Why do people decide the way they do?

Most decisions are no real decisions. They are things we just do. The majority of our live runs on autopilot.

When we consciously make decisions, we don’t question them most of the time. It’s not practial. The mental load would be too high.

Imagine the first 10 minutes of your day. Here are decisions you would have to take:

1. Ignore the alarm yes/no
2. Do something on your phone before getting up?
3. If yes, what and how long? yes/no
4. How fast to get up?
5. Where to go first after getting up?
6. Say something nice to your family?
7. If yes, what?
8. Get into the kitchen yes/no
9. Make a coffee yes/no

Each of them has a multitude of alternatives. Evaluating them on a daily basis is unpractical.

That’s why we are not used to questions small decisions. But our business hinges on our customer making a lot of decisions.

Additionally, customers choosing us is not a single choice. It’s a make or break sequence.

Example

Imagine a café. Here are things people need to choose:

1. Walk past our café
2. Notice our café
3. Consider going into the café
4. Actually entering the café
5. Looking at the menu
6. Ording something
7. Ording the thing we make most profit with
8. Stay there or take the coffee to go?
9. Enjoy the coffee
10. Come back the next day

Each of those has loads of elements in this decision. If we want people to choose us, we need to understand these parameters.

I always ask people, why their customer buy from them. It boils down to two answers, said in a million different ways

1. Our product is good (we make good coffee)
2. There is no one like us (place, trust, quality)

And thats basically never true.