Interesting hooks in products

How products use behavior design to sell

Serin Paul
Jul 20, 2017 · 4 min read

We all are constantly engaging with different products in our day to day life. But we never realize how these products strategically create a loop to capture our attention and make us their consumers. This is a story of how i got hooked to one of such product.

Note : If you are not aware of what hooks are , read this wonderful book from Nir Eyal Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products .

Hook Canvas

Couple of days after i read this book, this incident happened and that triggered me to write this.

The story of how i ditched my old internet connection for a new one ;)

My existing internet connection was acting weird for couple of days….and i had thoughts on exploring a new provider. That is when i saw this advertisement on the roadside regarding an another service provider, with their contact number written in big bold letters.Instantly it caught my attention and the no was easy to remember.

Next day morning , again i had issues with my existing connection and by 11.00 am i decided to enquire about whether the provider i saw yesterday on the roadside posting , is available in my area . But even though i enquired, i was in half mind to take the connection as i didn’t want to take the pain of setting up a new connection.

By 2.00 pm i got a call from the customer executive informing me that ,the connection is available and he gave me details of the plans available. The plans was planned for all types of users i felt, as i recognized that there was a plan fitting perfectly for my usage type too. I mentioned to the customer executive that i would let them know and dropped the call . I was Still in half mind to take the connection as i tried to fix my existing connection too parallelly …

By 4.00 pm i got the first message from the service provider, about some of the benefits i would get if i am taking the connection within two days.

Next day morning again i am getting another message from them about further benefits of taking the connection immediately.

Screenshot of the message i got

By evening the customer executive calls me again and spoke to me about how quickly he can come and setup the connection. After that call , i didn’t want to further experiment with my existing connection and i went ahead and got the new connection.

If we closely analyze these events we understand that these events are not something which happened by itself , but are well sequenced events to get the customer.

Not only did they get the customer, they made me talk about their brand to my friends too with their proactive customer engagement , couple of days later i got this too..

E-mail in my inbox couple of days later……

I think factors like this differentiate the great from the mediocre. With a well organized sequence of events, one can acquire and retain a bunch of loyal customers like this company do .

Reiterating the key points here, which made me buy the product :

Trigger

  • Internal Trigger : My need to have a stable internet connection
  • External Trigger: The advertisement i saw

Action : My phone call to the customer service executive, using the easily memorable number i saw.

Variable reward : Multiple rewards given to me by the company and the sense of urgency to have a stable connection which enables me for lot more using internet.

Investment : My action to buy the product and spread the word so that i get discounts.

By the way, this company has grown exponentially over the last few years because of their wonderful service and great ways to growth hack, Cheers ACT .

PS : Guys please don’t ask me about my old crush (internet provider) as i hate to bad mouth about my ex :) .

Have a great day :)

Learning Curve of my life

Thoughts on my journey with People,Business and Technology

)
Serin Paul

Written by

Product Manager, foodie and a always curious guy | Entrepreneur | Ex-Zomato

Learning Curve of my life

Thoughts on my journey with People,Business and Technology

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade