Moderate Review Rudeness for Forgiveness

When we disappoint customers by providing less than adequate results, we’d like them to forgive us afterwards. Researchers at American University of Sharjah, University of Leeds, and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki say that one way to facilitate this forgiveness is to stifle rudeness in the customers’ complaining.
     Study participants were asked to recall an incident with a brand that had disappointed them during purchase or use. They were then asked to write an online post about the incident as if they’d submit this post to the brand’s Facebook page. The “content moderation group” participants were told that instructions for the page included, “Please do not confront the brand by using any foul language or with a bad temper. Please use moderate language for this task. Please do not write any disrespectful or defamatory content.” The other participants were instead told, “You are completely free in the way you would like to confront the brand about their wrongdoings. Please use your regular writing style. There are no restrictions in terms of content in the posting.”
     The posts from the content moderation group reflected a more positive tone than did posts from the other group. This isn’t surprising when considering that those in the other group had been encouraged to let loose, while those in the content moderation group were asked to censor themselves. Yet, as the researchers predicted, consumers in the content moderation group showed greater forgiveness toward the brand. Their agreement with items like “I feel sympathetic toward this brand” was stronger, and their agreement with items like “I am less likely to try this brand again” was weaker.
     Those in the content moderation group did say they felt their free speech had been infringed more than did those in the other group. It might seem, then, that they’d be angrier and so less interested in forgiving. Perhaps that didn’t happen because the rules to eliminate rudeness seem reasonable, having been presented as community guidelines and with abundant use of the word “please.” The researcher’s explanation is that the content moderation participants’ use of a more positive tone soothed their anger, allowing forgiveness to surface.
     The effect was stronger for people who felt a stronger attachment to the brand. Also, research at University of Alberta implies it’s stronger with items we depend on for emotional satisfaction than with items we depend on mostly to get a job done.

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Redirect Customer Tempers 

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