Behaviour Modification 101
Posted on February 21, 2008 - Filed Under Thought Starters
*Nerdy article alert!
In Tuesday’s article, I wrote about how people like surprises. But why? And how does that affect how my behaviour? Luckily, behavioural psychology has some answers. Humans respond to rewards. I mean, I like getting stuff when I do things well. Especially if that stuff is a free beer. Once again, I digress. Back to the topic … there are three main patterns for how you can reward people:
Constant Reinforcement
This is the simplest kind of reinforcement. Every time someone does something that you like, you give them a treat. You won a pitch? You take the team out for dinner and drinks. Easy and effective, and people learn their tasks quickly.
Unfortunately, this schedule is much more costly than any of the other methods and you run the risk of satiating your subjects (meaning they’ll be full and won’t pull your lever anymore, because they’re not hungry). In addition, heightened expectations for the rewards can result, leaving people less satisfied with the results as they continually achieve.
On a side note, I always need constant reinforcement. Please hug me and tell me I’m special.
Fixed Ratio
Try and try again. With a fixed ratio setup, people are rewarded after a fixed number of actions. Once they learn the setup, people tend to slack off after they received a reward, then work harder as they come closer to meeting their quota and getting their next reward.
It’s pretty much what sales quotas are. You make your base quota, you get to keep your job. You make the next level, you get a bonus etc. Knowing that you’re closer to your goal makes you work harder for it. On the other hand, knowing you’re far from your goal may make you put off working for it. This system tends to reward the hardworking/motivated people the most. But it leaves your more “relaxed” customers thinking that they won’t win… so they don’t want to try.
Random Ratio
Random ratio is simple in that every action has equal chance of winning, and often times the system allows you to win far more than you lose. Once people learn the system, and they realized the more and the faster that they perform the desired action, the more rewards they get.
Because the prizes are randomly distributed, people don’t come to expect rewards after a certain interval. They don’t get bored and increase their expectation. It’s pretty much like creating a gambling addict of your customers. But if the rewards are cool and add real value to your customers’ lives, then you have a chance of growing their love for you.
So, surprise and delight rewards based on a random selection provide the best results during the promotion, as well as the best continued lift after it’s done. Of course, you want to make sure that people want to have whatever you’re giving out.
- Christian
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You’re special.
But I’m not going to hug you. Maybe I’ll do that hand-shake half-hug thing, but that’s it.
Nice, I remember these reinforcement rules from a soc class I took in high school.
I got a question for you, though. What about self-rewarding? And, how does the reward schema fit into the entrepreneurial frame of mind?
Hamid,
Interesting questions and I’m not entirely sure that I have the answers, but I’ll take a stab at it.
For self-rewarding, the same principles apply. Let’s say that you are studying for a test and guarantee yourself a 10 minute study break every hour. Or a beer when you’re done. If you did this every time, it could fall into a fixed ratio reward scheme.
For the entrepreneurial frame of mind, the take away is that rewards provide the means of consumers forming relationships with your brand. The rewards can be something physical like money or reward points. The rewards could also be more abstract, like making you feel cool, or validation, or acknowledgement of your input.
Basically, for entrepreneurs, rewarding your customers makes your customers like you. And if you rewards them enough (especially on an emotional level), you can get them to love you. And that’s where you can make the most money. When people love your brand.
- Christian