Simple acknowledgment boosts repeat customer participation in take-back programs

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Companies may only need to send an acknowledgment message to boost repeat customer participation in recycling and reuse programs for used goods like laptops and coffee pods, according to a new study led by Penn State researchers.

The idea for the study arose over a cup of coffee — more specifically, the single-use pod used to make the coffee. Over a series of experiments, the researchers found that a simple “we received your item” email was all it took to encourage less-engaged customers to become repeat recyclers and to raise the company’s sustainability profile. In one field study, those basic emails tripled consumer participation in a dining service’s reuse program. The researchers reported their findings in the Journal of Consumer Research.

“We found that when a company acknowledges customers, they’re more likely to participate again in the company’s recycling and reuse program, making sustainable behavior sustainable over the long-term,” said study co-author Sara Dommer, assistant professor of marketing at Penn State’s Smeal College of Business. “I think the fact that a company can seem even more sustainable just by saying, ‘Thanks, we got it,’ is a really cool effect.”

The findings point to an easily implementable solution that can strengthen the partnership between a company and its patrons to help them reach their shared sustainability goals, according to study co-author Karen Winterich, distinguished professor of marketing at Penn State’s Smeal College of Business.

Winterich offered the aforementioned field study as an example of the impact acknowledgment messages have in a real-world setting. For the field study, she and her colleagues partnered with Topanga, a foodservice technology company that Penn State works with to help reduce single-use waste in its dining halls. Using the company’s technology, the University offers diners the option to order takeout meals in reusable containers that are tracked by QR codes, explained Winterich. During the project, Topanga began sending customers an acknowledgment email when they returned a container. They found that the communications tripled repeat participation in the program.

“When we looked at the baseline data from the year before, individuals already participating in Topanga’s take-back program showed this habitual behavior, so their numbers didn’t increase much from the acknowledgment emails,” Winterich said. “But individuals who were previously infrequent users of the reusable containers were a lot more likely to participate again in the future when they got acknowledged, and this is where companies want to see movement.”

To see how acknowledgment affects customer participation in take-back and recycling programs, the researchers set up a series of seven experiments, including the field study. In the first experiment, the researchers asked 429 online participants to imagine that they took part in a fictional coffee company’s pod recycling program. They randomly assigned participants into one of four groups that received an email either not acknowledging program participation, offering a basic acknowledgment for participating, acknowledging and expressing gratitude for participating, or offering thanks for being a customer but not acknowledging program participation. The second study, which included 226 online participants, was similar to the first but only focused on acknowledgment emails rather than gratitude messages. After surveying the participants, the researchers found that the acknowledgment emails proved the main driver of customer intent to participate again in the programs.

Similar to the first two experiments, the third involved 247 online participants and looked at how acknowledgment emails affect customers’ feelings of emotional attachment and partnership with a company. The research team found that acknowledgment emails led consumers to perceive companies as more sustainable. Participants also reported greater emotional attachment to and perceived greater partnership with the company.

The fourth experiment, which included nearly 1,400 participants, compared the effects of acknowledgment after participating in a company’s take-back program versus acknowledgment for completing an online review. The researchers found that unlike acknowledgment for completing an online review, acknowledging participation in a take-back program increased emotional attachment and partnership with a company, which led to greater intentions to participate in the future.

The fifth and sixth experiments looked at a consumer’s perceived connections with a brand — referred to as self-brand connection — and greenwashing, or the practice of misleadingly promoting sustainability. Each experiment included 733 online participants. The researchers found that acknowledging participation in a company’s take-back program had a stronger effect on consumers with lower self-brand connection. In other words, a simple “we received your items” message helped to build relationships with the exact consumer base that companies want to reach.

Greenwashing, on the other hand, had a negative effect on consumers’ intention of participating again in take-back programs.

“We found that there are concerns about greenwashing and if a company is truly sustainable,” Winterich said. “Take-back programs do not survive on one-off participation. They need continual repeat engagement. So, figuring out how to boost that is important.”

The final experiment — the field study conducted in partnership with Topanga — occurred over a one-month period in Penn State’s dining halls. During the experiment, Topanga sent acknowledgment emails to participants who returned reusable takeout containers, thanking them for participating and noting how many disposable containers were diverted from landfills because of their participation. The final dataset included 710 unique participants, with 1,589 emails sent. The researchers found that the acknowledgment emails increased repeat participation in the program by threefold. The findings suggest that acknowledgment has a compounding effect: continued communications reinforced participation in the program over time.

“We were able to work with Penn State’s dining services and show that acknowledgment actually works, so well in fact that Topanga has rolled out the acknowledgment messaging to other schools across the country,” Dommer said. “We’ve helped them. I love that.”

Yuly Hong, assistant professor of marketing at NEOMA Business School in Reims, France, also co-authored the study. Penn State’s Smeal College of Business, through the Center for the Business of Sustainability, and the NOEMA Business School supported this work.