A few weeks ago we posted a piece exploring the powerful impact of gratitude in the marketplace (see: Generosity Inc. = Gratitude²).  The upshot is that customers and employees have long-lasting, very positive impressions of those who show them gratitude.

As regular readers know, here at gThankYou, we’re all about gratitude.  So, when the research is published that supports what we feel in our hearts to be true, we can’t wait to read it.

And, here it is…

University of Washington Marketing Professor Robert Palmatier recently published  the “Role of Customer Gratitude in Relationship Marketing,” and the Journal of Marketing now has it up online.

Palmatier’s paper – cited in a recent New York Times Magazine article on how gratitude can create loyalty in the consumer marketplace – is interesting in lots of ways. It takes a look at this form of relationship marketing through the lens of social science research, explaining how genuine feelings of gratitude among consumers create a greater wallet share for companies. Then, Prof. Palmatier suggests three strategies to leverage customer gratitude.

The gist: reward customers on an individual basis when they most can use the benefit and give customers an opportunity to reciprocate quickly.

Palmatier admits that there’s work yet to be done on how thanks bonds relationships in the marketplace. Perhaps there will be additional studies in the field demonstrating just how the old fashioned practice of saying “thanks” creates goodwill (and better sales, and great employee loyalty) in the marketplace and workplace.

As my father always says, “study hard and learn a lot”!

Again: Generosity Inc. = Gratitude Squared (GI = G x G)

Posted in Gratitude, Gratitude Research, Management & Leadership