Unpack Unpleasant Experience Time Estimates

Sometimes what the consumer buys includes a sequence of unpleasant experiences. The retailer isn’t selling the unpleasantness, but it’s inevitable in order to accomplish the positives.

• A carpet store requires the purchaser to prepare for the installation by moving items and then, after installation, moving items back into place. 
• In applying for membership to a prestigious country club, the prospect must not only gather the funds for the dues, but also complete forms and coax references. 
• To undergo a medical procedure, the patient might need to carry out a set of steps both before the procedure and afterwards. 

     To be sure all the steps are completed properly, the retailer would do well to compile and present a list. However, researchers at University of Toronto find, not surprisingly, that when consumers read such a list, it increases their estimates of how bad the total experience will be. It gets worse yet if the shopper starts thinking about the amount of time all this unpleasantness will last or if the retailer tells them the total expected duration. Being told how long a bad experience will last makes it seem less tolerable, according to the Toronto studies.
     The researchers went on, though, to suggest a way to ease the agony a bit: Encourage the consumer to unpack the time estimates, guessing on their own how long each step will take rather than accept a time for the total given by somebody else.
     The reason this works is that we don’t like to spend time on unpleasant tasks, so we tend to predict we’ll get them done quickly. It works the other way around for a list of experiences a consumer finds pleasant. Here, when the time estimates are unpacked, the total predicted duration grows. We think it will take longer.
     To use the unpacking to best advantage, recognize that for many purchased items, there’s a mix of the pleasant and the unpleasant. The steps necessary to leave on a family ocean cruise might be a bother, but the steps necessary to participate in the cruise itself might be joyful.
     Also recognize that possessing an itemized list of negative tasks or experiences can itself give comfort. The list makes clear that there are limits. It won’t be infinite agony. A related point is that reading through and thinking about the list allows the consumer to plan ahead and prepare themselves for what’s coming.

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