The psychology of queuing
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Humans are just like monkeys: Copycats.
I just came back from my summer vacay.
Me and my girlfriend spent the last weeks travelling around beautiful Sardinia. 🇮🇹
But before flying back home to Lisbon, we spent a day and half exploring Valencia 🇪🇸. What a magnificent city!
One of our favorite spots was Mercat Central.
Imagine a 8,000 square meters market built in 1928... housing 300 vendors of fresh produce, fish, meats, baked goods, wine and more.
Also, when you enter it's impossible not to look up. You'll be wowed by the stunning Valencian Art Nouveau style ceilings.
That's Mercat Central.
We decided to have lunch at Central Bar.
Central Bar is a tiny market restaurant located inside Mercat Central.
The owner is the 2 Star Michelin Chef Ricard Camarena.
Central Bar has a no reservations policy. To grab seats for breakfast or lunch (they're open from 9AM-3PM) you simply have to wait in line so you can put your name down.
Then you can wander around the market while you're waiting for them to call you.
When we were waiting in line… behind us was a friendly Spanish guy. We chatted a bit with him and realized he was a local AND a regular.
Suddenly, an American dude joins the queue. He asks the Spanish guy how to get a seat.
The Spanish guy replies, "You have to wait in line. Then you put your name down and they'll call you when there's a seat available."
Then the Spanish guy points to a poster and says, "While you're waiting you can scan this QR code to check the menu".
So the American guy scans the menu. Then he says, "Oh, no typical food here? No paella?!”
The friendly Spanish guy smiles and replies, "No paella, but the food here is typical. Tapas and bocadillos with a modern twist.”
Turns out the American guy clearly had no idea what Central Bar was.
He just joined the queue because of "social proof".
The truth is, he did exactly what most of us would do.
He saw a big queue. So he naturally assumed that if lots of people are queuing, the food must be good and worth waiting for.
》”Dangerous” Ideas
1/ “If lots of people are doing it, there must be a good reason why”.
2/ Price perception (more then the actual price of a product) is what truly influences buying decisions.
Or as Rory Sutherland says, “Price is not perceived rationally, it’s perception driven.”
3/ Think about your social proof message laterally, not literally.
Your pal,
🚀 Founder & Chief Copywriter: Teardwn ↬ “Hire me to give voltage to your website copy”
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