Q 251. Benjamin Franklin quoted in his autobiography: "He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged". What is the Ben Franklin effect and what are the practical applications of this in a business scenario?

 

 

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Benchmark Six Sigma Expert View by Venugopal R

Ben Franklin effect may sound paradoxical. As quoted in his auto biography, his statement, in simpler terms, implies that one who has already done you a favor will be highly likely to do another one. He had also written that in his personal experience, it was one of his adversaries whom he approached for a favor and later they ended up becoming lifelong friends.

 

Based on my own personal experiences, both in career and day-to-day life, there have been many instances, where we can relate the Ben Franklin effect positively, and at the same time, there have been negative incidents as well. However, since there is more to gain than lose by trying and adopting the approach, it is worthwhile discussing and exploring this topic.

 

As per general human psychology, most people hesitate to approach someone for a favor for various reasons; more so, if it happens to be one with not-so-good relationship. Let us consider two different situations:

1. For many instances, there may not be anything wrong in asking for help when one needs it from someone who is in a better position to provide that help. What might come in the way could possibly be a psychological barrier.
2. Second case is when the person happens to be one with a strained relationship due to some past incident.

While we could have examples for the above situations both in business and personal lives, we will discuss a few business scenarios.

 

Customer Supplier relationship

When we find it difficult to deliver products / services on time or right quality, we may request our customer for help. It could be clarifications on specifications, provide training on a process, help us with some checks at their end and provide feedback or discuss on an alternate approach and so on. Many times, reaching out to customer for such assistance is hesitated or postponed, with a notion that we might project a negative impression by asking for help – however, we would have noticed that more often than not, the customer would have been eager to help us out. Upon thanking the customer for their help, we can expect that this would encourage them to enhance the collaboration and support us during genuine situations in the future as well.

 

Similarly, during certain occasions customer may reach out to their suppliers or service providers for helping them out with an exigent situation, which may be beyond the contract boundaries. This could encourage the supplier with a feeling of importance and result in offering such help in the future. However, it is important that this does not evolve as an unchecked ‘scope creep’ and impair a healthy business relationship.

 

Leader Subordinate relationship

The leader may ask for a help from subordinate without reservations, maybe to explain some subject which he / she may be good at or it could be taking his / her view before making a personal purchase, on a product for which he / she has good familiarity. This could highly motivate the employee who would look forward to similar opportunities in future. This could happen the other way as well, when an employee approaches his leader for help with some topic, or to obtain some attestation for a personal requirement, or some personal guidance on career. Such mutual help when requested from either side, so long as it does not amount to exploitation of authority or freedom, would foster healthier relationships and result in better performance as a team.

 

Inter functional relationship

Co-operation between different functions in an organization is very important for the success of a ‘process oriented’ company. Seeking ideas, involving other stakeholders to provide their viewpoints and support by providing them a larger organizational picture are essential principles for driving organizational excellence. It is akin to the prime minister of a country seeking ideas and support from all parties, including opposition parties to jointly address a national emergency.

 

Key points to bear in mind

• We can certainly identify many more examples related to business and day-to-day lives.
• However, we may not see ‘Ben Franklin effect’ work in all situations.
• The underlying principle behind the Ben Franklin effect is that the requested favor should be such that it evokes a feeling of pride and importance on the other individual. Hence, it matters, who needs to be approached for what type of help.
• Ensure that you do not put someone in an embarrassing situation by asking that favor.
• It is also important how, or the manner in which such a request is put forth. It should neither be commanding nor pleading.
• You should also ensure that a genuine appreciation and compliment is given in return to the help provided.

As per Wikipedia, Ben Franklin effect is  - a person who has already performed a favor for another is more likely to do another favor for the other than if they had received a favor from that person.

 

This effect appears to be the result of cognitive dissonance, because if we have done a favor for someone, how can we possibly not like the person. Given that this phenomenon works, businesses or individuals could use it to their advantage in following ways

 

1. Good inter-personal relations

2. Good client vendor relations

3. Customer loyalty

4. Good supplier relations

5. Good team bonding

 

In all the above cases, the approach would be to first ask for a favor from the other party. One the other party obliges and fulfills the favor, they will inherently start liking you (as per the Ben Franklin effect) resulting in good relationships.

