Putting the Customer Second: Pronouns in Customer-Firm Interactions

We examine pronoun use in the language of customer-firm interactions. Three studies reveal improvement in both customer satisfaction and real behavioral responses (purchases) when firm agents are more self- (i.e. “I,” “my”) rather than customer-focused (i.e. “you,” “your”). Perceived agency and empathy of the firm agent mediate the effect.



Citation:

Grant Packard , Sarah Moore, and Brent McFerran (2013) ,"Putting the Customer Second: Pronouns in Customer-Firm Interactions", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 41, eds. Simona Botti and Aparna Labroo, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: .

Authors

Grant Packard , Laurier School of Business & Economics, Canada
Sarah Moore, University of Alberta, Canada
Brent McFerran , University of Michigan, USA



Volume

NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 41 | 2013



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