The Effect of Salesperson Visual and Audio Cue Combinations Online on Customer “Motivation to Process”

As the pandemic of Covid-19 has led to the rapid expansion of online tools, it is urgent to study how to improve persuasion in online business communication. Based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), this study focused on “Motivation to process” the first stage of the central route of this model. We examined the impact of visual and audio cue combinations used by salespeople in online tools. Six combination videos of a salesperson are composed of three kinds of still images (Name, Profile photo with no expression, and Profile photo with a smile), and two kinds of voices (Dull and Bright). Before watching the videos, 107 participants, as customers, read the outline of the proposal. They were then asked whether they were interested in the topic and divided into two groups: Interested or Uninterested. Then, they evaluated their motivation to process by watching videos on the seven levels of the Likert scale. The Multiple Comparison Analysis showed that “Name x dull voice” and “Photo with no expression x dull voice” decreased customer motivation to process compared to other combinations for both groups. We also found that both visual and audio cues were influential for the uninterested group but that audio cues rather than visual cues were more influential for the interested group. As a result, by paying more attention to the combination of visual and audio cues in online tools, salespeople could make better impressions and improve customer motivation to process as one of the essential factors of persuasion.