I’ve recently returned from a lovely two-week holiday in Croatia, which is a beautiful country. I didn’t know it before, but the flight to Croatia is just under two hours from London! It’s always a wonder to me how quickly you can find yourself immersed in a totally different culture, climate, and way of life from where you started.
Anyway, while I was on holiday, I did something that I really love doing: I read a lot of books. Apparently, there are folks who think you’re not really supposed to read on holiday, but I love reading and never have as much time for it as I’d like. Some of the books I read were motivational, some were business, and some were fiction — but the one that made the biggest impression on me this trip was “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.”
“Influence” is a fabulous book by Dr. Robert Cialdini about how to influence people to say ‘yes’ and do what you want them to do. While there were six principles of persuasion highlighted in the book, the two most interesting principles to me were ‘reciprocity’ (sometimes called ’givers gain’) and ‘liking’.
Just as I started getting invitations to the House of Commons soon after I’d started thinking about visiting it, I started noticing these principles of persuasion in action after reading the book and going about my daily life. For example, I took my wife and son out to a nice restaurant called Cote Brasserie a few weeks back. My wife ordered a steak, and it didn’t come as she asked for it. At the end of the meal, the waiter asked if everything was to our liking.
My wife said, “Everything was very good, except for the steak.” The waiter apologized, went away, and came back. “We’ll knock the price of the steak off of your bill.” Then, he came back a short while later and added, “We’ll knock the price of all your drinks off, too.”
All of a sudden, our bill was cut in half, and we went from feeling a little negative about Cote Brasserie to feeling quite positive about it. In fact, we were blown away by the service! You can bet we’ll want to return, and we’ll even recommend it to others because the staff was so attentive; we want to be good to them because they did something nice for us first. That’s the power of reciprocity.
Another recent example is when I took my car in for service at the local Lexus dealership. They treat their customers so superbly. When you walk in, they offer you tea and coffee, and there are reading materials laid out for you in front of the leather seats. I had a problem pairing my phone with the Bluetooth in my car, and they offered to fix it right away. They know you by your name, they’re friendly and polite, and they treat you like royalty. Nothing is too much trouble!
I have to say, I really like going there, and I really like the people who work there as well. I like pretty much everything about owning a Lexus, which means Lexus is doing something right! Even with the principle of liking alone, you can see how persuasive it is in keeping me a satisfied customer.
We can learn a lot from these businesses and the way they incorporate those principles of persuasion into their customer service. I encourage you to read “Influence” and see how well you can apply those principles towards your interactions with customers. A little influence can go a long way!
Steve Lazarus
