Customer reception: can highlighting breaches make them seem normal?
At reception, signs highlighting omissions and unwanted behaviour often serve as reminders of the rules. The management question is specific: does mentioning the frequency of breaches encourage the desired behaviour, or risk normalising those breaches?
What the literature establishes
Robert B. Cialdini, Raymond R. Reno and Carl A. Kallgren (1990, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology) distinguish descriptive norms, which indicate what others do, from injunctive norms, which indicate what is approved. Their field experiments on littering show that a norm's influence depends in part on how salient it is in the situation. A message such as “too many visitors forget to report to reception” therefore does more than state a requirement: it also provides information about other people's behaviour.
When the average becomes a reference point
P. Wesley Schultz, Jessica M. Nolan, Robert B. Cialdini, Noah J. Goldstein and Vladas Griskevicius (2007, Psychological Science) studied messages comparing household electricity consumption with that of neighbouring households. This comparison reduced consumption among households above the average but increased it among those below it; adding a signal of approval prevented this unwanted effect in their study. Describing common behaviour can thus draw behaviour towards a reference point, even when that movement is undesirable.
The premature conclusion
One might conclude that signs should always state that most visitors follow the rules. That would go too far: such a claim must be true, relevant and substantiated, and these studies do not directly test messages at corporate reception desks. The more cautious approach is to make the expected behaviour explicit without portraying breaches as commonplace. (our executive and employee training programmes)
What the evidence cannot settle
Experiments on littering and energy use cannot predict the effect of a sign at a corporate headquarters or an SME. At reception, the visibility of the desk, the language of the message and the presence of a staff member may also guide behaviour. An omission therefore proves neither resistance to the rule nor the text's ineffectiveness: the actual visitor journey needs to be observed.
A practical check in Vevey
In Vevey, with its global food-industry presence, group headquarters and Riviera SMEs, SHR's “Accueil client” programme can include a review of messages that portray breaches as frequent. Where such a sign exists, compare a period using the current wording with a period using a direct instruction — “Please report to reception on arrival” — keeping the languages, location and reception arrangements unchanged. For visitors subject to the instruction, measure the proportion who report to reception before any verbal reminder, using anonymous counts and without changing security checks. This comparison provides a local indicator for discussion, not causal proof, particularly if visitor profiles change. To go further: explore the Client Reception training in Vevey in the canton of Vaud, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.
In pictures: Client Reception in Vevey
- client reception
- Vevey
- research
- training vevey