Hello!

Welcome to the 28th edition of Always Be Convenient, your weekly newsletter on how to rise to the expectations of a digital world. If you’re new, you can find all previous issues in the archives.

It’s Tuesday-going-into-Wednesday right now, with a blizzard forecasted for tomorrow. Local schools have already called things off due to the expected accumulation. Maybe there was some truth to that Groundhog Day prediction last week?

Weather or not, convenience never stops – it just may take a little longer to get to the store.

And speaking of the cold, did you notice I didn’t send this on Monday? You might say I was saved by a “streak freeze.” That’s something that will be very familiar to all the Duolingo fans out there. Not sure who or what a Duolingo is? Stick around!

Conveniently,
Mike

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Tapping into motivations

As I write this I’m beaming with pride over a 33-day streak on Duolingo.

What’s Duolingo? It’s a who and a what. Duo is the lovable (yet alarming?) owl mascot of the language learning app called Duolingo. The app had 113M monthly active users in Q3 2024.

At its core the app is simple. Each day users can tap into a new lesson, about 2-3 minutes in length, and brush up on their skills in the foreign language of their choice.

I started learning Spanish about a month ago, on a whim, because one of my youngest kids had tapped in and starting learning herself.

The app does a great job with lessons — mixing learning styles, listening, speaking, and question-response answers to get users more familiar with a new language.

What makes the app special is how “unhinged” its marketing can get. In fact, it’s become the vibe of the Duolingo brand – where Duo and the other cast of characters are constantly calling out users for not getting into their lessons.

This brings me back to the topic of streaks.

One of the most powerful concepts behind Duolingo’s success is its use of user behavior streaks in the app.

Each and every day, Duolingo has one goal: to get you to come back one more time.

If Duo can get you back into the app, you have a higher likelihood of returning again next time, and thus finding the time needed to complete your learning lessons.

Duolingo tracks your activity with what is called a streak, and its displayed prominently inside the app and in user communications.

This motivation to succeed and the desire to increment that streak each day creates a powerful grip over consumers. I’m proof enough: I’m 33 days in and counting.

Now, to be fair, I did miss one day along the way. But Duolingo came in with the save.

Remember the freeze I mentioned? That’s an intentional feature Duolingo offers in order to save a streak if a user misses a day – that way users can still come back again the next day and see their streak grow over time.

On the surface you may not see the direct application to convenience. I’m not sure we want to publicize how many days in a row a customer has visited. But tapping into that same psychology – the need for achievement and belonging to something bigger – is absolutely a powerful persuasion device.

Have you ever received an alert about loyalty points about to expire? Or the LTO item going away soon? How about a promotion with a countdown timer?

All of these are motivational methods to help influence our audiences toward favorable actions. And just like the Duolingo countdown after 11pm, these tools tend to work.

When you understand what motivates your customers and can action that data within your engagements, you’ve got a powerful set of tooling at your disposal.

It’s working in my Spanish lessons, and it’ll work in your convenience business too.

Adiós!

If you’d like help thinking about how to apply behavioral psychology inside your customer programs, just reply to this email. I’m happy to help!