Service organisations struggle to understand and change customer behaviour since it is complex, dynamic, multidimensional and very often not rational. Behavioural sciences can provide us with the ability to fundamentally understand, predict and guide customer behaviour. While service designers increasingly use nudging interventions, we propose that different efforts are needed to increase the chances of having a durable impact. We introduced rational overrides as an additional approach for influencing behaviour in services at the DRS conference in Limerick. Rational overrides introduce micro moments of friction in the customer journey, which makes customers more active and aware.

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Rational Overrides: Influencing
Behaviour Beyond Nudging
A service design approach towards creating
behavioural interventions
DRS Limerick 2018
Anne van Lieren
dr. Giulia Calabretta
Prof. dr. Jan Schoormans

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A joint research
How can service designers use
behavioural sciences in the design of
services to understand and influence
behaviour?
LEARNINGS FROM PRACTICE
KNOWLEDGE & INTELLIGENCE

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A combination of qualitative and exploratory methodologies
MULTI - CASE STUDY
EXPERT INTERVIEWS
LITERATURE REVIEW
LEARNINGS FROM PRACTICE
KNOWLEDGE & INTELLIGENCE

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Key insights from the research
Why do we need to go beyond nudging?
1.
Nudging interventions are not
the holy grail - they are not
always suitable, sustainable or
scalable in a service context
3.
Micro moments of friction are
needed to disrupt customers
out of mindless, automatic
interactions and enables them
to make better decisions
2.
Getting customers in the right
mindset at the right moment is
crucial to create lasting impact
on customer behaviour

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1. Nudges but not the holy grail
ar o

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Nudging examples in a service context
Amazon
Uses smart defaults to streamline
operations and increase customer
experience on their customer service.
UK government
Using social norms to highlight positive
behaviour of peers to reduce fraud, error
and debt in by UK taxpayers.
Nudges are not the holy grail

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Resolve adoption problems
E.g
Smooth channel migration
Digital transformation
Streamline operations
E.g
Increase response rate
Reduce complaints
Impact moments of change
E.g.
Temporary changes to service delivery
Nudges are effective in services to...
Nudges are not the holy grail

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Disadvantages of nudging in a service environment
Dynamic
Customers move
from touchpoint to
touchpoint
Based on joint
value creation
that relies on active and
engaged customers
Used by different
customers
that need solutions
that fit their personal
situation
A stable context
To effect immediate
behaviour
Creating a
frictionless
experience
That makes people
lazy & inactive
One-size fits all
situations
No active input is
required
Nudges
are
effective
in...
But
services
are....
Bovens, 2009; Schubert, 2015
Bisset & Lockton, 2010; Stutzer, 2011; Hansen &
Jespersen, 2013
Botti & Iyengar, 2004; Dholakia, 2016
Nudges are not the holy grail

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Getting customers in the right mindset at the
right moment
2.
in to j u y

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Getting customers in the right mindset
A proposed solution
Nudging:
Facilitate the subconscious mindset by making
behaviour really easy, social or attractive.
Instinctive
subconscious mindset
Reflective conscious
mindset

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Micro moments of friction can switch customers to the
conscious mindset
A proposed solution
Instinctive
subconscious mindset
Reflective conscious
mindset
Disrupt automatic
interactions
Prompt moments of
reflection
Stimulate conscious
decisions making

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A rational
override example
A proposed solution
Uber uses a small moment of
friction to reduce human error and
increase the customer experience
during surge pricing.
Uber introduced a micro moment of friction; the app forces users to type the correct
surge price to confirm that they are consciously accepting. This patented method of
‘forcing’ users to manually agree to the higher fare drastically reduced customer
complaints.

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Combining 2 types of behavioural interventions at the right
moment in a customer journey
A proposed solution
Use nudges and rational override to either speed up or slow down the user’s momentum?
RATIONAL
OVERRIDE
RATIONAL
OVERRIDE
NUDGE

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Micro moments of friction are required3.
fu t a

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Rational overrides are not new
Rational overrides in detail
BEHAVIOURAL
LITERATURE
UX AND
DESIGN
LITERATURE
● Debiasing interventions (Jolls and Sunstein, 2004)
● Mindful nudges (Ly, 2013)
● System 2 nudges (Sunstein, 2015)
● Inclusion nudges (Nielsen, 2016)
● Frictional feedback (Laschke, Diefenbah & Hassenzahl, 2015)
● Micro boundaries (Cox & Gould, 2016)

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A working definition of rational overrides
Rational override in detail
A rational override is a small moment of
intentional friction that attempts to influence
people’s behaviour or decision-making by
intervening automatic thinking and activating
reflective conscious thinking.

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Strategies to create rational overrides
Rational overrides in detail
Interventions
from the case
studies
Literature
study
on deliberate
friction, mindful
nudges, etc.
Desk research
into examples of
existing
interventions
45
rational override
examples
9
rational override
strategies
Relative ranking
Real-time feedback
Personalized feedback
Extra decision points
Reminders & alerts
Enhanced active choice
Commitments
Functional friction
Checklists

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An approach & toolkit to
design for behavioural
interventions

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Behavioural Intervention Design in three steps
A behavioural analysis can support
designers to understand the
underlying factors of (unwanted)
behaviour.
Design approach and toolkit
Integrate behavioural factors with
qualitative or quantitative user
insights to find the key moments in
the journey to influence behaviour.
Intervention strategies to create the
right combinations of interventions
to maximize the effect and create
lasting impact.
Behavioural analysis Behavioural journey mapping Behavioural interventions
Behavioural factor cards Behavioural interventions
strategy cards
Database of cognitive biases
Database of over 150 examples
Behavioural journey
template

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Rational overrides will enable us to go beyond nudging
and find that holy grail of behaviour change!

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@liveworkstudio@theliveworker Livework Studio
Anne van Lieren
Design for Behaviour Expert
+31 6 50879162
anne.vanlieren@liveworkstudio.com
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