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.
Fun example of real life A/B testing. It’s encouraging when you can prove these methods in day-to-day interactions, like Groundhog Day.
Totally true. They loved seeing the immediate results of some simple tweaks and testing. And happening on Leap Day is close enough to Groundhog day. 🙂
This is like stepping into a clothes shop. Don’t ask me about my state of wellbeing, just tell me where the bloody menswear area is! I buy much more stuffs when I don’t spend 5 minutes asking myself “alright… are these men or women clothes here?” So confusing nowadays!
And remind me about my shirt size as well so it avoids me asking when I realise I still don’t know it.
It’s true. Helping me with my next action is more helpful to me than wondering how my day’s going. And it’s not like I’m going to tell you the truth when you ask how my day is going.