🤝

reciprocity

Reciprocity is the drive to return favors or kindnesses. It is an unconscious social norm.

For this reason, it’s smart to give people things with no expectation of getting anything in return.

That engagement could fuel a reciprocal goodwill and loyalty.

It is an innate desire

  • Humans feel compelled to repay gifts or support, even when unsolicited.
  • If there is an asymmetric exchange of value,where you help someone disproportionately to expectations—other humans feel a sense of obligation to return the favour.
  • You can also match this with social proof. Public acts of generosity not only obligate recipients of that generosity. It also signals value to other onlookers.

Things you can do to generate an obligation mindset with others

Tactic
Implementation Example
Provide value
Offer high quality content or value to every person working with you, regardless of what you get in return.
Provide something free in return for a small favor
E.g., you might want to give someone a valuable whitepaper, if they simply give you an email address to contact you at a future time. The email is the reciprocal value.
Surprise upgrades
Once someone has paid for a service, and even consumed it—do a follow-up with something extra they weren’t expecting. This creates a feeling of obligation to leave a nice review or treat you well in future.
Give people early access to information
Give top newsletter subscribers sneak peeks at new tools or beta features.
Exclusive support
Help onboard a customer in a one-on-one so they fully understand the product or service you are providing.

These techniques are all small examples, but how do you scale it?

Scaling reciprocity

  1. Automate your delivery mechanisms:
    • Use workflows to email resources or access codes once a customer signs up for something.
  2. Make sure to personalise messages:
    • Taking the time to insert a person's correct details on a note, and even personalising what you say in a situation using AI could be a great way to connect. You may even want to just manually do them at important points if the payoff of loyalty is worth more than the time.
  3. Layer the reciprocity so you don’t extinguish it all at once:
    • Send micro-gifts over time (“Week 1: prompt pack; Week 2: video guide; Week 3: community badge”) to sustain engagement.
  4. Publicly call out connections:
    • Highlighting recipients of your gifts in community channels—is a form of engagement which can drive other sign-ups.

Conclusion

You don’t have to con people with this technique.

It’s really just being a good human.

Delight people you want to work with and they might want to work with you.

I’d recommend not expecting anything in return, so only give what you can afford.

Sometimes all you need to give is some time, empathy, and consideration.

But if you can scale it, genuinely and the customer likes it—happy days.