A couple of weeks ago, I was going from pet store to book store to wine store, ending up with a lot of large and heavy bags as well as my usual giant purse and unnecessary sweater. The automatic door wasn’t working as I was leaving the last store to schlep stuff to my car. As I was shifting everything into my right hand so I could heave the door open with my left, a man came up behind me and opened the door, saying, “I got you.”

The phrase stuck with me, and I vowed to use it more myself. The man wasn’t just saying, “I’ll open the door because you have too much stuff”—at least not as I felt it at the time. He was saying, “I’ll take over for a little minute so you don’t have to make this effort.” In a sense, he carried me through the door. Yeah, I know it sounds schmaltzy, but it was a different feeing than is usual in stranger encounters.

So how do we transfer that feeling to participants in groups? To consumers of the products companies sell? It’s almost easier to see how the “I got you” feeling works in sensitive topic research—we already strive to make the space safe and welcoming. We convey to respondents that we as moderators are going to take away the burden of figuring out how they should tell their stories without embarrassment because we’ve mapped out a safe way for them to navigate difficult issues honestly. But how about when the topic is frozen foods or water filters? “I got you” is just as important there.

In a sense, in this economy, every topic is sensitive. People want to do the best for their families even as resources become tighter and the willingness to spend becomes a matter of security rather than luxury. People feel the burdens of these more frequent and more difficult decisions at the shelf. If as researchers and marketers, we work toward “I got you” in all cases, then people will feel safe saying, “I used to buy that because it was good for us/made my kids happy/made my life easier, but I’ve had to cut it out.” These admissions are not easy. Take some of the burden off your consumers by letting them know you’ve got them, and it’s safe to walk through the door you’ve opened for them.