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The Last Mile: Creating Social and Economic Value from Behavioral Insights
Most organizations spend much of their effort on the start of the value creation namely, creating a strategy, developing new products or services, and analyzing the market. They pay a lot less attention to the the crucial “last mile” where consumers come to their website, store, or sales representatives and make a choice. In The Last Mile , Dilip Soman shows how to use insights from behavioral science in order to close that gap. Beginning with an introduction to the last mile problem and the concept of choice architecture, the book takes a deep dive into the psychology of choice, money, and time. It explains how to construct behavioral experiments and understand the data on preferences that they provide. Finally, it provides a range of practical tools with which to overcome common last mile difficulties. The Last Mile helps lay readers not only to understand behavioral science, but to apply its lessons to their own organizations’ last mile problems, whether they work in business, government, or the nonprofit sector. Appealing to anyone who was fascinated by Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational , Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein’s Nudge , or Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow but was not sure how those insights could be practically applied, The Last Mile is full of solid, concrete advice on how to put the lessons of behavioral science to work.
296 pages, Paperback
First published August 7, 2015
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472 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 25, 2021
A broad and dense book on some of the key behavioral science/economics concepts. I assume that the book covers similar topics as Dilip Soman's MOOC Behavioural Economics in Action. I was thinking of taking the course, but found it nicer to learn by reading the book in my own time.
The book covers many of the same topics as other books on behavioral science and psychology such as Thinking, Fast and Slow and Predictably Irrational. However, the reading experience reminded me more of a textbook than a popular science book.
I would have given this 4 stars had the book gone through a few more editing rounds. In this format, the ideas are still a little scattered and the writing style is not quite as refined as one would wish for. But I would still recommend the book to people who want to learn about behavioral science/economics on a more practical level.
The book covers many of the same topics as other books on behavioral science and psychology such as Thinking, Fast and Slow and Predictably Irrational. However, the reading experience reminded me more of a textbook than a popular science book.
I would have given this 4 stars had the book gone through a few more editing rounds. In this format, the ideas are still a little scattered and the writing style is not quite as refined as one would wish for. But I would still recommend the book to people who want to learn about behavioral science/economics on a more practical level.
August 1, 2021
Amazingly good introduction
Behavioural Science is both the oldest trick(s) in the book and a nascent field. This is a spirited and accessible introduction that’s a must read for all marketers, advertisers, copywriters and creatives.
Behavioural Science is both the oldest trick(s) in the book and a nascent field. This is a spirited and accessible introduction that’s a must read for all marketers, advertisers, copywriters and creatives.
April 13, 2020
The last mile-analogy is really clever! Adds a new frame to the topic of nudging, which is starting to feel really old...
October 14, 2022
Have learned a lot. It is easy to understand and comprehensible written. Thank you!
Only the font was much too small and the line spacing too tight. 🤓
Only the font was much too small and the line spacing too tight. 🤓
September 30, 2015
It might sound strange but far too many companies fail to pay sufficient attention to the final stage of what can bring them income – the closing “sale” process. Companies stress and obsess about developing a new product and service (as they should) and consider how to attract customers but then things often fizzle out.
This book might act as both a wake-up call and as inspiration; pushing you to examine what happens during the so-called crucial “last mile” – once you’ve attracted the customer’s attention. Hint: it can be a lot more than just running up their sale on the register.
Behavioural science to the rescue: or is it? It is quite possible that companies are already using elements of behavioural sciences (whether they know of it or not) to convince a customer to consider their product, service or idea. The author calls this the “first mile” and it comes with its own host of challenges and problems, noting there is a lot more to do, and it is here that things are often ignored: the “last mile”.
“The last mile is where the rubber meets the road. The last mile is where consumers come to your website, or to your retail stores, or talk to your sales representatives, and make a decision to switch to your product. The last mile is the place where citizens interact with a welfare organisation and decide whether or not to sign up for a programme. The last mile is where an individual goes to a government office in order to get access to a service and either chooses to stay or throws up his hands in frustration and goes home,” notes the author.
Oh, how many people “throw their hands up” nowadays in frustration? They are more likely to mutter or say CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED and if there is an alternative try and find it. So, the solution is simple? Just tweak the “sales process” and you are laughing. No?
