Salespeople ! Resist the Temptation to Ask Customers for Glowing Reviews !

SALES / Consumer Behaviour 

December 1, 2014

Advice : 
Salespeople !  Resist the Temptation to Ask Customers for Glowing Reviews ! 

Experiment : 
Research participants who imagined a scenario in which salespeople asked them for positive evaluations reported LOWER satisfaction with the service encounter than those who imagined NOT being asked (6.82 versus 7.23 on a 9-point satisfaction scale). 
Corollary 
 In retail stores where customers are asked to fill out questionnaires, frontline employees should be DISCOURAGED from asking for positive evaluations or trying to coach customers on how to fill out the forms, the researchers say.
SOURCE: The Effect of Requests for Positive Evaluations on Customer Satisfaction Ratings
 Research by :  Michael A. Jones and Valerie A. Taylor of the University of Tennessee and Kristy E. Reynolds of the University of Alabama.
Harvard Business Review