Eyeball Shoppers So They Behave Themselves

It’s said that Sam Walton introduced the idea of using elderly men and women as store greeters because they’d be approachable by customers looking for help, but that Mr. Walton was most firmly convinced to keep the greeters because shoplifting dropped so dramatically. “Nobody would steal from their grandmother,” he’s been quoted as saying.
     That story might be more apocryphal than accurate. However, it’s true that two museums in Moscow and two in St. Petersburg sit a Russian grandmother by each of the museum’s most treasured artworks, the seated babushka silently underlining the message “Do not touch.”
     What about your store’s “do not” messages? “Do not steal.” “Do not try to take the item off the shelf by yourself.” “Do not smoke here.”
     You could post some signs and then hire a grandmother to sit by each one. Or you could put a picture of a pair of eyes on each of the signs. University of Newcastle researchers alternated between a picture of flowers and a picture of eyeballs on a sign instructing people not to cheat by failing to put money for their beverages into an “honesty box.” When the eyes were displayed, people paid nearly three times as much per ounce for their drinks than when the flowers were displayed.
     Don’t like my idea of using a printed pair of eyes? Okay, I’m flexible. How about putting a mirror by the sign? Let people look at their own eyeballs. A classic study of trick-or-treaters involved instructing each child not to take more than one candy after the adult left the area. When a mirror was placed in back of the candy container, the University of Montana, University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign, and Purdue University researchers found that the children were more likely to respect the instruction than when no mirror was there.
     But this was true only if the adult had asked the child their name and repeated the name before leaving the room. The name, the mirror, the pair of eyes, the grandma's gaze. All these build personal accountability in most of us, so use them for your “do not” messages. Keep the messages gentle enough not to offend, though. Making them fit in with the surroundings can help.
     At the Russian art museums, many of the babushkas are dressed or selected to resemble the artwork they’re guarding.

Click below for more:
Let Older Employees Use Their Skills
Use Shopper Psychology to Curb Shoplifting
Fight Employee Theft with Expectations
Use Psychology for Shopper Crowd Management