How waiters should give candy
Guy Kawasaki raves about a business book called “Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Effective” by Robert B. Cialdini.
“In a nutshell,” Guy says, “the book truly does explain how to persuade. Here are some illustrations that you can probably immediately use in your business.”
He cites various case studies, including this one — my favorite:
In an experiment, waiters gave candy with the restaurant bill to diners in three different ways: one piece of candy for each guest; two pieces of candy to each guest; and one piece of candy for each guest followed by walking away from the table and then turning around to give a second piece of candy to each guest.
The results were: 3.3% increase in tips for one piece of candy; 14.1% increase for two pieces of candy given at once; and 23% increase in tips for the walk away and return with a second piece scenario.
What’s this tell you? Unexpected and personalized gifts are powerful motivators.
I immediately put the book in my Amazon shopping cart.
