Positioning & Strategy
Behavioural Science Consultancy
Behavioural science deals with the gap between what people say and what they do: they say they choose on quality, then pick the option already selected for them.
Decisions are shaped by context: the default, the order of options, how much effort a step appears to demand and what similar people seem to be doing.
Each of those is designed by someone, deliberately or not, and an undesigned one tends to cost completions, renewals and revenue.
Request a Private ConversationMechanisms that shape everyday choices
- Defaults
- The option that applies if someone does nothing, and how strongly it holds.
- Perceived effort
- How hard a step feels, which often matters more than how hard it is.
- Framing
- How the same offer reads as a gain, a loss or a comparison.
- Uncertainty
- Unanswered questions, which lead people to postpone rather than ask.
- Social norms
- What people like them are doing; the closer the reference group, the stronger the pull.
- Loss aversion
- Losses weigh more than equivalent gains, so the cost of not acting often moves people more than the benefit of acting.
Copied nudges and the evidence behind them
Techniques lifted from articles often fail because they were matched to the wrong mechanism. A scarcity message cannot fix a choice that stalls on effort.
The work begins by identifying which mechanism is operating in your setting, using observed behaviour and customer evidence.
Applying behavioural science to a decision
Observe
Where the behaviour departs from what the process expects.
Diagnose
The mechanism most likely responsible, stated so it can be tested.
Design
Changes to defaults, framing, sequence or effort that address it.
Measure
Behavioural outcomes, such as completion, take-up or renewal, rather than stated attitudes.
Commercial and organisational applications
A behavioural science agency brief can concern customers or staff: pricing and plan choice, onboarding, payment, renewals, policy compliance or the adoption of a new internal tool.
Behavioural design agency work on websites and checkouts connects directly to conversion rate optimisation. Work on how buyers compare alternatives connects to positioning and customer research.
Questions about behavioural consultancy
Is this the same as nudging?
Nudges are one tool among several. The wider aim is choice environments that help people make the decisions they intend to make.
How do you keep the work ethical?
Interventions must stay transparent and serve the person choosing as well as the business. Designs that rely on deception are declined.
Find the mechanism behind the behaviour
Describe a decision customers or staff keep getting stuck on. We will suggest which mechanism to examine first.
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