A question of psychology (Business English)

Behavioural science offers interesting insights into cus-tomer service. Professor Richard B. Chase and Associate Professor Sri ram Dasu from the Marshall School of Business at the University of  Southern California have developed five principles of customer service that can also be used to deliver customer-focused presentations:

1. Get the bad news out of the way early. Behavioural science suggests*that you should save the best part of a message for last. So, if your presentation contains any difficult mes­sages   - for example, on price or service - get them over with near the start. Your audience can then concentrate on the positive aspects of your talk.

2.  Concentrate the pain, divide the pleasure. Our experi­ence of time is connected to the number of breaks we have. For customers, smaller blocks of pleasurable experiences will he perceived as being larger than one long period For you as a presenter, this could mean concentrating negative parts of a message into one short block and spreading out the pos­itive messages into a large number of bite sized chunks.

3. Get commitment through choice. Don't limit the customer to your version of reality. This makes it more difficult to gain acceptance. Allow customers to determine reality by pro

viding choices in the delivery of the product or service. An in­teresting illustration of this principle is the fact that blood donors experience less perceived pain when they have a choice of which arm the blood is to be drawn from. Highlight choices for your customer during your presentation and you are more likely to get commitment.

4.  The same procedure as every year. Behavioural science tells us that people are creatures of habit and are comfort­able with rituals. Build up a clear routine over regular con­tacts with your customers in the structure and delivery style of your presentation. This helps customers to focus on your message.

5. Accelerate across the finishing line. The closing of the presentation is the most critical moment, as it is this final in­teraction that leaves the most powerful impression. Make sure that you end with a "wow" factor that connects clearly to customer pleasure and choice.

Also, don't forget to deliver on your promises. A presenta­tion is often only a kick-off event for real action. Make sure you build customer satisfaction by doing what you said you would do. Failure to satisfy raised expectations will lead to a breakdown in trust.

Vocabulary note:

1. insight / ‘ɪnsaɪt / a sudden clear understanding of something or part of something, especially a complicated situation or idea

2. get something over with - to do and finish something difficult that you have to do

3. to perceive – to understand

4. chunk - a large part or amount of something

5. commitment - the hard work and loyalty that someone gives to an organization, activity etc

6. highlight - to make a problem or subject easy to notice so that people pay attention to it

7. accelerate - if a process accelerates or if something accelerates it, it happens faster than usual or sooner than you expect

8. deliver on one’s promises - to do or provide the things you are expected to, because you are responsible for them or they are part of your job

9. kick-off - informal the beginning of a new activity

 Source: "Business Spotlight"