Have you ever noticed how a hand-knitted scarf feels warmer than a mass-produced one, or how a home-cooked meal seems tastier than takeout? This is not mere sentimentality at play. It’s a testament to the Effort Heuristic, a cognitive bias deeply ingrained in our decision-making processes.
In essence, the effort heuristic states that we tend to value objects, experiences, and even ideas more highly when we perceive that greater effort has gone into their creation. Quite simply, we use effort as a shortcut to indicate quality or value. If you worked really hard on something, it must be good, right? Research has shown this to be true across a wide variety of situations from the quality of a poem, to a piece of art, to many of the physical goods you buy.
And if you are trying to demonstrate the value of something – a product, a proposal, or otherwise – the effort heuristic holds great promise for your powers of persuasion.
Details & Examples
By strategically incorporating the effort heuristic into your business practices, you can subtly nudge consumers towards perceiving your products and services as more valuable.
Here are three tactics to consider:
- Transparency and Storytelling: Pull back the curtain on your production process. Share the stories of the artisans, craftsmen, or engineers behind your products. Showcase the meticulous research that goes into your product development. Detail the rigorous training your staff goes through. Highlighting these stories is a great way to trigger the effort heuristic.
- Loyalty Programs with Tiered Rewards: The effort heuristic isn’t just about your own effort, but a way to benefit from your customers’ effort too. Design a loyalty program that rewards customers based on their level of engagement and effort. Offer exclusive perks, early access to new products, or personalized experiences for those who reach higher tiers. This incentivizes continued interaction with your brand and reinforces the value of their efforts.
- Cushion the Blow: Let’s face it, even if you employ every tactic available, sometimes things don’t turn out the way you hoped and you are the person left explaining the result. When this happens (and it happens to everyone at some point), make sure you emphasize all of the effort and hard work that went into the project. Even if the project failed, stakeholders will recognize the value of the effort that went into it and judge it more positively.
This Month’s Challenge: The Effort Audit
This month, we challenge you to conduct an “Effort Audit” of your business practices. Identify areas where you can incorporate the effort heuristic to enhance perceived value. Here are a few questions to get you started:
- Could your sales pitch go deeper into the effort your team puts into their work?
- Does your marketing share behind-the-scenes glimpses of your production process?
- Where does your customer’s effort get recognized and rewarded?
Remember, the effort heuristic isn’t about deception or manipulation. It’s about recognizing the fundamental human tendency to value things that require effort and leveraging that insight to create more meaningful and valuable experiences for your customers.
Want to Learn More? Check out these great resources
For a riveting read, check out some of the original research on the effort heuristic here. For something a bit lighter, Cognition Today shares some great examples of how the effort heuristic comes to life in sales and marketing in their article here.
About the Authors
Ben Wise and Darren Chiu are the founders of Captivate, providing tools and techniques to increase your powers of persuasion. They are sought after speakers on the psychology of persuasion and have appeared at industry events, conferences and corporate training programs. To book them for an engagement, please reach out via LinkedIn.
