Power of persuasion and social norming
Absorbing relevant information in a world of unlimited data is a big challenge. In our organization we have a team of people who monitor information feeds, and then publish relevant data through various social mediums.
The information absorption process is much like a digestive system. You pile a bunch of stuff into one end and as it is digested and by- product is dispensed. Hopefully a few little gems of energy remain to stimulate discussion.
One little article that caught my attention this week was from Steve Martin. Not the actor, but a contributor to Harvard Business Reviews October magazine.
The subject is about appealing to people’s social conscience to encourage behaviour. The concept was quite interesting to me and, I felt, widely applicable.
The idea encourages people to conform to social norms, not by threatening but by demonstrating if people don’t subscribe to certain behaviour their actions will be different than most members of society.
For the vast majority of people, the compulsion to “fit- in” and conduct themselves in a similar fashion to “everyone else” is a very strong motivator.
The potential to use the power of social norms in communication can range from the education system, to political parties or even parenting. For the purposes of this article, I want to examine the application in business.
There are two examples of social norming campaigns that demonstrate great results. The first is with the Revenue and Customs Agency in Britain ( equivalent to our CRA, Federal taxation department).
When the department sent threatening letters directing people to pay their taxes, nearly one- third ignored the requests.
However when the department phrased the request with information suggesting the taxpayers were not operating within established social behaviour, the rates jumped. By stating, “Over 93 per cent of citizens living in your town pay their taxes on time” the rate jumped from 68 per cent compliance to 83 per cent compliance.
These results can be measured financially; in 2009- 2010 the British tax department collected almost $ 9 billion more in overdue payments than the year previous.
Another example is the financial impact of missed health professional appointments. When British doctors requested an oral commitment to call if an appointment might be missed, attendance improved 3.5 per cent. When patients wrote out the date and time of the appointment themselves attendance improved 18 per cent. When physicians posted signs stating that “87 per cent of patients arrive for their appointments”, in conjunction with the two previous methods, attendance increased 31.7 per cent.
Hair stylists, accountants, private health professionals even public health professionals could easily implement these changes. A decrease in cancellations increases productivity and also increases revenue or cost of service delivery.
Perhaps this is another article categorized as a mental byproduct, but the concept does have interesting application to many sectors of society and especially for business.