Written by Liz Bittiker
I’m Liz, and I’m a sucker for subscription services.
I feel giddy when I get access to a service or receive physical goods in the mail on a recurring basis, all with minimal effort required on my part. As I type this, I am a loyal subscriber to about 8 different subscription services. Shoutout to my absolute fave, Le Tote (not an #ad).
My newest subscribed obsession? MealPal.
MealPal’s mission is to give busy professionals quick and easy access to seemingly cheap meals with a few taps on their phone. Founded in 2016 in New York, the company has since raised $35 million in funding.
MealPal kept coming up on my radar for about a year, both in my real life and in my digital life, so their offering was hard to ignore. This past April, I found myself clicking their website’s “Sign Up Now!” call to action. They had won me over.
How? Many behavioral science interventions played a large part in my interest and ultimately influenced my membership. Let’s break down a few of the techniques.
Peer Social Proof
At Next Step, we oftentimes grab lunch together as a team. One of my trusty lunch buddies is a MealPal user, so I quickly noticed that he would already have lunch arranged by the time I asked him what his plans were. He had mostly positive thoughts about the service, noting there was a good selection of different meals and restaurants each day, and how it was super convenient to skip the lines in busy downtown San Francisco.
I was intrigued.
I trusted his opinion, which is an example of Peer Social Proof. In behavioral science, Peer Social Proof is when the choices of friends and close acquaintances influence your own decisions, as you trust their opinion and are more inclined to make similar decisions yourself. In this case, I saw my coworker and other like-minded professionals in the SOMA neighborhood grabbing MealPal lunches each day. If they are doing it, why shouldn’t I?
The Power of Free
Our office is a short walk from San Francisco’s Montgomery Muni train station. Almost every morning as I rushed up the Muni stairs, I heard the attention-grabbing “F” word. “Free lunch! Free lunch!” Free lunch? I love free, and I really love lunch. I usually passed by these MealPal brand ambassadors as they puppy-eye-pleaded passer byers to take one of their promotional coupons, and one morning I thought, FINE. I’ll check this free thing out.
I was listening.
Ah yes, the Power of Free. This is a technique that can encourage people to value products that are free more than they would otherwise. Our team closely follows the work and thoughts of Dan Ariely, and he did a great experiment on the Power of Free, which you can learn more about here.
Foot In The Door and Defaulting
Had a membership originally cost $12 a meal, I definitely would have been less likely to sign up. The fact that I was able to give the service a try for free for one month, MealPal was able to grab my interest. After that first initial month, my subscription would be $83.96 for 12 meals, but regardless of the increase I decided to keep my membership active.
I was already a member, I might as well stay a member.
This behavioral science technique is known as Foot in the Door, meaning they hooked me by offering the initial free subscription, and then increased the pricing to be around $7 per meal once I had already felt committed.
This is also an example of the intervention Default. Defaults don’t require any effort from the person making the decision, so in my case it was ultimately easier just to keep my membership than going through the hassle of cancelling.
Pain Of Paying
One bonus of most subscription services is that there is an automatic payment method in place for users, meaning a user doesn’t have to physically give their credit card information or hand cash over to anyone each month, which in a way can make things feel free.
I was rich (or so I thought as I grabbed my lunch without any financial transaction needed in the moment).
This is because MealPal removed the Pain of Paying, meaning they knew it would be super convenient for busy lunch goers to not have to bust out their credit card (or worse, cash and coins) to pay for lunch.
My Final Thoughts
All in all, I really enjoy my MealPal membership and would recommend it to a busy professional who isn’t super picky with food and is trying to stick to a budget like myself.
So bravo, MealPal! You got me.
Infusing behavioral science techniques into the customer journey just as MealPal does is what we specialize in here at Next Step. Interested in how they can be applied to your company? Say hello!
