#goal gradient

[funsimplethings]

[onebiteatatime]

[...]

The goal gradient effect says that you will accelerate your behavior as you progress closer to your goal:

The shorter the distance to the goal the more motivated people will be to reach it.

You can get this extra motivation even with the illusion of progress.

People enjoy being part of a reward program. When compared to customers who are not part of a program, the customers with  reward cards smile more, chat longer with café employees, say “thank you” more often and leave a tip more often.

In a related experiment the same researchers showed that people would visit a web site more frequently and rate more songs during each visit as they got closer to a reward goal at the site. So this goal-gradient effect appears to be generalizable across many situations.

Motivation and purchases plummet right after the goal is reached. This is called a“post-reward resetting phenomenon”.  If you have a 2nd reward level people will initially not be very motivated to reach that 2nd reward. Right after a reward is reached is when you are most at risk of losing your customer.

[...]