The author says that it is not the big things that matter (and in any case a lot of the problems would have or should have been addressed in the attraction and pre-sale stages). It is small things. “Little things like the manner in which a decision was presented, the ambiance of the room, the phrasing of the question that people were asked, the colour of the paper on which a form was printed, or the pleasantness of the agent with whom the consumer interacted are all determinants of the decision to buy products, open accounts, or, more generally, consume services,” writes the author. Almost everybody deserves criticism for this state of affairs, business schools in particular, where experts spend a “disproportionate” amount of time and energy thinking about first mile problems when last mile problems should be given a greater prominence.
Is there a catch? Possibly. Especially when many organisations outsource their last mile handling to service providers who, well, just provide a service; a disconnected, arms-length relationship that normally can’t share the same energy, enthusiasm and dedication that the selling organization may or should have.
The author seeks to change all this through a mix of inspiration, shaming, education and a bit of humour. Serving many masters, through this book the reader can “deep dive” into a subject as well as get a superficial overview; it may be something that can become a constant companion as you acknowledge a need to boost your last mile handling and transition into implementing and refining your changes.
The book will take your hand and guide you through the entire process, from assessing needs, constructing behavioural experiments, implementation, analysing data results and even resolving problems that may occur. It is more of a specialist sort of book, yet it passes the “harassed non-expert manager” test at the same time.
A lot has been crammed into this relatively small book yet it remains open, accessible and an intriguing read. Are you supremely confident that your company’s last mile is of a sufficiently high standard?
Autamme.com
This book might act as both a wake-up call and as inspiration; pushing you to examine what happens during the so-called crucial “last mile” – once you’ve attracted the customer’s attention. Hint: it can be a lot more than just running up their sale on the register.
Behavioural science to the rescue: or is it? It is quite possible that companies are already using elements of behavioural sciences (whether they know of it or not) to convince a customer to consider their product, service or idea. The author calls this the “first mile” and it comes with its own host of challenges and problems, noting there is a lot more to do, and it is here that things are often ignored: the “last mile”.
“The last mile is where the rubber meets the road. The last mile is where consumers come to your website, or to your retail stores, or talk to your sales representatives, and make a decision to switch to your product. The last mile is the place where citizens interact with a welfare organisation and decide whether or not to sign up for a programme. The last mile is where an individual goes to a government office in order to get access to a service and either chooses to stay or throws up his hands in frustration and goes home,” notes the author.
Oh, how many people “throw their hands up” nowadays in frustration? They are more likely to mutter or say CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED and if there is an alternative try and find it. So, the solution is simple? Just tweak the “sales process” and you are laughing. No?
The author says that it is not the big things that matter (and in any case a lot of the problems would have or should have been addressed in the attraction and pre-sale stages). It is small things. “Little things like the manner in which a decision was presented, the ambiance of the room, the phrasing of the question that people were asked, the colour of the paper on which a form was printed, or the pleasantness of the agent with whom the consumer interacted are all determinants of the decision to buy products, open accounts, or, more generally, consume services,” writes the author. Almost everybody deserves criticism for this state of affairs, business schools in particular, where experts spend a “disproportionate” amount of time and energy thinking about first mile problems when last mile problems should be given a greater prominence.
Is there a catch? Possibly. Especially when many organisations outsource their last mile handling to service providers who, well, just provide a service; a disconnected, arms-length relationship that normally can’t share the same energy, enthusiasm and dedication that the selling organization may or should have.
The author seeks to change all this through a mix of inspiration, shaming, education and a bit of humour. Serving many masters, through this book the reader can “deep dive” into a subject as well as get a superficial overview; it may be something that can become a constant companion as you acknowledge a need to boost your last mile handling and transition into implementing and refining your changes.
The book will take your hand and guide you through the entire process, from assessing needs, constructing behavioural experiments, implementation, analysing data results and even resolving problems that may occur. It is more of a specialist sort of book, yet it passes the “harassed non-expert manager” test at the same time.
A lot has been crammed into this relatively small book yet it remains open, accessible and an intriguing read. Are you supremely confident that your company’s last mile is of a sufficiently high standard?
Autamme.com
October 15, 2015
Excellent book! Building on BDT-type books such as Thaler, Thaler and Sunstein, Ariely, and Kahneman, Soman's book clearly lays out behavioral insights in a number of domains, and excels in the application of research-based findings to the real-world. Individuals, policy-makers, and businesses will get good insights from this book about how to conceptualize, design, implement, and test behavioral approaches to behavior change. And the books gives academics/researchers a nice overview of decision-making research as applied to real-world contexts. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews