Surprise
Task Completion

To complete the matching pair, helpful feedback you must share

How bed company Button & Sprung use socks (!) to create a strong, playful form of post-sales reciprocity

Personally, I could never think of anything worse than combining socks with beds. The post-sleep fabric-on-fabric action just feels like the opposite of comfortable.

However, personal preferences aside, this Nugget In The Wild shows off a clever behavioural idea by UK bed manufacturer Button & Sprung to garner feedback from new customers.

Here's how it works, both practically and behaviourally.

After ordering your chosen sleep vessel and having it delivered by an employee, they then construct the bed. At the end of this process, something curious happens.

They hand you a sock.

A single, albeit attractive sock.

Upon its receipt, most would be suitably confused.

Thankfully, on the back of the protective packaging, an explanation is given: that in order to receive its matching pair, you'll need to respond to an email entitled "Lonely Sock?" with a review for your new bed.

Once review is up, the matching sock is then dispatched and the 100%-cotton reunification can take place.

Looking at the reviews on Button and Sprung's beds, they're pretty strong, averaging 4.91 / 5 from over 1500 sock requests.

A clever, unique approach, then.

But aside from how it works, what's going on under the hood from a behavioural perspective?

Unexpected surprises

When you have someone come deliver and set up your new bed, most people don't assume that they'll be left with a single sock. It's unconventional, playful and leaves a lovely peak-end to the experience.

Other product companies do this too, albeit to a lesser extent. Your writer ordered a rabbit hutch which required self-assembly. Upon opening the box of wood and metal pieces, much to my surprise, a pack of sweeties was also bundled in, giving me a little energy boost whilst I put it together.

However, a single sock is next-level, especially when combined with the other related Nuggets here...

"Major zeegs"

Behaviourally, we're hard-wired to finish tasks that are incomplete.

Yes your bed has been delivered, but the act of giving you that one sock and actively reminding you of its missing half deeply compels you to want to get the other. There's a strong satisfaction with the closure that comes from finishing something, no matter how small.

Until then, you'll experience an uncomfortable bout of the Zeigarnik Effect or what we somewhat lovingly call "major zeegs". And this is all before there's anything gift-related is laden on top...

Playful giving and receiving

Aside from the task itself being incomplete, we're also hard-wired to return any kindness given. In that sense, receiving a soft, fuzzy gift has a particular impact upon us.

It also sets up a particularly positive frame for the review, anchored around a playful need to mirror one's physical kindness in one direction with a very different, digital and literary response.

You get your sock, we get our 5* review, we all win.

Concluding thoughts

Getting people to spend precious time providing customer feedback can be a real challenge, especially once the product has been received. What is the compulsion, unless there is a particularly strong reaction in either extreme?

As a result, evolving the conversation beyond one that's purely transactional with a delightful surprise that feels like a warm and cosy extension of the product itself is a powerful, creative way to get people to reach out.

Other brands should sleep on this, and dream up how they can similarly put the competition to bed with a warm act of gentle behavioural kindness.

Surprise
Task Completion

To complete the matching pair, helpful feedback you must share

How bed company Button & Sprung use socks (!) to create a strong, playful form of post-sales reciprocity

Personally, I could never think of anything worse than combining socks with beds. The post-sleep fabric-on-fabric action just feels like the opposite of comfortable.

However, personal preferences aside, this Nugget In The Wild shows off a clever behavioural idea by UK bed manufacturer Button & Sprung to garner feedback from new customers.

Here's how it works, both practically and behaviourally.

After ordering your chosen sleep vessel and having it delivered by an employee, they then construct the bed. At the end of this process, something curious happens.

They hand you a sock.

A single, albeit attractive sock.

Upon its receipt, most would be suitably confused.

Thankfully, on the back of the protective packaging, an explanation is given: that in order to receive its matching pair, you'll need to respond to an email entitled "Lonely Sock?" with a review for your new bed.

Once review is up, the matching sock is then dispatched and the 100%-cotton reunification can take place.

Looking at the reviews on Button and Sprung's beds, they're pretty strong, averaging 4.91 / 5 from over 1500 sock requests.

A clever, unique approach, then.

But aside from how it works, what's going on under the hood from a behavioural perspective?

Unexpected surprises

When you have someone come deliver and set up your new bed, most people don't assume that they'll be left with a single sock. It's unconventional, playful and leaves a lovely peak-end to the experience.

Other product companies do this too, albeit to a lesser extent. Your writer ordered a rabbit hutch which required self-assembly. Upon opening the box of wood and metal pieces, much to my surprise, a pack of sweeties was also bundled in, giving me a little energy boost whilst I put it together.

