Researchers at Saarland University, German Institute for Japanese Studies, and Akita International University asked seniors to read one of two descriptions of a store interaction. In the first scenario, when the elderly shopper says, “I’m looking for a cell phone,” the salesperson replies, “We have a phone with supersized buttons,” and when the shopper asks if the phone supports UMTS, the reply is, “Those modern abbreviations used by the younger generation often cause some confusion.” In the other scenario, the replies are, “What were you thinking about buying?” and, “This phone supports the UMTS standards.”
We might expect that the first scenario would strike the study participants as showing sensitivity to the characteristics of the individual shopper, a desire to save the shopper’s time, and an effort to reassure the shopper that lack of technical knowledge is fine. But in fact, the older adults reading the first scenario were, on the whole, less receptive to purchasing the phone and shopping at that store in the future than were those reading the second scenario. Those reading the first scenario were also more likely to say they felt they were being talked down to as if they were a child.
Women were more irritated by the patronizing salesperson behavior than were men. This might be due in part to the scenario being about a mobile phone. Women tend to think salespeople will underestimate their knowledge of technologies. This problem could be addressed by having more women salespeople available in the store and showing more female salespeople in ads.
The salesperson’s responses were more likely to be seen as patronizing when that salesperson was described as being about 28 years old than as being about 58 years old. A general finding is that shoppers prefer to be served by people who approximate similarities to them. Having older salespeople available to shoppers could help here.
Culture makes a difference. The study was conducted with German consumers. The researchers note that previous work shows Mexican salespeople being perceived as especially rude and French salespeople being perceived as especially arrogant.
Still, across cultures, transactions with seniors go best when the competencies of the shopper are assumed by the salesperson unless shown otherwise. Failing this, even what is intended to be respectful can be perceived as the opposite.
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Stem the Tide of Female Shopper Discomfort
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