Psychological theories help explain why people do what they do. As customer experience consultants we believe when you are working on a Customer Experience strategy psychological theory is crucial to understanding the behavior of your customers.

However, psychology is unlike other sciences; it isn't exact. In fact, you might have to consider much of what psychology tells us is provisional, an impermanent hypothesis that explains what many people do most of the time. Just not all the time.

This conditional nature of human behavior theory can be problematic when analyzing customer behavior or attempting to address your customers' psychology in a meaningful way in the Customer Experience.

This episode of our podcast explores how people make a common mistake when applying psychological theory to their Customer Experience strategy. We also share how to fix it.

It comes down to two significant issues with psychological theory:

#1: Theory needs context to be exact.

Unlike some of its scientific colleagues in the so-called "hard" sciences, most of the psychological theory is contingent. What is valid for human behavior at one time and in one environment is entirely different at another time and in an alternate setting. The variables matter to the outcome of human behavior. A lot.

#2: Psychological theory is complicated.

The complexity of human behavior makes the analysis of it equally knotty. Also, a psychological influence is not usually acting alone; multiple influences are affecting the outcome of human behavior. In addition, the boundaries of the theories can muddle matters, too. All of this to say, psychology is not an exact science with consistently predictable outcomes.

Because of this gray area inherent in human behavior theories, it can be challenging to convince people to change their business-as-usual practices to incorporate the "soft stuff." Most organizations prefer to stick to their knitting and address concrete principles like price, product, and placement, instead of emotional stuff like human decision-making.

Despite these issues, there is hope for using psychology to optimize your CX strategy. Many organizations are able to apply the theories of psychology to great effect regarding customer behavior and behavioral segmentation, and you can, too.

Listen to the podcast in its entirety to learn more about how to properly apply psychological theories about customer behavior to your Customer Experience strategy.

The Intuitive Customer podcasts are designed to explain the psychological concepts behind customer behavior.

If you would like to find out from one of our CX consultants how you can implement the concepts we discussed in your organization's marketing to improve customer loyalty and retention, contact us at www.beyondphilosophy.com.

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