However, a single sock is next-level, especially when combined with the other related Nuggets here...

"Major zeegs"

Behaviourally, we're hard-wired to finish tasks that are incomplete.

Yes your bed has been delivered, but the act of giving you that one sock and actively reminding you of its missing half deeply compels you to want to get the other. There's a strong satisfaction with the closure that comes from finishing something, no matter how small.

Until then, you'll experience an uncomfortable bout of the Zeigarnik Effect or what we somewhat lovingly call "major zeegs". And this is all before there's anything gift-related is laden on top...

Playful giving and receiving

Aside from the task itself being incomplete, we're also hard-wired to return any kindness given. In that sense, receiving a soft, fuzzy gift has a particular impact upon us.

It also sets up a particularly positive frame for the review, anchored around a playful need to mirror one's physical kindness in one direction with a very different, digital and literary response.

You get your sock, we get our 5* review, we all win.

Concluding thoughts

Getting people to spend precious time providing customer feedback can be a real challenge, especially once the product has been received. What is the compulsion, unless there is a particularly strong reaction in either extreme?

As a result, evolving the conversation beyond one that's purely transactional with a delightful surprise that feels like a warm and cosy extension of the product itself is a powerful, creative way to get people to reach out.

Other brands should sleep on this, and dream up how they can similarly put the competition to bed with a warm act of gentle behavioural kindness.

What’s a Rich Text element?

The rich text element allows y

ou to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.

Static and dynamic content editing

A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!

How to customize formatting for each rich text

Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.

Surprise
Task Completion

To complete the matching pair, helpful feedback you must share

How bed company Button & Sprung use socks (!) to create a strong, playful form of post-sales reciprocity

Personally, I could never think of anything worse than combining socks with beds. The post-sleep fabric-on-fabric action just feels like the opposite of comfortable.

However, personal preferences aside, this Nugget In The Wild shows off a clever behavioural idea by UK bed manufacturer Button & Sprung to garner feedback from new customers.

Here's how it works, both practically and behaviourally.

After ordering your chosen sleep vessel and having it delivered by an employee, they then construct the bed. At the end of this process, something curious happens.

They hand you a sock.

A single, albeit attractive sock.

Upon its receipt, most would be suitably confused.

Thankfully, on the back of the protective packaging, an explanation is given: that in order to receive its matching pair, you'll need to respond to an email entitled "Lonely Sock?" with a review for your new bed.

Once review is up, the matching sock is then dispatched and the 100%-cotton reunification can take place.

Looking at the reviews on Button and Sprung's beds, they're pretty strong, averaging 4.91 / 5 from over 1500 sock requests.

A clever, unique approach, then.

But aside from how it works, what's going on under the hood from a behavioural perspective?

Unexpected surprises

When you have someone come deliver and set up your new bed, most people don't assume that they'll be left with a single sock. It's unconventional, playful and leaves a lovely peak-end to the experience.

Other product companies do this too, albeit to a lesser extent. Your writer ordered a rabbit hutch which required self-assembly. Upon opening the box of wood and metal pieces, much to my surprise, a pack of sweeties was also bundled in, giving me a little energy boost whilst I put it together.

However, a single sock is next-level, especially when combined with the other related Nuggets here...

"Major zeegs"

Behaviourally, we're hard-wired to finish tasks that are incomplete.

Yes your bed has been delivered, but the act of giving you that one sock and actively reminding you of its missing half deeply compels you to want to get the other. There's a strong satisfaction with the closure that comes from finishing something, no matter how small.

Until then, you'll experience an uncomfortable bout of the Zeigarnik Effect or what we somewhat lovingly call "major zeegs". And this is all before there's anything gift-related is laden on top...

Playful giving and receiving

Aside from the task itself being incomplete, we're also hard-wired to return any kindness given. In that sense, receiving a soft, fuzzy gift has a particular impact upon us.

It also sets up a particularly positive frame for the review, anchored around a playful need to mirror one's physical kindness in one direction with a very different, digital and literary response.

You get your sock, we get our 5* review, we all win.

Concluding thoughts

Getting people to spend precious time providing customer feedback can be a real challenge, especially once the product has been received. What is the compulsion, unless there is a particularly strong reaction in either extreme?

As a result, evolving the conversation beyond one that's purely transactional with a delightful surprise that feels like a warm and cosy extension of the product itself is a powerful, creative way to get people to reach out.

Other brands should sleep on this, and dream up how they can similarly put the competition to bed with a warm act of gentle behavioural kindness.

What’s a Rich Text element?

The rich text element allows y

ou to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.

Static and dynamic content editing

A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!

How to customize formatting for each rich text

Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.

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