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Has Anyone Noticed American Express Treats Their Customers (Marginally) Differently?




The American Express Cards

The other day I logged into my AMEX account and noticed a different message between the Platinum and HHonors Surpass cards for when I need to pay off the cards. We know the Platinum is their high-end card, but I did not expect the message to be different and find it kind of funny. The use of language is an important tool as well as your tone of voice, the words you use, and your body language. All of those play a key role in social engineering.

Researcher Albert Mehrabian found that the tone of voice accounts for 38% of the overall message. Much to my surprise, when my AMEX card statements were cut, I noticed that tones and choices of words were different depending on the product.

If you are a Platinum card holder you will see “Please Pay By”

amex_plt_pay_date

The message just sounds nicer with a “please.”

Here’s my Hilton HHonors Surpass card:

American Express

 

“Your Payment is Due on” has a tiny more forceful tone to let you know you have a bill due. Meanwhile, with the tone of voice that American Express is displaying with a higher end card they want you to give a different, nicer sounding message. Funny little differences, right?

6 comments… add one
  • No you clueless blogger – one is a charge card, one is a credit card.

    Reply
  • Sadly many commenters treat everyone the same …

    Nonetheless, the difference in card types is the key. The please pay by date for Amex charge cards is not as hard a deadline as the due date for their credit cards.

    Reply
    • Thanks – looks like I was too much into the zone and I looked into the message more than it was instead of A/B testing and wording of the payment date

      Reply
  • @Y – You should keep your snarky comments to DDF!

    Reply
    • Yup, anybody stupid enough to be reading this doesn’t deserve any better. The bloggers blog, and the not clueless lean back and laugh.

      Reply
      • Arrogant. Everyone makes mistakes now and then, even you shockingly. Talk about stupid, you just accused yourself of being stupid, can you figure out where?

        Reply

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