Friendliness pays off! Respect and Monetary Gifts in the Service Industry.

We investigate the role of respect and monetary gifts in the service industry. We report findings from purchases of more than 800 doner durum, a common lunch snack. Prior to the food’s preparation, we either give a compliment about the product, or a monetary gift by tipping. We repeat the interaction on five consecutive days. Our findings show that salespersons exhibit positive reciprocity in response both to paying respect and to monetary gifts. Remarkably, the “respect-effect†even gets stronger with repeated purchases.