Attaching no strings increases response to the message.
A hotel sign in the bathroom informed the guests that many prior guests chose
to be environmentally friendly by recycling their towels. Researchers tried out
two different versions of the sign. The first one: if you reuse the towels, a
donation will be
made to a nonprofit environmental organization. The second version: the
donation has already been made, since
the hotel trusted you’d reuse the towels anyways. Recipients of the second
message reused their towels 45%
more than the recipients of the first one.
>
Asking people to substantiate their decision will lead to higher commitment
rate on that decision.
Researchers called a group of people asking them how likely they were to vote
in an upcoming election. Those
who responded positively were either asked nothing, or asked why they felt they
would vote. Any reason would
suffice, but when the election day came, the turnout for the control group (who
all responded “Yes” to the
question of whether they were going to vote) was 61.5%. Turnout for the group
that actually gave a reason (any
reason)? 86.7%. A restaurant stopped telling customers “Please call to cancel
your reservation” and started
asking “Will you call and let us know if you need to cancel?” Net result?
Number of reservation no-shows
dropped from 30% to 10%.
>
Writing things down improves commitment.
Group A was asked to volunteer on AIDS awareness program at local schools, and
was asked to commit
verbally. Group B was asked for the same kind of volunteer project, but was
given a simple form to fill in. 17% of
volunteers from Group A actually showed up to their assigned local school.
>From Group B 49% of volunteers
showed up.
>
Asking for little goes a long way.
Researchers went door-to-door asking for American Cancer Society donations.
Group A just asked for a
donation, group B ended their spiel with “even a penny would help”. Results?
28.6% response rate for Group A
vs. 50% response for Group B.
>
The danger of being the smartest person in the room.
The expert card frequently trumps any other card in the room. The example here
is that the scientists who
discovered the double-helix of the DNA were never prime DNA experts, which made
them “hungrier” for new
discoveries, and made them question established rules.
>
Negative examples are memorized better than positive examples.
When one group of firefighters went through the list of real-life mistakes
other firefighters have made, and
another group just went through the list of positive things to do, the first
group demonstrated better judgment
when faced with real-life tests. Our brain seems to discount the best
practices, but single out bad examples of
someone else making a mistake.
>
Admitting you’re wrong makes people trust you more.
Company A published an investors relations report, contributing slump in sales
to overall economic climate.
Company B said slump of sales was relevant to a few bad decisions by top
management. Net result? Investors
viewed company B more positively. You’d think that they’d be viewed as a bunch
of screw-ups, but admission of
a mistake made investors more confident the situation was under control, while
company A investors got the
uneasy feeling of the ship floating in the waters with captain losing control.
>
Verbalization helps interaction.
Waiters who repeat customers’ order to them make 70% more in tips than waiters
who just say “Okay”. Our
mind subconsciously appreciates the effort taken to ensure the things are
perfectly right.
>
Just smiling makes for a poorer customer service.
Group A was exposed to a hotel clerk smiling, while peppering the customer
with questions regarding their
preferences and ways to improve their hotel stay. Group B had just a smiling
clerk performing her duties. Group
B was more likely to rate the smile as fake.
>
“Because” makes any explanation rational.
In a line to Kinko’s copy machine a researcher asked to jump the line by
presenting a reason “Can I jump the
line, because I am in a rush?” 94% of people complied. Good reason, right?
Okay, let’s change the reason. “Can
I jump the line because I need to make copies?” Excuse me? That’s why everybody
is in the line to begin with.
Yet 93% of people complied. A request without “because” in it (”Can I jump the
line, please?”) generated 24%
compliance.
>
Individualism is perceived differently in many countries.
In US and Western Europe a chewing gum campaign that accentuated “you, only
better” seemed to get more
success, than a similar campaign in Eastern Europe and Asia, with much more
collectivism built into the culture.
In those countries, emphasizing that chewing gum was much more tolerable for
other people who can smell your
breath, was perceived better.
>
Notion of commitment among various cultures differ.
A group of American students was asked to complete a short marketing survey. A
few weeks later they got
invited for the second survey, which was going to take twice as long. No pay
for either survey. The same
experiment was conducted among Asian students. The response rates among
American students was 22%,
response rate among Asian students was 10%. Research suggests that while
American students relied only on
their own experience, Asian students found out that few of their peers
responded to the first request to complete
the survey, which triggered their negative response.
>
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