The Ben Franklin effect is a proposed psychological phenomenon: a person who has already performed a favor for another is more likely to do another favor for the other than if they had received a favor from that person.

 

The Benjamin Franklin effect is generally explained using cognitive dissonance theory, which suggests that holding two or more contradictory beliefs at the same time causes people to experience mental discomfort. Specifically, based on this framework, people experience the Ben Franklin effect because they try to reduce their cognitive dissonance, which in this context could occur if they performed a favor for someone that they don’t sufficiently like, as a result of the mismatch between their actions and their feelings toward the person that they’re helping.

 

What this means is if you try to endear yourself to the colleague who just hasn't warmed up to you, forget bending over backwards to help him out. Instead, ask him for something. He might oblige.

 

It has a lot of profound implications in business. A salesperson courting a business client, is better off asking the client on how client can provide valuable inputs, rather than proactively going and offering a solution at first go. And avoid doing things like Proof of Concepts etc for free.

Customer loyalty is a tough area to crack. Requesting something like a small feedback to improve, might look like a small thing, but could end up improving perceived impression about the product better.

Followup first favour with another reasonable one, because not helping will prove contradicting to the previous favour. This includes going back to client and asking say a reference to someone else in the organization who needs help. To avoid snowballing of favours, slowly start to introduce incentives to offset the increasing weight of the favors you’re asking. At this stage a free POC etc might make sense.

 

Key things to know how to use the Ben Franklin effect include

• The scope of the favor generally doesn’t matter as much as the favor itself.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help, since people often underestimate how likely others are to help them.
• Remember that even if your intentions feel obvious to you, they generally aren’t as obvious to the other person.
• You can take advantage of the effects of reciprocity, by performing a small favor for the other person, before asking them to perform a favor for you.
• After asking the other person for a favor, you can perform a small favor in return, in order to increase the likelihood of them helping you if you ask for a favor again.
• be realistic with regard to who you ask for favors, and with regard to the favors that you ask for
• how you ask for a favor is also important

 

Knowing such key insights helps in our day to day business and personal lives.

 

Reference Sites

https://effectiviology.com/benjamin-franklin-effect/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Franklin_effect

https://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/how-to-use-the-ben-franklin-effect-to-increase-loyalty.htm

An American Writer, philosopher, politician, scientist, inventor, civic activist, and diplomat Benjamin Franklin wrote in his autobiography "He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another favor, than to whom you yourself have obliged". Means that it a psychological phenomena that a person who has already performed a favor for another is more likely to do another favor for the other person. If we ask people they will say that they help people because they like them, even if that is not true, but their mind will keep on struggling to maintain a logical consistency between their perceptions and actions.

 

How does the Ben Franklin effect work?

 

Apply this to the favor-requesting method of boosting loyalty and you get the following sequence:

• You ask someone (who is not a friend) to do you a favor.
• For whatever reason, they agree to do it.
• They mind looks for a logical justification.
• It struggles to reconcile the attitude towards you with the favor.
• It “reinterprets” the former, concluding that you’re viewed positively.

 

Application of Benjamin effect:-

 

In the sales and marketing sector, the Ben Franklin effect can be used to build reputation in the client’s eye.  Rather than helping a potential client, a salesperson can ask the potential client for assistance e.g. sales person can ask the potential customer to share which product or benefits or services are most compelling to them, or what’s trending or what products they would like to experience in future. This kind of favour can build likeability that will enhance the sales person’s ability to gain that client's time and investment in the future.

 

Parallely for Regular customer also we can ask for the feedback and this will eliminate negative feeling will leading to more business. their feedback are important for us and will help improve offer. Make customer your partner in helping the under privileged. Also ask customer for referral and guidance

 

Network Building:-

In case of linked in for connection/Job search sometimes we take guidance on projects or knowledge sharing or writing Good comments or birthday wishes .That will enhance our effective networking and increase interelation

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ajay Sharma has explained the effect well. Natwarlal has given five situations for applications. Ram Rajagagopalan has explained some strategies. All three are winners for this question.