Insights

Reciprocity: watch out for the ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ trap

Delegates on our workshops are often surprised when we explain that its usually not a good idea to say ‘please’ or ‘thank you’ in consumer comms. They’re obviously good people that have been well brought up, and they seem to dislike the idea of creating content that doesn’t include phrases like;

“Please ensure you…”

“Thank you for continuing to be a customer…”

The reason why this is rarely a good idea?  It’s because of how the mind responds to requests as opposed to opportunities. A request is always a burden. By asking a consumer to please do anything alerts them that the entire transaction is going to be of benefit to the organisation, rather than to the consumer.  Adding a thank you now confirms in their mind that the organisation actually owes the consumer something, so why should they even consider doing whatever that call to action?