Too much choice leads to indecision

“While the ability to choose is generally a good thing, too much freedom of choice is crippling us with indecision and making us unhappy.”

This snippet caught me eye in a recent news article recently called “Too much choice: variety the strife of life“. The article talks about key findings from a new study soon to be published in the Journal of Consumer Research by Professor Hazel Rose Markus from Stanford University.

Although their focus was broad (i.e. the study is called “Does choice mean freedom and wellbeing?” ), the study’s findings resonated with what we’ve seen at Software Shortlist in terms of how people feel about choosing software.  Excessive choice can be a real problem.

Does the following sound familiar to you?

“People can become paralysed by too much variety, or racked with uncertainty and regret about whether they have made the right decision. Ultimately, these people can be less satisfied by the choices they have made.”

Our experience at Software Shortlist is that people want to know that all software options have been looked at, but doing the full research and evaluation process themselves can be frustrating and even counter-productive. This is why we do the detailed legwork  for you – and present you with a manageable shortlist, so you can make an effective choice from the best and most relevant options.

Common pitfalls for small business software

Despite the compelling business case for software and a host of readily available solutions, unfortunately it is clear that small businesses are not leveraging software applications to the extent they should.

Why is this? Over the past 2 years, we’ve spoke with a large number of business owners and we keep hearing the same reasons. Put simply, small business owners are busy – they just don’t have the time or resources to properly investigate new software for their business. Many also find IT to be intimidating, and may lack the expertise and knowledge to make sense of the possibilities.

The end result is that far too many small businesses fall victim to one or more of the following pitfalls:

• Keep using inefficient manual processes, work-around methods, and legacy systems,
• Defer or postpone their plans to review their business processes & software
• Make a risky leap of faith decision based on a friend’s referral, brief Google search or limited prior experience
• Reinvent the wheel with a custom-built solution at 5+ times the cost (and often with less functionality) compared to buying an off-the-shelf platform

What has been your experience? Have you seen these pitfalls up close? Are there others you would add to the list?

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Note: Helping SMBs avoid these pitfalls is what motivated us to start Software Shortlist in the first place. If you’d like some assistance in choosing software for your business, why not get in touch with  us about our independent consulting services?

Is too much choice bad for you?

   

Is too much choice bad for you?

Choice is good – we all prefer having some options rather than none at all.

If the only ice-cream is vanilla and you don’t like it – you’re stuck. Either make do with something unsatisfactory, or go without. But if you can have vanilla, strawberry or chocolate, chances are you will like one of them.

So, if some choice is good, does that mean that more choice is even better?

Actually, no! The evidence from psychologists such as Barry Schwartz shows that

“With too many options to choose from, people find it difficult to choose at all”

Paralysed by choice

Imagine having 100 wonderfully different flavours of ice-cream to choose from. With so much variety, chances are there are many you would love to eat.

But the problem is you spend ages agonizing over which flavour would be best! You imagine what it would be like eating each – would you enjoy blueberry swirl more than honeycomb crunch? What about choc-mint truffle versus lemon-lime gelato?

This attempt to maximise the expected benefit leads to “decision paralysis” – you simply freeze up in the face of excessive choice!

“Paralysis is a consequence of having too many choices” – Barry Schwartz

Choosing business software

It’s the same with choosing business software. On the one hand, it’s great  there are (for example) over 120 different timesheet systems available on the market – chances are that some of them will be suitable for your situation.

But how do you rationally decide between such an overwhelming number of options?

• Do you spend time trying to understand each and every software package? Weigh them up against each other? Sounds like a recipe for decision paralysis, not to mention several weeks of your valuable time spent researching and creating an elaborate weight-rate matrix. If you’ve got the cash, you could pay a consultant to do this for you … but that just shifts the problem elsewhere
• Maybe you go with a solution you have used before? Ignore the choices and just make do with the devil you know? A variation on this is to go with the market leader, the well-known brand — at least you won’t be worse off than most.  It gets you moving, but it’s not necessarily the best decision.
• Or perhaps you seek the counsel of someone you trust? Ask people in your network what they use? Talk to your accountant or bookkeeper for suggestions? Referrals or word-of-mouth may help, but there’s no guarantee that what works for them is right for you and your specific situation.

The shortlist solution

This is an intriguing problem. It’s wonderful to have so much choice in the market … but at a personal level you can struggle to make good decisions in that environment.

SoftwareShortlist has been specifically designed to solve this problem. We research the many available options so you don’t have to, and after a simple online interview to understand your needs, we present you with a manageable number – a “shortlist” – of the most relevant software.

The evidence suggests this will help you will make quicker, better decisions.

After all, as a small business owner, you just want to find the one right software product for your situation. You don’t have time to waste looking at 100+ options!