Methodology
Applied behavioural science.We choose the model that fits your problem.
Not one theory applied to everyone. Behavioural science is a family of peer-reviewed models, each best at a particular class of problem, and the diagnostic decides which one fits before any work is designed.
The rule, in four steps
- 01Find the leakThe diagnostic locates the one point in your customer journey where the most intent is lost. Not a list of everything imperfect — the single place the money leaves.
- 02Name the archetypeThat leak names one of six experience archetypes. It describes a behavioural weak point in the business, never a personality type of the owner.
- 03Match the model to the variableThe archetype identifies which variable has to move — ease of action, social proof, motivation, friction at the moment of choice. We then use the peer-reviewed model that measures that variable. Where no model measures it, we say so rather than reaching for one.
- 04Write the prediction firstThe chosen model's variables become the intervention and the number we expect to move, in writing, before any work is designed.
The problem selects the model, never the other way round.
How we choose what to apply
We start from the problem you would say out loud, not from a model we happen to like. Six shapes cover most of what walks through the door. Read them and look for the one that sounds like your last month — the diagnostic starts wherever you recognise yourself.
Being found
“Why don't more people know we exist?”
The people who would love the place never learn it is there. We look at how they search, what they meet when they do, and whether your basics agree with each other well enough to act on.
Being chosen
“People look at us and go elsewhere.”
They arrive, they compare, they leave. Something in that comparison — proof, distinctiveness, whether the value reads before the price — points them next door instead.
Being booked
“They want to come. Why don't they finish?”
The intention is real and it dies in the last few steps. We follow the path from decided to done and find the point people fall off it.
Being remembered
“They enjoy it once and never come back.”
One good night is not yet a habit. We look at what happens after someone leaves, and what would make returning obvious rather than a decision to take again from scratch.
Value and pricing
“Are we charging the right thing, in the right way?”
Rarely a question of being cheaper. How a price is presented, bundled and anchored shapes what people believe it is worth before they judge the number.
When something goes wrong
“What does a bad night actually cost us?”
A bad experience never costs one cover. We look at what happens next: whether it gets recovered, whether it gets written down, and how far it travels when it does.
The customer journey
Where behaviour actually happens
- DiscoverToo much choice?
- ConsiderTrust drops here.
- ChooseWorth the price?
- ExperienceExpectation = reality.
- ReturnThis moment drives return.
- AttentionNoticed, curious, interested
- ConfidenceTrusting, informed, reassured
- FrictionHesitating, comparing, uncertain
- EmotionDelighted, valued, connected
- MemoryRemembering, likely to return
What actually changed behaviour?
Behavioural evidence
How every engagement starts
- 01Name the weak pointYour archetype, from the diagnostic.
- 02Select the modelThe one that fits this problem, not a house favourite.
- 03One testable predictionDo this, expect that to move, within so many weeks.
Some of the theories we use
One theory listed, and many more in the family we draw from.
We select per problem rather than per preference, so this is not a menu of everything available — only what has carried real work so far. A theory earns its name here by doing the heavy lifting on an engagement, and the list grows as the work does.
- TPBTheory of Planned BehaviourBooking, visiting and returning: attitude, social norm and ease of action behind an intention. The model behind the ESQ diagnostic and the experience archetypes.
One worked example
The ESQ study
At ESQ Cocktail Bar and Grill in London, a TPB-shaped diagnostic measured ease of action at 0.83 and social proof at 0.77 as the strongest drivers of booking intent. Those numbers belong to that engagement, not to Gleamcave. A hotel or a studio gets its own measure from its own diagnostic.
Read the ESQ case study