Only Use These Powerful Persuasion Tactics Ethically in Your Care Home!

This is a fantastic video summarising the 6 scientifically validated principles of persuasion featured in the book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Professor Robert Gialdini. It features some great examples with results that were achieved and I’m willing to bet that watching will trigger all sorts of ideas on how you can use these principles in your care home.

How to use the scarcity principle in your care home

My favourite persuasion principle is scarcity (No.2 in the video) and this has worked very well for me in all sorts of situations. However, let’s have a look at one of the ways you can use scarcity to your advantage when it comes to filling the empty beds in your care home.

This is best used when showing a prospective client around your home. Make sure you show them no more than two rooms. Choose the one you feel they like best and casually mention that there has been a lot of interest in the room and you’re expecting it to be filled very quickly so if they want to reserve it they’d better act now.

Is this an ethical use of persuasion?

You might feel that this is in some way dishonest and I suppose that if you have a home full of identical empty bedrooms it is probably is. That’s the thing about these principles they can be used for good and evil (I’m hearing Spiderman’s ‘With great power comes great responsibility’ speech in my mind now!).

What do you think?