Many thanks to Susan for sending it along. The article's title tells the story. I'm not terribly shocked by the information in the article. If you've been following along, you'll know that NextStage's research into expectation and experience and expectation and satisfaction has a long and rich history. Expectation and experience is covered in Reading Virtual Minds, Chapter 7, and I've made sections of that chapter available in earlier blog posts.
The question this time out is "why is expectation so low?" I'll answer that by sharing that chapter 6 of Reading Virtual Minds.
When was the last time somebody opened up a business-based email or browsed an B2x website and said, "My God, this is beautiful! I'm so glad I opened/read/saw this! I'll just have to tell all my friends!"
Chances are you've never heard those types of comments. Chances are that you view these types of activities with the same sense of boredom and frustration that you use to view salespeople who didn't know when to quit. The next time you are in one of these situations take a minute and do a little self monitoring. Are you tensing, perhaps a little, perhaps a lot? Is your brow furrowed or smooth? Are you blinking less than you normally do? Are you breathing from your chest or from your stomach? And your thighs? Are the big muscles in front and back of the thighs tight or relaxed?
In short, are you in a "flight or fight" repose or are you relatively relaxed and either happy or at least comfortable to be doing what you're doing? You'd be amazed at the number of people who go through minuscule to mightyscule anxiety responses when they engage in these relatively innocuous activities.
Next up, more from Reading Virtual Minds, Chapter 6, "Expectation versus Experience".
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
Links for this post:
- Blog posts about Reading Virtual Minds, Chapter 7 "Experience versus Expectation"
- Consumer Psychology posts
- Expectation posts
- Reading Virtual Minds
- Reading Virtual Minds, Chapter 6, "Experience versus Expectation"
- Site Development Lags Expectations
- Susan Prager
I'll be speaking at the San Francisco April '07 Emetrics Summit on Quantifying and Optimizing the Human Side of Online Marketing on May 7, 2007. Come on by and say hello.
(Information in this arc is from Chapter 6, "Experience Versus Expectation" of my next book, Reading Virtual Minds. Text and images copyright Joseph Carrabis and NextStage Evolution 2006-2007)
» Site Development Lags Expectations, Part 2 from BizMediaScience
Experience versus Expectation, Part 2 [Read More]
Tracked on: April 1, 2007 10:15 AM | Permalink to Trackback