Over 27,000 Israelis were mailed a self-administering Colorectal Cancer test kit. The kit either included an “if–then” leaflet with instructions of when, where, and how to perform the test or a standard leaflet with no such planning instructions (control group). They were then asked 2 and 6 months later whether they took the test.

71.4% of the If-then plan recipients took the test compared to 67.9% of the control group meaning If-Then plans resulted in 6.6% more of participants taking the test.

Whether designing for yourself or for others, here's how to make an easy, effective If-Then Plan:

First, define the goal.

If for you, it might be to exercise more. If for others, it might be to reduce an organisation's water waste. What existing behaviour are you looking to reduce or reinforce? Alternatively, what new, aspirational behaviour might you be looking to foster?

Identify your "If" context

This will become the future cue or environment that we'll recognise. It'll provide a clear, detectable moment to do something, even if you're busy or tired. Pick scenarios that are encountered often (E.g. on a daily basis, like an office lobby) to boost effectiveness.

E.g. "If/when I'm waiting for the elevator…"

Choose a behavioural "then" response

This is the specific behaviour that will get you closer to the goal you defined. The easier it is to recall and do, the more it will be done. For instance, what small, relevant and easy-to-recall behaviour can I do IF I'm waiting for the elevator?

E.g. "I will take the stairs"

Planning these steps out in advance and defining exactly how one should respond in the situation creates a strong, repeatable link between seeing and doing.

E.g. "If I have to wait for the elevator, then I will take the stairs"

Note: If designing for others, to ensure it'll be easy and fits within the context you're designing for, consider roleplaying it out before you roll it out. Role before you roll, if you will.

Inform, do not instruct.

A vivid, relatable and subtly persuasive image or message will be more effective to change consumer behaviour, whereas instructing them could be met with reactance. Remove this threat to personal freedom by giving consumers more autonomy when they make decisions.

Ideally, If-Thens should be defined at least in part by the person themselves. However, there are creative workarounds; companies could set and share strategic goals, with employees writing their own If-Then Plans to help achieve such goals.

153 people were asked to choose between a 5-star restaurant 25 mins away and a 3-star restaurant 5 mins away. A third decoy restaurant option was then added of 4-stars  at 35 mins away.

This decoy shifted preferences from the closer, cheaper restaurant towards the 5-star option.

Determine your target.

‍What is the product you want to sell more of, next to a lower-margin competing product? Build your decoy product around this with a price or attributes that inadvertently highlight the target's attractiveness.

Don't overwhelm.

‍Offering too much choice or highlighting too many competing attributes where neither option is clearly more attractive will trigger Analysis Paralysis, making consumers' decision processes more difficult.

How is your target clearly more attractive?

Test different decoy values to optimize the effect.

Huber et al., (2014) suggest that decoys work best when it’s really easy and quick to see the dominant product, when pre-decoy desire is roughly split between target and competitor and when people don’t strongly like / dislike the decoy.

22 students were shown a range of graduate yearbook photographs a varying number of times for 2 seconds each. They were then asked how much out of 7 they liked each person.

Results showed that the more times they’d seen a given graduate photo, the more they liked them.

Expose the unknown within the known.

Create trust for new, unfamiliar products by sample-bundling with existing products. UK supermarket, Waitrose did this expertly when it first introduced kiwi berries, managing consumer unfamiliarity by bundling a small free sample with large packs of trusted blueberries.

This approach is known as a Foot In The Door.

‍

Exposure first. Behavior change second.

Reduce people’s Risk Aversion by taking a staged approach to rolling out new ideas or policies.

Instead of starting by looking to change behavior, just expose people to some introductory aspect of it, using the Spacing Effect to spread experiences out across time and environment.

Let the new become the familiar for a while before making more advanced requests of people.

Overcome your own Confirmation Bias...

...by exposing yourself to new viewpoints. Though you may not agree with all you hear, you'll develop a skill to see common ground in an increasingly-polarized world.

The persuasiveness of your opinions with others with whom you disagree will  be strengthened by empathically considering their views alongside your own.

You’re walking down the street. Consider two realities:

A: You unexpectedly find $10 in your pocket. 

You feel positively-surprised!

Or:

B: You left the house with $10 in your pocket.

But you reach in and it’s gone.

The pain you feel from its loss is greater than the good feeling of finding it.

Prospect Theory explains that our perceptions of value differ based on how something is framed, and losing things feels worse than getting them feels good.

As one of the grand concepts that underpinned a lot of the early ideas within behavioral science, Prospect Theory is a beast with many aspects to it, such as Loss Aversion, Framing, Certainty, and Risk.

But for now, take your practical understanding a step further by reading the Aggregation Effect and Segregation Effect Nuggets.

You’re walking down the street. Consider two realities:

A: You unexpectedly find $10 in your pocket. 

You feel positively-surprised!

Or:

B: You left the house with $10 in your pocket.

