Could those colored sticky notes you have at your desk possibly be one of the most powerful tools at your disposal?

Social scientist Randy Garner recently sent out a survey and, in some form, a request to complete them. Some of the surveys went with only a cover letter, some with a handwritten note on the cover letter and some with a handwritten sticky note on the cover letter. The results were surprising. The cover letter sample had a 36% response rate and the handwritten note on the cover letter sample had a 48% response rate while the handwritten sticky note got a whopping 75% response rate. And when a thank you and the sender’s initials were added, the return rate even jumped further.

The universal law of reciprocity was activated by the perception of the extra time the sender took and the receiver felt more obligated to not only return the survey, but also return it faster than the other methods. So get those sticky notes out of the drawer and reexamine their possibilities.

Source: Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive by Goldstein, Martin and Cialdini