Why Understanding Customers Must Come Before Nudging Them
Behavioural science has become a popular tool for businesses seeking to influence customer decisions.
Nudges — small design changes that guide behaviour — are now common across digital journeys, pricing models, loyalty schemes, and communications.
But while nudging can be highly effective, it carries risk when applied without a clear understanding of the customer’s underlying psychology.
The problem is not the nudge itself. The problem is when businesses treat nudging as a shortcut — deploying behavioural tactics without first understanding what matters to people, how they perceive the experience, and what will build or break trust over time.
Several recent examples illustrate how nudges — even when technically well-designed — have backfired when customer psychology was overlooked.
Nudging Without Understanding: When It Goes Wrong
Uber introduced an automatic ride assignment feature, sending drivers their next job before completing their current one. The intention was efficiency. But drivers perceived it as a loss of control. Many felt pressured, sparking frustration, strikes, and reputational damage. Uber eventually adjusted the feature.
Amazon used opt-out design patterns to encourage Prime subscriptions. Customers often signed up without realising, but the difficulty of cancelling led to regulatory action in both the US and Europe. What might have driven short-term subscription growth came at the expense of long-term trust.
LinkedIn sent repeated notification emails nudging users to re-engage — such as “See who viewed your profile.” The frequency and perceived manipulation led to user complaints, legal challenges, and changes in email practices.
LinkedIn sent repeated notification emails nudging users to re-engage — such as “See who viewed your profile.” The frequency and perceived manipulation led to user complaints, legal challenges, and changes in email practices.
Microsoft’s design of Windows 10 upgrade prompts used interface nudges that made declining the update difficult to find. Many users felt misled. The backlash included consumer complaints, regulatory attention, and a forced redesign of the update flow.
Each of these examples involved a technically sound behavioural tactic — but applied without enough attention to how it would feel to the person on the receiving end.
Nudging is Not a Substitute for Understanding
These outcomes reflect a wider point: behavioural science works best when built on a foundation of consumer psychology.
Nudges alone change behaviour. But understanding psychology explains why the behaviour happens in the first place — and how people will interpret the experience.
This requires insight into:
Emotional needs — such as control, fairness, safety, or belonging.
Cognitive patterns — including mental shortcuts, habits, and biases.
Context — cultural norms, expectations, and sensitivities.
Trust dynamics — how clarity, autonomy, and transparency shape perception.
Without this deeper understanding, nudging can easily cross the line from helpful to manipulative. And once trust is damaged, even effective behavioural design loses its value.
The Most Important Question Before Designing a Nudge
The critical question is simple: ——"If the customer fully understood this experience — would they feel respected or misled?"
This test cuts through technical debates about behavioural design. It focuses on how the nudge aligns with human needs, perceptions, and values.
When the answer is unclear or uncomfortable, the solution is rarely to refine the nudge. It is to step back, understand the customer more deeply, and design an experience that works with their psychology — not against it.
Nudging Done Well Builds Long-Term Value
When businesses combine behavioural science with genuine consumer insight, nudges can enhance customer experience, build loyalty, and drive sustainable growth.
But when nudging is used without understanding — as a mechanism to extract more value rather than create it — the risks quickly outweigh the rewards.
Behavioural science is most effective not when it changes what people do in the short term, but when it strengthens how people feel about the brand in the long term.
That starts with understanding — always before nudging.
By Ifan Batey – Psychology Lead for FSF’s award-winning 2024 rebrand, recognised for innovation.
Contact me at: ifan@wereib.co