Tiny Tweaks That Can Have a BIG Effect... (And Why They Sometimes Don’t)

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Have you ever had that moment where you reached for the medium popcorn, even though you weren’t planning on buying any? Or found yourself signing up for a service simply because the ‘opt-out’ box was sneakily hidden? Congratulations—you’ve been nudged!

Nudging is one of those concepts in behavioral science that sounds simple but has an outsized impact on customer behavior. Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein made it famous in their book Nudge, and since then, businesses, governments, and even sneaky cinema chains have been using it to influence decisions without forcing them. And that’s the key—nudges don’t make you do anything; they just make one option more attractive (or, in some cases, make other options deeply unattractive. For example, I live in Sarasota, Florida. To deter vagrants from sleeping on the benches they installed arm rests half way along the bench so homeless people can’t sleep on them. It was a bit harsh in my view, but there is no doubt it was effective!

Choice Architecture: The Art of the Gentle Push

One of the most powerful nudges is something called choice architecture. Essentially, this is about structuring choices so that people naturally gravitate toward a particular decision.

Take the classic ‘decoy effect.’ You walk into a cinema and see three popcorn sizes: Small for $4, Medium for $7, and Large for $7.50. Suddenly, that Large popcorn looks like the best deal in the world. Why? Because the Medium option is the decoy. No one wants to buy it—it’s just there to make Large look like a no-brainer.

This kind of nudge isn’t just for cinemas. Businesses can use it in pricing strategies, product placements, and even subscription models. Ever noticed how software companies always have a ‘Standard’ plan sitting between a ‘Basic’ and ‘Premium’ plan? Guess which one they really want you to buy.

The Compromise Effect: The Goldilocks of Consumer Choices

Humans have an instinctive distrust of extremes. If you’re given three options—one cheap, one expensive, and one in the middle—chances are you’ll pick the middle one. Why? Because it feels like the safest bet. This is called extreme aversion, or what I like to call the ‘Goldilocks Effect’—not too cheap, not too expensive, just right.

My wife and I are a prime example of this. Every time we have work done on our house, we get three quotes. We never go with the cheapest or the most expensive; we always go in the middle. That’s extreme aversion at work. The middle option always seems like the most sensible choice, and businesses use this to nudge you into picking the option they want you to pick.

I have seen many Business-to-business companies use these two nudges very successfully. Providing a client with three options, knowing they will typically go for the one in the middle.

The Halo Effect: Looking Good Gets You Everywhere

The?Halo Effect?is another psychological principle that can be used as a nudge. Simply put, if people have a positive first impression of something, they assume everything else about it is good, too.

I like Apple. Their products?look?sleek, and I love the interface, so I assume the whole experience must?be?better. (And don’t even get me started on the psychological tricks in their stores—no prices on the walls, everything beautifully displayed, and that intoxicating ‘new gadget’ smell.)

If your business can create a strong first impression—whether through branding, design, or even just excellent customer experience—you can nudge people toward trusting and buying from you without them even realizing why.

When Nudges Fail: The Art of Getting It Wrong

Now, before you start redesigning your pricing models and shoving decoys everywhere, a word of caution: nudges don’t always work.

Take the Decoy Effect. It’s been tested in labs hundreds of times, and it works beautifully—until you apply it to something subjective, like taste. Researchers tried using a decoy to get people to choose between different flavors of Kool-Aid (grape vs. cherry). They threw in a ‘watered-down’ version as a decoy, expecting it to make the full-flavor version look better. Result? Nothing changed. Turns out, if people have strong preferences, nudges don’t budge them.

The same applies to extreme brand loyalty. Ryan Hamilton has a friend who only drinks Diet Coke. If you tried to nudge her into drinking Diet Pepsi, she’d probably disown you. Some things are sacred.

The Golden Rule: Test, Test, and Test Again

This brings me to the most important takeaway: you have to test your nudges. Just because something works in theory doesn’t mean it’ll work for your customers.

A classic example is loss aversion—the idea that people hate losing something more than they love gaining something. It’s a well-studied principle, and it should work everywhere. But researchers have tried applying it in a business setting, and… crickets. No effect at all.

So before you roll out a nudge-based strategy across your entire company, test it in small batches. See how different customer segments react. Measure the results. And if it doesn’t work, tweak it. Or, in the words of every builder giving you a quote—“We’ll just try something else and see what happens.”

Final Thoughts: The Magic of Small Changes

Nudging is a fascinating tool in the world of customer experience. Done right, it can steer customers toward better decisions without them even realizing it. But it’s not magic—it’s psychology. And like all things in psychology, it’s messy, situational, and sometimes unpredictable.

The key takeaway? Small changes can have a big impact. Whether it’s structuring choices more effectively, leveraging social psychology, or just making an option seem that much more attractive, nudges can help improve customer experience—and, let’s be honest, boost your bottom line.

And if this article nudged you into wanting to learn more, tune into The Intuitive Customer podcast, where Ryan Hamilton and I break these things down in even more detail. Give it a listen—you might just get nudged into becoming a loyal fan.

Until next time, happy nudging!