How to communicate options

How should you communicate options to your customer?

Should you reveal them one at a time, like a waiter explains the specials of the day, or all at once, like you get on a menu?

This is the difference between sequential and simultaneous formats.

Job interviews, meetings, pitches and tender processes tend to be sequential scenarios, whereas product displays in-store or online are more commonly simultaneous. 

Neither format is good or bad, but each requires you to think about how to optimise the choices your customer makes, for you and for them. 

👉 When you are communicating options in a sequential format, the best approach is to focus on the first and final items. 

The first because it sets the tone, using what’s known as ‘primacy’ to establish expectations, and last because as the most recent, it is what’s best remembered. 

👉 When you are communicating options simultaneously, like in a table on your website or in your brochure, focus on design elements like colours, bolding and boxing to focus your customer’s attention. 

Like with sequential choice, the first option plays a role here too. Use the first item to ‘anchor’ price expectations so that other options look like great value.

If you want to save yourself the hassle of wondering how best to communicate products and pricing with your customers, just do this.

_{Ref: Basu, S., & Savani, K. (2019). Choosing Among Options Presented Sequentially or Simultaneously. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 28(1), 97-101.} 

_{Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay}