumers aren’t necessarily the best reference for recalling or providing accurate detailed information. 

For instance, when was the last time you went to McDonalds? The question should be simple enough to answer, but in hindsight is not always easy to recall accurately. Research performed by location technology company GroundTruth found that 32% of people who said they went to McDonalds in the past month did not actually go.

This is not to say that people aren’t being honest, but rather as humans we forget the details of certain tasks performed in everyday life, such as supermarket shopping. Research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology showed that 95% of our daily decisions are handled by our automatic mind.

How mandatory communications can influence automatic actions

The good news is, when it comes to essential communications, these automatic actions can be influenced.

Here’s how:

The power of effective communication design

Humans are creatures of habit and once we stop consciously monitoring our actions, we quickly return to old habits. But simply by changing the way information and customer choices are presented, good communications provide an opportunity to reinforce habits and guide consumers to take the preferred action.

Effective communication design has the full communications experience in mind. Approach it as a means to reinforce these behaviours, rather than simply act as a single transaction communication.

For example, influencing customers to open an online account can assist them to engage more widely with the organisation and to track their usage and spend between billing events, which builds a sense of satisfaction and pride in the customer relationship.