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), say Michael A. Jones and Valerie A. Taylor of the University of Tennessee and Kristy E. Reynolds of the University of Alabama. In retail stores where customers are asked to fill out questionnaires, front-line 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: Psychology & Marketing)

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, December 15th , 2014