Photo created by Intiaz Rahim.

I learn a lot from sitting in the airport concourse and just watching people.  Today’s lesson?

A simple tweak can yield powerful results.

There’s a small nail salon across from the gate here.  Two of the employees stand out front greeting people as they walk by.

“Hi! How are you today?”

“Hello there! How’s it going?”

“Hi there! Do you have time for a manicure today?”

In two hours, they haven’t had one taker so far.  So being weird like I am, I wanted to see if they might be open to a suggestion.  With two people, it’s pretty easy to A/B test what phrases work best for potential customers.  So one employee kept with the generic questions mentioned above.  I convinced the other employee to try a different approach.  We tweaked her wording and then started looking for the right customers rather than just talking to everyone.

“Hi there! How’s your nails looking today?”

“Hello!  Would you like a 10 minute manicure?”

“Hello there! When’s the last time you had your nails perfected?”

Simple tweaks that put the focus on two things: 1) Speed and 2) State of their nails at that moment.

The first employee still asked generalities about how they day was and if they had some time.  Potential customers were able to brush those off easily and say “I’m great” or “Not today” and keep going.  The second employee asked potential customers questions about their nails and honed in on women travelling alone that were strolling through the concourse.

How well did it work?  The previous two hours yielded no customers despite two employees talking to everyone they could in the concourse.  The next hour finished with six new customers, which means money for the team.  Same foot traffic in the concourse as before – just new phrases and approaches from the team.

With your business/hobby/whatever, make sure you’re using the right words.  Trying tweaking a phrase here or a word there to see what happens.

A simple tweak can be a truly powerful tweak.

“Researchers have figured out how to stop people from habitually overeating and biting their nails. They can explain why some of us automatically go for a jog every morning and are more productive at work, while others oversleep and procrastinate. There is a calculus, it turns out, for mastering our subconscious urges. For companies like Target, the exhaustive rendering of our conscious and unconscious patterns into data sets and algorithms has revolutionized what they know about us and, therefore, how precisely they can sell.” – How Companies Learn Your Secrets | The New York Times

Habits are important… yada, yada, yada.  How many times before have you heard people talking about changing your habits and all? A million times – and that’s just in January. But when it comes to numbers, how much control does your habits have over you?

Target and other retailers send massive amounts of money on statisticians to help change your shopping habits.  The New York Times article focuses on changing the shopping habits of pregnant women.  Using different statistical methods to alter its customers’ shopping habits, Target grew it’s revenue from $44 billion in 2002 to $67 billion in 2010.

It’s no doubt that habits are powerful but I think we underestimate them.  From what we buy to who we vote for, habits shape our subconscious, which ultimately makes us do things without ever thinking about it because they’re routine.  Do you really think about driving your car down the Interstate?  Or do you set the cruise control, crank up the music, and just drive? Formed over years of doing the same thing over and over, driving becomes automatic.  You get lost in a conversation with a passenger and pay no attention to the buildings your passing.  It’s not a bad thing – it’s just a habit.

Cultivating the right habits is the key.

The best part of that article –

“Habits aren’t destiny — they can be ignored, changed or replaced. But it’s also true that once the loop is established and a habit emerges, your brain stops fully participating in decision-making. So unless you deliberately fight a habit — unless you find new cues and rewards — the old pattern will unfold automatically.”

You are your habits.  If you do something habitually that you don’t like, you have to fight to change it.  Losing weight, eating healthier, writing that book, or whatever, those goals all center around the habits you have right now.  You just need the right habits in place to finish them.