I was just perusing Seth Grodin’s Blog and came across something he posted on Friday, December 29th, What waiters can teach marketers. The point of this blog is that people tell you things for a reason, and if you want repeat customers or to provide excellent service, then, while you don’t have to do what they ask, you do need to acknowledge and respond to it. How you respond does make a difference.
A research project on persuasion I came across showed that specific requests get better results. When students posing as beggars simply asked people for “small change” they got something 44% of the time. But, when they asked for a specific, singe-coin amount, like a quarter, they were successful 64% of the time. When they asked for arbitrary amounts, like 37 cents, they got what they asked for 75% of the time. The more precise and unusual the request, the more likely people are willing to comply.
So, how do you get people to respond to your needs? You make your requests specific, and, if possible, a bit unusual or unique.
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