(I'm) happy to help (you): The impact of personal pronoun use in customer-firm interactions Packard, G, Moore, SG and McFerran, Brent 2018, (I'm) happy to help (you): The impact of personal pronoun use in customer-firm interactions, Journal of Marketing Research, vol. 55, no. 4, pp. 541-555, doi: 10.1509/jmr.16.0118. Title (I'm) happy to help (you): The impact of personal pronoun use in customer-firm interactions Author(s) Packard, G Moore, SG McFerran, Brent Journal name Journal of Marketing Research Volume number 55 Issue number 4 Start page 541 End page 555 Total pages 15 Publisher SAGE Publications Place of publication London, Eng. Publication date 2018-08 ISSN 0022-2437 1547-7193 Keyword(s) language social perception customer service personal selling pronouns Summary In responding to customer questions or complaints, should marketing agents linguistically “put the customer first” by using certain personal pronouns? Customer orientation theory, managerial literature, and surveys of managers, customer service representatives, and consumers suggest that firm agents should emphasize how “we” (the firm) serve “you” (the customer), while de-emphasizing “I” (the agent) in these customer–firm interactions. The authors find evidence of this language pattern in use at over 40 firms. However, they theorize and demonstrate that these personal pronoun emphases are often suboptimal. Five studies using lab experiments and field data reveal that firm agents who refer to themselves using “I” rather than “we” pronouns increase customers’ perceptions that the agent feels and acts on their behalf. In turn, these positive perceptions of empathy and agency lead to increased customer satisfaction, purchase intentions, and purchase behavior. Furthermore, the authors find that customer-referencing “you” pronouns have little impact on these outcomes and can sometimes have negative consequences. These findings enhance understanding of how, when, and why language use affects social perception and behavior and provide valuable insights for marketers. Language eng DOI 10.1509/jmr.16.0118 Field of Research 1505 Marketing HERDC Research category C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30163500 Document type: Journal Article Collections: Faculty of Business and Law Department of Marketing Related Links Link Description Connect to published version Go to link with your DU access privileges   Connect to Elements publication management system Go to link with your DU access privileges     Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Versions Version Filter Type Mon, 28 Feb 2022, 07:52:56 EST Mon, 28 Feb 2022, 15:29:00 EST Wed, 09 Mar 2022, 19:47:47 EST Tue, 05 Apr 2022, 14:08:51 EST Tue, 05 Apr 2022, 15:00:58 EST Tue, 05 Apr 2022, 16:45:07 EST Filtered Full Citation counts:   Cited 54 times in TR Web of Science Cited 59 times in Scopus Search Google Scholar Access Statistics: 6 Abstract Views  -  Detailed Statistics Created: Mon, 28 Feb 2022, 07:52:56 EST