Customer reception: making progress visible without manufacturing it
At reception, a request may involve several steps whose sequence is not always apparent to the visitor. The management question is specific: does showing what has already been completed help people continue a process without encouraging them to persist when it is no longer useful?
What the literature establishes
Joseph C. Nunes and Xavier Drèze (2006, Journal of Consumer Research) show that artificially endowed initial progress can increase persistence towards a reward, even when the remaining effort is identical. Their experiments include a loyalty programme: a task presented as already started does not motivate people in the same way as one presented as new. They establish an effect of how progress is framed, not the general effectiveness of a reception practice.
Proximity to the goal changes effort
Ran Kivetz, Oleg Urminsky and Yuhuang Zheng (2006, Journal of Marketing Research) observe an acceleration in behaviour as participants approach a reward in incentive programmes. They also show that a sense of advancement can accelerate goal attainment. The potentially relevant mechanism for reception is therefore perceived distance to the goal, rather than simply the objective number of remaining steps.
The premature conclusion
One might conclude that visitors should always be told they have already completed part of the journey. The cited studies justify neither fictitious steps nor presenting an initial contact as approval of an application. Making an actual document check visible provides information; suggesting that a favourable decision is getting closer when it remains uncertain is a different practice. (our executive and employee training programmes)
What the evidence does not allow us to transfer
These studies mainly concern reward-based processes, rather than requests for healthcare or technical procedures with eligibility conditions. They do not demonstrate that a progress indicator at reception improves understanding, decision quality or access to services. An increase in completion rates would itself be ambiguous if it reflected people continuing processes that had become unnecessary.
A practical check in Sion
Within SHR’s « Accueil client » programme, an exercise applicable in Sion would involve describing an actual process: an enquiry concerning a hydropower installation, preparation for a medical consultation, a vineyard tasting reservation or registration for an Alpine activity. Over a predefined period, compare time slots with and without a summary distinguishing completed steps, steps still required of the visitor and steps that depend on the service provider, without changing the requirements. The main measure would be the proportion of visitors able to name the next action and who is responsible for it correctly, checked through the same question on departure; return visits caused by a missed step would be tracked separately. This comparison would provide a local signal to interpret in light of the types of requests, without equating continued participation with reception quality. To go further: explore the Client Reception training in Sion in the canton of Valais, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.
In pictures: Client Reception in Sion
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