What Health Practitioners Can Learn From Amazon

When I talk to clients about health behavior change, it’s fairly common for people already to be aware of changes they think they need to make. It might be losing weight, increasing physical activity, increasing vegetable intake, dealing with stress better, addressing sleep or any of the other myriad behaviours that can harm our health.

The words used are very often nearly identical too: “I know I should do X, but…” What follows the “but” is a reason or reasons not to change. Perhaps work busyness, being occupied raising small children, perceived lack of time, or simply an absence of strong desire stop the change before it even gets started.

When you shop online (and Amazon is only one of many retailers that do this), the people behind your shopping experience know this aspect of human behavior and motivation. Imagine how much business would be lost if your only options after browsing an item were to “Add to Cart” or leave the page and move on. E-retailers have cleverly added “Add to Wishlist” as an option too, recognizing that you may be ambivalent, or unable to afford just now, or not quite certain it’s exactly what you want. If you choose this option, you’ll likely get an email some hours or days later reminding you that this item is saved and asking if you want to go ahead and purchase. These reminders will often continue until you take action one way or the other.

We health practitioners could follow this model too. We can be really good at helping clients who are ready to “Add to Cart”, but sometimes struggle with the frustration we feel with clients who want to “Add to Wishlist”. I’ve even heard professionals describe this group of clients as “resistant to change” or “not really interested in change”, rather than seeing the opportunity this presents us.

Three simple questions can get you engaged in a change-oriented dialogue:

“What’s making you want to “Wishlist” rather than “Cart”?

How important is it to you to “Cart”?

How confident are you that you can start work on the change once it’s in the cart?