Hmm. The video has been removed, I’ll see if I can find it somewhere on d’ ol Internet.

Taking the video at face value you might be inclined to believe that compliments have an equal value to winning money. There may even be a few marketers re-evaluating their rewards programs right now,  though don’t expect any of us to begin dropping prizes and cash incentives in favor of compliments. In fact, it would not be wise to take that action, since further examination of the study shows that monetary rewards activate more portions of the striatum than a social reward. Meaning cash is not interchangeable with a compliment.

Yet it is interesting to consider the possibility of increasing the opportunities for praising customers, and what effect that may have on your business.  It would be hard to create a structured compliment program without it feeling disingenuous to people. So your best bet for improving your customers’ compliment happiness index is the people who you hire, and the quality of their training.

An interesting follow up study would be examining the relationship between a customer who received a compliment and her propensity to buy non-intended items versus a person receiving regular service without any praise.

If only that Target chick made note of how well the graphic tee-shirt showed off my chiseled abs, I would have purchased another one to go with it.

Disclaimer: I only wish I had chiseled abs.