Cialdini: Asking 'Will you call to cancel?' reduced restaurant no-shows by 67%
Robert Cialdini · #122 Robert Cialdini - The Principles of Persuasion · Oct 19, 2021 · at 52:49
Psychologist Robert Cialdini discusses how active, voluntary public commitments influence human behavior, citing an intervention conducted at the Chicago restaurant Gordon's.
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“It was a study done in Chicago with a restaurant owner named Gordon Sinclair. It's a famous restaurant called Gordon's there in Chicago. And he's since retired, but while he was operating, he had a problem. No shows. People who would call, they make a reservation, and then they just wouldn't show up, and they wouldn't call ahead to cancel. He had 30% no-shows. So he walked around and saw what his receptionist would say to people when she took a booking. She would say, thank you for calling Gordon's. Please call if you have to change or cancel your reservation. He asked her to change two words. Will you Please call if you have to change or cancel your reservation, and then he asked her to pause and have people fill that moment, and they all said, of course, sure, glad to, and that was their commitment. And no-shows dropped by 67% immediately and never went up because he had gotten them to make an active public voluntary commitment to something, and now they were going to live up to it to a greater degree.”
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