What would you say connect these three things? Bad news, Non-Retina Mac displays, and 1-star product reviews? I bet I’ve lost you already. Hang with me. The answer is “spike”.

There are many reasons bad news spread like wildfire in our world (even though it doesn’t in most organizations). The fact that:

  • the media leverages negative bias to increase profits by using clickbait headlines to get more attention and clicks.
  • bad news, like economic recession and increases in gas prices, is something we can relate to because they affect us or people like us.

While these are true, they don’t explain the association between the three items above. Bad news, Non-Retina Mac displays, and 1-star product reviews. Where does “spike” come in?

According to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, a happy customer tell 4 - 6 people about their experience. But, a dissatisfied one will tell between 9-15 people about their experience. Why would someone tell two times more people about a bad experience than a good one? Why does it take up to 40 positive reviews to correct 1 negative?

Like a lot of people, I use my computer regularly. In my case, I use a Retina Mac display. It’s a Retina. Pixel perfect. But if I’d be honest, there was never a time I switched it on and acknowledged that I use a Retina display. I’ve gotten used to it. But the day I happened to use someone else’s Non-retina mac display, I know something was different.

retina vs non-retina

The graduals are many but the spikes are obvious

I look at myself in the mirror every day and I hardly detect I’m getting old. But when I look at my picture from 5 years ago, the change is apparent. Growth is a gradual process, so is good news, so is a Mac Retina display or a 5-star product review on Amazon. We don’t detect it, talk about it and let it spread like wildfire, or stop in wonder because it’s growing on us and it doesn’t catch us by surprise.

A piece of bad news isn’t gradual. It’s like a spike. It’s like a jump in my heartbeat when it’s visualized on a graph. It happens in an instance. It deviates from what’s familiar to me. It catches my attention and the attention of many other people. It’s the same reason why the pixel perfection of a Mac Retina display is more obvious when it’s side by side with a Non-Mac Retina display. The differences shot up. And if you’re like me, scrolling through a product review on Amazon or Yelp, the 5-star reviews hardly make me stop as much as the 1-star reviews.

What this means for business, product, or service

The fact that our brains and nature as human beings are more likely to pay attention to a spike than a gradual improvement provides a channel to pass our message. Before going further, clickbait doesn’t sustain a business, you can’t deceive your customers and expect them to be your brand’s fans for life. It doesn’t work. It starts with value.

  1. Provide value, not clickbait: Value is the foundation of every relationship. Even in your message, ensure you’re passing across something useful. But we can’t stop there, given that human beings get acquainted with growth and good stuff habitually. We don’t want them to become ignorant of the value because they’re too familiar with it. That’s where the surprise comes in.

  2. Create moments of spike: There are many ways to ensure the value we deliver doesn’t become overly familiar. An element of delight or surprise can spark a momentary spike. Like the Retina display story above, DuckDuckgo created some spike with this advert years ago. Companies like Lemonade are also creating some spike by delighting their customers.

DuckDuckGo Lemonade

Spikes are obvious but graduals last longer

Our ability to keep users and get new ones could be fascinating when good value and momentary spike combine. Even better, find ways to make that momentary spike recurring. But if I were to choose between gradual and spike-like progress, I’ll default to gradual because it’s more sustainable and long term. An example is the Fortnite 3 game, evern with less marketing buddget, they’ve surpassed their competitors going the spike route.

Fortnite 3