Courteous service: Its assessment and modification in a human service organization.

Pierce et al. (1994) worked with three human-service employees who greeted clients at a front desk.

The team used written instructions, practice, and feedback. They added a small lottery. Each polite act earned a ticket for a monthly gift-card draw.

A multiple-baseline design showed whether courtesy rose only after training hit each worker.

Courtesy scores jumped from about one-third to near-perfect for all three staff.

Client satisfaction rose too. The gains lasted at least eight months with no extra coaching.

Erath et al. (2021) now offer a faster path. Their 13-minute video replaced the written packet and still hit 100% fidelity without a lottery.

Erath et al. (2020) went bigger. One pyramidal workshop trained many staff at once and kept mastery without any raffle prizes.

These newer studies do not contradict D et al. They simply strip away the lottery and add video or group delivery. The core idea—model, practice, feedback—stays the same.

Last et al. (1984) showed the lottery trick works with kids too. BST plus tokens lifted assertive talk in autistic teens for over four months, echoing the durable staff courtesy seen here.

You still need polite, consistent staff. If you have time and love low-cost perks, copy D et al.: script, rehearse, praise, and toss names in a hat. If you need speed or scale, swap in the Erath video or pyramidal formats and drop the lottery. Either way, keep the practice-plus-feedback heart of BST.