Chase Makes a Miracle Happen With Persuasive Design: Part I

An impossible task: I don't know about you, but these days I'm not used to thinking of a credit card company as "my friend" or "on my side". And the last thing I'm interested in is getting another credit card. Then how is it that in less than 5 minutes Chase convinced me that I absolutely have to have their credit card, and not only that, that I will want to use it as much as possible rather than any other card I have?

Let's hear from you: I'm actually not going to tell you how they did it --  yet! That's why this blog is labelled as Part I. I thought it would be more fun if we have everyone go to this site: http://www.chaseblueprint.com/#/home, spend some time looking at all the features of the card, etc, and then come back here and leave a comment with all the effective persuasive design techniques you noticed that they have used. Or if you are more comfortable with just sending me an email, send your comments to weinschenk@gmail.com. (Those of you who have read my book Neuro Web Design: What makes them click? may have an advantage when it comes to coming up with a list of persuasive design ideas they incorporated, but I'm sure everyone will be able to come up with at least a few of the concepts they are using).

I'll compile the ideas: I'll wait a few days and see what everyone has to say and then I'll write Part II and summarize what everyone found.

Trust Lesson #2: Building Trust Is Not Enough

I choose the vendor I trust and have a "habit" for:  I saw the movie Julie and Julia and now am reading the book. I got inspired, therefore, to try making a souffle and a quiche. Except I don't own a souffle dish or a quiche dish. So, time to do my part for the economy, and actually purchase some kitchen wares. I happened to be in a Williams Sonoma store and even looked at and picked up both a quiche and a souffle dish. But I didn't purchase them. I was thinking about a news story I had read recently that Amazon is positioning itself to be the major retailer of everything. I'm an Amazon fan (I actually bought their stock when they first went public and then stupidly sold it about 3 months later!), so I decided I'd buy my souffle and quiche dishes online at Amazon.

Uh, oh, something goes wrong: I quickly found what I wanted and ordered with "one click". Two days later they arrive -- each broken into little pieces.  Next I go online to let them know and get a refund. You can't talk to anyone when you have a problem at Amazon, and the refund process is NOT easy. I have to find the right form online (took several tries). I have to fill out the form correctly (several more tries). I have to print labels (they want the broken dishes back). I have to send the dishes back separately. One has to go back via UPS and the other through the US mail (why is this?!?).

Trust is gone: I am a loyal Amazon fan. I buy hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise from Amazon each year. But I can tell you I will not buy anything breakable from them again, and I will think twice about buying anything that may have to be returned. This experience has eroded my trust, and not because the dishes arrived broken, but because it is so hard to get things rectified if there is a problem. Not being able to talk to a person makes me feel like Amazon doesn't care about my experience as a customer.

Building trust isn't enough: It's one thing to miss out on an opportunity to build trust with a new customer. But it's even worse to erode trust with someone who was loyal. Pay attention to the customers you have now. Make sure you evaluate your website, not only in terms of building trust, but in terms of keeping trust.

The Secret Ingredient to Web Site Loyalty

Here's the Answer: I'll state right up front -- The Secret Ingredient is .... FUN!

The Scenario: Recently I was researching a trip for my son. He's in Cairo for a semester abroad, but rather than coming straight home from there for the Christmas holidays, he's decided he wants to go to London for two weeks (ok, I can't blame him). But he's a poor college student, so he has to do this as cheaply as possible. I was on video chat with him, and we're discussing possible dates, itineraries, etc. I had to be able to search all these different options quickly. First I used Expedia, and then I used Travelocity. They were so slow, and ponderous, and had numerous usability issues. Why is it so hard to choose one-way or multi-destination? Why are the date pickers so hard to use? I was getting more and more frustrated and then somehow (I don't even remember how or why), I ended up at Kayak.com.

Is it Usability or is it Fun?: Now Kayak is much more USABLE than the other sites. And that was wonderful, but that's not what made me stay at Kayak for the rest of the research. And that's not what made me go to Kayak since then to look up all other kinds of travel. Kayak is FUN. If you don't know Kayak, then go try it out right now and then come back and finish reading the blog. Really. Go now and then come back.

So What's So Fun?: When you enter your search criteria into Kayak and press the Search button things happen... you don't just go to a screen with a progress bar, or an hourglass, or a funny picture of William Shatner... you stay on the same screen, but there are things happening... there is some kind of word unscrambler that is scrolling through word combinations. I don't even know what that thing is, but I swear I can feel excitement mounting as it is cycling through until a word or phrase appears. And the results! The results of your search, with cities, and prices starts populating right away. It starts at the bottom of the screen and works up. So first you see a bunch of flights for $775, and then the price dips and you see a bunch of entries scrolling by of $585, then $356, and WOW, it stops at $272... I WON! Now I'm not a gambler, I don't play slot machines, or even the lottery, but I"m telling you, this gets me every time. I find this website fun. Instead of dreading checking out flights I look forward to it. After I find the flight I want I am just one click away from Expedia or Travelocity or whomever else I want to use to actually BUY the flight. It will come up immediately with my flight info right there and I can purchase right away. This is great.

Fun + Usable = Trust?: There's another subtle psychological shift: I trust the info at this site. I used to go to Northwest or Travelocity or Priceline, or all of those, because I didn't trust that I was getting ALL the flights. But because Kayak.com is EASY and it's FUN... I trust it.

The secret ingredient: FUN.