Guilty as Charged!

There are a million things that could go wrong (or right) between the time when you add a product to your cart and when you press ‘pay’. It’s those little things that companies try to manipulate so that the scales tilt in their favour.

I have been guilty of being the ‘Non-Buying’ customer that most companies dread on so many occasions. I’ve been the prospective customer that gives the seller some hope and then squashes it in a second. I’ve even done the thing where I’m walking towards a store, extremely well-aware of the gleam and the readiness in the salespersons' eyes, only to walk away in the opposite direction at the last second. Sometimes it is intentional, most of the times it is not. However, what remains true is the fact that there always comes a time when our behaviour conforms to one of the types below that categorises us as the non-buying consumer. 

Types of Non-Buying Consumer Behaviour

The Complainer:

Ever been that person who jumps the gun way before hand? Well, I most certainly have, and it has been futile in the long-run.

Once, while scrolling through my feed on Instagram I came across an advertisement on the Nykaa page showing a particular face cream that I had been pining for a while being offered at a great discount. I immediately followed the link attached to the official web page, only to discover that after adding the product to the cart, the discount was not even getting applied. The price promised in the ad was not the price displayed on the product page. This was a total let-down for me and I felt the need to message their customer care team immediately. I wrote an e-mail to them describing the issue and my squashed hopes. I told people I knew about my experience as well. I complained, both literally and figuratively.

However, to this day I have no idea about whether they responded to me or not. I had forgotten about it almost immediately after. My “disappointment” (as quoted in my complaint to them) was nowhere to be seen as I remained oblivious.

This made me reflect on how I actually fit into the “complainer” category in that instance- I registered my issue with them, never followed up on it and did not even end up buying the product. It was simply the discount offer that led me to the web page. It never materialized after all.

I still don’t own that cream but someone in the Nykaa team might have had some major explaining to do that day.

Entitlement leads consumers to complain about trivial issues as well.

The Overly Agreeable:

We have all been pseudo-advocates of products we probably never even bought or intended to buy. I have been in a position where I was totally sold on the idea of the product or service concerned. I 'overly agreed' to everything it had to offer. I recommended it to everyone. But, did I end up buying it? Ofcourse, not.

The iPhone and I share such a history. I have been a fan of the user interface associated with Apple products. I love the specifications of the phone, its look and feel, the way it operates and, ofcourse, the amazing camera features. Yet, I still don’t own an iPhone. I continue to be fascinated with all it has to offer and recommend it to people looking for a new phone despite not having it myself. To me it is one of the best smartphones out there for those who can afford it. But, because I still do not own one myself, I am the non-buying yet overly agreeable customer that Apple probably wishes it could convert.

The Expert:

My recent obsession with beauty and make-up tutorials on YouTube has taken me on a voyage of sorts. I have discovered a plethora of brands and makeup products that I do not own but have a lot of idea and opinions about. I can tell you the good and bad products that most makeup companies offer. I have no professional qualification or experience that dictates this behaviour, yet, I often feel like an “expert” of sorts.

So, imagine the irony of the situation when I sit down among friends, discuss the latest products in the newly-launched range of lipsticks and foundations by Fenty Beauty, comment like a seasoned make-up artist on the merits and demerits of the range based on the tutorials I watched online, and don’t even own the very product! Do I even have a right to form my own judgement without trying it out for myself? 

While a part of me thinks I probably do, Fenty Beauty might despise me for acting like an expert despite having never offered my coins to them.

The Pessimist:

This might perhaps be the most common form of non-buying behaviour that we as customers might exhibit. Because of our diminishing faith in things around us, we tend to believe in the dictum “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.” So, to distance ourselves from future disappointment, we never end up clicking pay after all. Most customers, out of pure hesitation and lack of faith, tend to back out, sometimes at the last moment and sometimes way before. I assign this to that little pessimist voice that resides within us all.

My stint with being the pessimist non-buying consumer reminds me of the day when I was at the Ripley’s museum in Bangkok. They had some brilliant shows and displays that you had to buy tickets and stand in long queues for but the glimmer on everyone’s face after exiting each of those exhibits made it seem worth it.

My parents stood in line to buy tickets to an 11-dimensional show which they ‘knew’ I would enjoy. However, being the panicky little pessimist that I am, I was convinced that something would go wrong. The seats would get stuck or fling me off, the water guns would drench me, the sound would be too much for me, I would get scared easily and hence, my money would go to waste. I was thoroughly against even trying it out. So, we never ended up buying a ticket for me to attend the show.

I do regret not watching it, even to this day, but I was a bigger pessimist at 14 than I am today.

The Staller:

I don’t think I identify with any category more than I do with this one. Owing to my indecisiveness and need to question everything, I almost always stall before making any purchase (I blame my dad for this completely). 

There have been uncountable times where I have intended to purchase a product or avail a service but my indecisiveness led me to stall indefinitely, and then, eventually forget all about it.

While scrolling through my social media, once again, I chanced upon a book subscription service called the The Big Book Box. It is a small company that sends out monthly boxes with books and merchandise, surrounding a particular theme, and because I love books so much, I enquired about their various plans. I messaged them, emailed them and got all the information about their service, shipping policy, refund policy and the likes of it all. Because it was not an inexpensive investment, I decided to wait and decide after a few days. Their overly enthusiastic customer care team kept messaging me and asking me if I wanted to sign up. I continued to stall.

The website I still keep coming back to. 

Days became weeks and weeks became months. There were times when I wanted to just pay and sign up because I just found the idea very cool and there were times I had forgotten about it. The customer care e-mails reduced in frequency but they still continued to exist in my inbox as reminders. I still have not subscribed even though I do follow the page and track their new launches. I have even recommended it to friends who actually did buy a box or two. I just happened to realize that I already own so many unread books that adding more to the pile would be futile. I still might subscribe one day (here I go with the stalling again!), but until then, I am still probably a nuisance to the employees who probably cannot fathom just how someone can be so indecisive.

So, that is basically me and my annoying non-buying habits that probably ruin someone’s day and prevent them from meeting their sales targets. However, I am sure most of us have been in these places before. This assertion stems purely from the fact that as humans, we often exhibit similar patterns of behaviour and given the kind of marketing that we have all come to be exposed to as a society, we tend to respond to them in similar ways too. This leads me to believe that I might not be the worst customer after all!

Let me know in the comments about when you have fit into one or more of these categories.

Until next time!