CHAPTER 10

Bringing Back Lost Customers

Bringing Wilted Leaves Back to Life

You wouldn’t expect a business lesson to be learned from colonoscopies, but in the book titled Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment, Dr. Martin Seligman writes about a medical experiment that elucidates a powerful business lesson.

[In one experiment], 682 patients were randomly assigned to either the usual colonoscopy or to a procedure in which one extra minute was added on at the end, but with the colonoscope not moving. A stationary colonoscope provides a less uncomfortable final minute than what went before, but it does add one extra minute of discomfort. The added minute means, of course, that this ...

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