Putting the Customer Second: Pronouns in Customer Firm Interactions

Recent work has demonstrated the importance of specific word use in influencing consumer behavior. This emerging body of work has examined the impact of language use on consumer senders and receivers of word of mouth (Moore 2012; Patrick and Hagvedt, 2010; Schellekens, Verlegh and Smidts 2010) and advertising (Sela, Wheeler and Sarial-Abi 2012). Yet there is little work examining the impact of firm employee language on consumers, particularly in the context of service interactions. Firms, however, are starting to pay attention to interaction content, particularly when it comes to training and evaluating front-line employees. For example, Apple has “stop words” that employees are prohibited from saying to customers (Chen 2011). In contrast, online retailer Zappos does not have scripts for its agents, allowing each to create a “personal emotional connection” with customers (Hsieh 2010). Despite their different philosophies on language use, both Apple and Zappos recognize the importance of measuring and man aging what is said between customers and employees. In this vein, we offer an empirical examination of the behavioral consequences of language use in service interactions. While prior research on service interactions often examines how actions taken by firm agents (e.g. apologies, compensation; e.g. DeMatos et al. 2007; Rust and Chung 2006) influence customer attitudes and/or behaviors, we are unaware of research assessing how their words might affect the same outcomes.