But you reach in and it’s gone.

The pain you feel from its loss is greater than the good feeling of finding it.

Prospect Theory explains that our perceptions of value differ based on how something is framed, and losing things feels worse than getting them feels good.

As one of the grand concepts that underpinned a lot of the early ideas within behavioral science, Prospect Theory is a beast with many aspects to it, such as Loss Aversion, Framing, Certainty, and Risk.

But for now, take your practical understanding a step further by reading the Aggregation Effect and Segregation Effect Nuggets.

Prospect theory is explained with a graph. Negative losses and positive gains recorded on the horizontal are set against a vertical intensity of feeling for those losses or gains.

As we gain more, we feel less for each gain. In contrast, even a small pain (shown in red) feels a lot more negative than an equal-sized gain feels good.

Package pain. Consumers will feel less overall pain from any costs incurred when you package and deliver them all together rather than when they're felt as separate, smaller pains.

Spread out rewards.

Instead of offering larger, chunkier benefits to consumers, break these down into smaller pieces, spreading them out across time.

$10 given 4 times feels more valuable overall than $40 given once.

Offer mixed product bundles.

We feel less good with each thing we consume. Therefore, the first can of soda tastes better than the fourth.

This means we'd get more complimentary value from a bag of chips instead.

Look for ways to offer relevant, mixed product bundles to offset diminishing consumer sensitivity.

11k people were offered a new job that had a 50% chance of doubling income for life, but it wasn't without risk, with an equal chance of it falling by either 20, 33 or 50%. Questioning started with the 33% gamble; if people took it, they were asked if they’d take the bigger 50% gamble too. But if they didn’t, they were asked about the smaller 20% one.

Results put people into four risk categories showing the majority were not willing to take any risk at all.

Focus on an improvement metric. 

We prefer the certainty of what we’re used to, so the benefits of switching to a new product need to feel substantial.

Outline a goal (relative performance, efficiency etc.) to anchor your product strategy around.

Doing so will reduce uncertainty and boost comparisons against better-known, lower risk alternatives.

Offer a trial or free sample...

...to create familiarity and reduce the risk around a new product.

This sets the cost of new product usage at zero, during which the consumer will adjust their future preferences.

Utilize your brand umbrella.

For any new sub-brands, reduce risk by clearly indicating the relationship to existing, familiar brands you own (Erdem, 1998).  

Product brands take note. Risk aversion is higher for material purchases than for experiential ones such as restaurant meals or holidays (Roche et al., 2015).

40 students were taught a topic and either given the respective homework once instantly or 3 times over the next 3 weeks. They then had an exam a month later.

Those who had the homework spaced out over time performed much better in the exam than those who were asked to do it immediately  after learning.

Spread out the learning.

‍Research shows that spaced repetition is the most robust means of learning but is rarely used by companies. Most knowledge is delivered once and forgotten, wasting money and time. Develop shorter learnings spread over time, using different tools, both digital and physical.

Use it or lose it.

‍Knowledge only sticks when we use it. After reading a book chapter, summarize learnings into bullet points, a list of actions, or even better, become the teacher. Blinkist could send some simple interactive questions after readers have finished a book. Use Slack app QuickQuiz to follow up Lunch & Learns with a Tiny Habit of bite-size questions. 

Make progress trackable.

‍Learnings apps like Duolingo and Memrise create powerful Feedback Loops through points systems, daily goals and leaderboards to create positive reinforcement. Tracking progress gives us a sense of growth and improvement.

435 people were asked to go to a restaurant and split into four groups. They were then either given a surprise free dessert or not, and then finally either given an explanation of the reason for the surprise or not. All were then asked to rate their level of delight.

Those given the explanation rated the surprise as more delightful than those who weren’t.

Surprise sparingly.  The more frequent the surprise, the less positive it will make customers feel. Give your staff creative autonomy to make small, personal & unexpected gestures that strike deep. 

Provide an explanation for the surprise to suppress future unrealistic customer expectations, avoid mistake misconceptions and heighten the sense of personalization. 

Reframe problems into surprises. During a busy Christmas, Lush (a UK soap store) had a long queue, which an elderly lady holding one item had joined. A shop assistant noticed, pointing out the queue length and that she didn’t need to pay. After he insisted she accept, she hugged him and left the shop with the free item. Another customer then told him that witnessing his kindness  had made her day. Both will recall compassion, positive surprise and stress relief in future perceptions of the Lush brand.

We call Reciprocity the glue that binds us as a society.

No surprise then that it’s a powerful tool to help people make decisions that are both pro-social and a win-win.

When the Behavioural Insights Team were asked by the UK Government to increase the rates of job-seekers turning up to interviews, they applied the principle of Reciprocity to boost rates.

They changed the text message being sent out from:



“You’ve been booked an interview at Tesco on Friday at 10am”

to:

“Dave,
‍

I’ve booked you an interview at Tesco on Friday at 10am. 


