How To Build Habit Forming Products

Do you ever feel like you’re spinning your wheels when it comes to finding ways on how to get the customers to use your product?

Nir Eyal is Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author of the book Hooked that probably attracted many of you here today.

He is does quite a bit of research, writing, and consulting on product psychology — the deeper reasons underlying why users do what they do.

The book was released in 2014, but recently Nir’s publisher asked him to do a revision. What is interesting is that many companies that Nir mapped in ‘Hooked’ as ones that are nailing customer engagement – still work on a high level! In this episode of I’m That Geek, Nir gives examples of those companies and explains the struggles they face when trying to keep their customers HOOKED.

Why are habits important?

In human psychology, habit is an action we complete without much thinking about it. It is like taking that one cup you are used to when making your tea in the morning. If we translate this to market and product placement it means that forming a habit creates loyal customers that use your product without even thinking about the existence of competition. It is like Googling. We do not think about the browser we use – we just Google something.

In this I’m That Geek episode, Nir explains how to apply a strategy for creating customer habits related to your product.

There are just four steps and believe it or not, these four phases are applicable to both products that are used often and those that are used rarely.

There is only ONE reason people use any product or service!

Finding that reason and applying Nir’s strategy from ‘Hooked’ will help you develop your business and create a community of customers around your product.

However, when entering the market for the first time using this ‘hook’ strategy can be difficult. But Nir also has a SOLUTION for that! He explains how to use another four result-giving techniques:
Faster velocity, greater frequency, make the reward more rewarding or easier entry into the hook. (min 58:58)

Your Questions Answered In Real Time.

As the Live Show is interactive our viewers get to ask questions directly, FACE to FACE.

Stuart asks – do you have to have a physical product if you want to Hooked your users on it?

Nir says: “if you’re not asking for that investment, if you’re not asking them to put something into the product, you’re leaving a huge opportunity on the table” (36:32)

The 5 WHY’S

Nir Eyal takes one of our viewers, Michael Parish, through the 5 Why’s exercise to help him discover what is the HOOK that will make his clients addicted to his sleeping app.

The FIVE WHYS model makes us ask the question WHY until we come to the core of the internal trigger, that gives us the possibility to connect the product with our users on an emotional level. As we said at the beginning, that is the first step to customer habit creation and building of a strong community around the product.

Watch the entire conversation minute 42:08

Want to avoid a lot of useless theory too and get your own questions answered?

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