We all believe we make conscious decisions every day.

The power and influence of the subconscious is often overlooked and we often fail to see the impact it has.

• How many times have you made a decision in the moment?
• How many times have you simply made a decision based on “Gut” feel?
• Do you remember actually thinking and processing options and alternatives in that moment or before you “felt” the right decision to make?
• Do you remember thinking it through and whether it was assisting you in achieving a goal?

Probably not.

The subconscious is a very powerful influence in our day to day lives. It is always processing options and collecting information based on innate factors coded over years of evolution. We live in our internal mind and external world with this constant ingestion and consideration of inputs with a mind ever prepared for fight or flight. It is how we have survived and thrived for millions of years. It simply isn’t something we can change, it isn’t something a business can change and it isn’t something a technology can change.

What does the subconscious mind and evolution have to do with digital?

More than you would think.

Our interaction with digital technology and the general online world we now live in is constantly being assessed and interpreted by our subconscious. It greatly influences our consumption, our behaviors, and our actions. Add complexity to the outcomes and behaviors by adding in hormones, particularly dopamine.

The Dopamine Effect

• How do you feel when someone likes, comments or shares your posts, links or content?
• How do you feel when your mobile devices or local email client offers a sound to let you know an email has arrived?

Let us be honest here, whether you realize it or not, the mind has registered the sound and signaled the body to react and see who has reached out to you. It’s up to you to decide if you consciously reacted or those embedded genes kicked in.

The subconscious mind knows that the action might lead to a reward (satisfaction, happiness, contentment or the like). The moment you go to open the email it releases a bit of dopamine because, well, it is going to reward you for checking your mobile device or email client to see who reached out to you in hopes of creating the feeling.

This action and behavior can be considered achieving or attaining a goal.

The subconscious and conscious mind are wired for goal attainment.

The mind rewards us with hormones that generate a good feeling to confirm the outcome was positive and that we should do it again or move to achieve another goal.

When we cannot achieve our goal, frustration ensues and we don’t get that reward.

Where does that leave us?

Unhappy.

Frustrated.

Depressed.

Angry.

What happens next?

We don’t want to interact or participate in something that makes us unhappy, frustrated, depressed or angry. We avoid it or have great apprehension if we need to make another attempt.

We then often share our feelings and experience with others. Why? Because we tend to like to share negative experiences as a survivalist bonding experience. Think about conversations focused on the weather. Are we ever sharing we are happy? Or do we share that it is too hot, too cold or too windy? If you live in the DC area like I do, I am sure you can relate.

Despite wanting fodder to share and “complain” about, we seek other ways to achieve goals that have positive experiences and outcomes. We want the dopamine because it makes us happy and content.

If your company was responsible for the negative feelings given a poor and frustrating digital experience, well, you lost a customer and the revenue that could have been your reward.

What if they were a prospect customer?

You lost them in the funnel before conversion and lost the possible sale. The kicker is that you lost a prospect customer without even knowing who that person was.

Due to the self-service expectation and nature of digital, you lost ability to impact and interact with that prospect customer and didn’t even know it.

The prospect customer is now highly frustrated and is ever ready to share the experience and feelings with others around them. The sharing may now be amplified ten or even a hundred fold as others hear of the experience. They might be your current customers or other prospects that are now walking around with the knowledge that their family member, friend or peer had a negative experience with you.

Like all humans, those current or prospect customers want to achieve goals (purchase a product, subscribe to a service, gain information) and get the reward of a positive feeling. If that is not what you are delivering, they are going to go elsewhere.

Your digital experiences and offerings must be at a level of quality that ensures your current and prospect customers are able to achieve goals and create that dopamine burst that leads to happiness and satisfaction.

How do you step up and ensure you are at the level of quality that is necessary for positive goal attainment and reward?

The Value of Behavioral Data

The first step is understanding the experience and behaviors of your current and prospect customers. A company needs to begin collecting and analyzing behavioral data along with the traditional transactional data.

Behavioral data is the clicks, views, interactions, the path they take, the content they consume and other ways current or prospect customers engage with your digital sites and properties. The behavior occurs in the top and middle of the funnel and is often overlooked except where conversion to purchase has occurred (transactional data). Those that converted survived, those that didn’t left. Both classes of user are carrying the negative feelings around and ready to share.This article has been adapted from an article originally published on 2040 Digital