Combine Competence with Warmth

Shoppers for services want both technical competence and interpersonal warmth from marketers. But as those shoppers sense greater competence, they tend to sense waning warmth, according to findings from Vienna University of Economics and Business, Imperial College London, and South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences.
     Nonprofits are seen as more warm and less competent than profit-making organizations. A broadly smiling face on an item or salesperson communicates warmth while disrupting impressions of competence. Politicians perceived as highly empathic tend to be perceived as less businesslike.
     The most influential point along that dimension depends on the consumer’s stage in the relationship with the marketer. The research findings indicate you should: 

• Emphasize the competence in order to acquire customers, clients, and voters in the short-term because it enables the consumer to justify spending their money, time, and attention with you. 
• Emphasize the warmth in order to retain them for the long-term because it strengthens the identification of the consumer with the marketer. 
• Over all, emphasize warmth because it has a greater persuasive effect than does competence. The extent of warmth is sensed more quickly than is the extent of competence.

     For the studies, competence was defined as intelligence, efficiency, and capability to complete tasks. Warmth was defined as friendliness, authenticity, and interest in being of assistance.
     Competence is communicated by having answers or knowing where to quickly get them. A touch of humility makes it more likely you’ll be considered an expert. Warmth comes across with a smile, 
     Do configure these recommendations to fit the situation. A shopper might be expressly looking for competence over warmth or the other way around.

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