Good luck. 


Roxy”

This shift from a passive tone of voice to an active tone, where Roxy had done something kind for you (and you then wanted to reciprocate by turning up), increased attendance from 10% up to a whopping 27%.

We call Reciprocity the glue that binds us as a society.

No surprise then that it’s a powerful tool to help people make decisions that are both pro-social and a win-win.

When the Behavioural Insights Team were asked by the UK Government to increase the rates of job-seekers turning up to interviews, they applied the principle of Reciprocity to boost rates.

They changed the text message being sent out from:



“You’ve been booked an interview at Tesco on Friday at 10am”

to:

“Dave,
‍

I’ve booked you an interview at Tesco on Friday at 10am. 


Good luck. 


Roxy”

This shift from a passive tone of voice to an active tone, where Roxy had done something kind for you (and you then wanted to reciprocate by turning up), increased attendance from 10% up to a whopping 27%.

407 pedestrians in Brittany, France were approached by a young woman and asked to complete a survey. Before the request, half were offered candy and the other half were not.

The results found that people - especially women - were far more likely to reciprocate and answer the survey after receiving a gift than when not.

Act first.‍

Find ways to initiate reciprocity with consumers.  Merely asking those satisfied to go tell their friends will work (Söderlund et al., 2015).

Make it a ‘common habit’.

When we’re told that a behavior is a social norm shared by others, we’re more likely to reciprocate. Households in USA and India consume significantly less electricity when told that their neighbors are consuming less (Sudarshan, 2014). In the long-term, any consistent, successful behaviors will be adopted as the default for others.

Do it in person.

Reciprocation appears to be more powerful when requests from strangers are made face to face rather than online. This is due to the persuasive impact of immediacy that physicality affords, the higher levels of digital suspicion and the sheer number of emails people receive (Meier, 2016).

682 colonoscopy patients were split into two groups, with one undergoing a longer procedure but with a period of less discomfort added on at the end.

After, patients were asked to recall the total pain felt. The peak-end group reported 10% less pain and a 10% increase in attending a follow-up procedure.

How do you want to be remembered in customers’ eyes?‍

How do you want to leave them feeling? What little touches can you add to your product or service to leave customers feeling amazing and want to share with their network?

Create a Customer Journey Map

Identify positive experiential opportunities to exploit and painful weaknesses to remedy.

Some pains may be small or cheap to fix, yet play a big part in a person’s memory.

Negative experiences are a hidden opportunity...

...to re-establish a positive peak and / or end. Things will go wrong, whoever’s at fault, so allow flexibility and an authentic humanity to surface, not just to save the relationship but to allow the brand to shine.

Handle a problem well enough and that’s what customers will remember, not the problem itself.

58 households in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania had their fruit and veg shopping monitored for 8 weeks. Half were offered a 50% discount reward on all fruit and veg purchased and half were not.

Results showed that the reward increased healthy food purchasing behavior from 6.4 to 16.7 servings of fruit and veg  on average per week per household.

Rewards come in two types: Extrinsic and Intrinsic. 

‍Extrinsic rewards are economic: pay, discounts, working conditions, gold stars, healthcare, promotions etc. 

Intrinsic rewards are emotional, coming from a sense of achievement through skill and hard work, unplanned verbal praise from authority figures, and peer recognition.

Too much extrinsic will lessen internal motivation as it’s seen as controlling, especially if they’re later removed (Murayama et al., 2010). Ensure that they’re significant enough to motivate against task boredom (Hidi, 2015) and are in line with the market needs of employees / customers.

Focus on rewarding intrinsically - seen as a superior reward (Deci et al., 1999) - with greater levels of trust, choice and freedom to make one’s own decisions. You’ll be rewarded with a more motivated, loyal following as a result.

300 customers at a car wash were split into two groups and given one of two different loyalty cards for a free wash upon completion: either one with space for 8 stamps or one for 10 (with 2 spaces pre-stamped).

Despite both cards requiring the same amount of effort, completion of the non-pre-stamped 8 card over a 9-month period was only 19% whereas the pre-stamped 10-card was 34%.

Get them started. Endow progress with a fraction of points, stars or a brand-specific measure. Make sure you endow enough to motivate use, aiming for between 10-25% of the total effort required for the first reward.  As well as helping with initial effort, make the reward itself substantial and meaningful to assist habit-forming.

Never endow at the end. The closer we are to a goal, the more we value our own internal efforts to complete it. Doing so on their behalf will devalue existing effort, perceived reward value and reduce loyalty strength.

Make it seamless. In Christmas 2013, 1 in 8 Americans got a Starbucks Gift Card. On redemption they were automatically endowed with progress in the form of loyalty stars, creating 1.5m new loyalty members as a result. How can you seamlessly channel gift customers through to your loyalty scheme?