SUBTEXTTHE TOUCH THAT SELLS
A fascinating study gives us a clue to how the subtext of trust
works. In a large library, a group of sociology students set up an
experiment. They had a librarian touch the first hundred readers
as they checked out books. The touch was a light one, a brush
of the librarian's hand against the borrower's. Sometimes it was
barely noticed.
With the next hundred readers, the librarian was told to avoid
touching them, to make no physical contact. Otherwise the proce-
dure was the same. The librarian gave the exact same service to
both groups.
Researchers stationed outside the library approached each reader
as he or she left and explained that they were conducting a study
of library service, and asked each reader to answer a few questions
about the library. Buried among the questions was one that asked
how willing and helpful the librarian had been. Among those
who had been touched, the great majority described the librarian
as helpful and considerate. The readers who had not been touched
had neither positive nor negative feelings about the librarian.
This is not an isolated finding. Another telling clue to the impor-
tance of touch came from some informal reporting by the owner
of a car dealership. He noticed that one of his salespeople had
an unusually high record of sales. The owner watched him in
action but could find nothing radically different in his approach.
It was very much like the other salespeople's except that at one
point in his pitch he touched the customer. The owner, by instruct-
ing the rest of the sales force to copy this technique, was able to
improve sales significantly. The subtext the salesperson gave out
with his touch was one of caring. The skin is our largest sense
organ, and we respond emotionally when it is touched.