How do you get salesmen to measure their blood pressure?

For a recent consulting project I was asked to find a way to get medical equipment salesmen to use a particular blood pressure monitoring device.  The problem is, blood pressure monitoring is similar to measuring someone’s weight.  You can’t just run a contest like, “The Biggest Loser” because some people may already be at a low weight and it would not make sense for those people to lose any more weight.  Additionally, there may be particular reasons why it is hard for some people to lose weight or lower their blood pressure.

One solution is to create some incentive for people to use the actual device.  For blood pressure monitoring, people could take their blood pressure and then email the results.  Unfortunately, salespeople are somewhat comfortable providing information even when that information does exactly match actual recorded data.  To enforce integrity, the participants could be required to email a picture of the actual number that also shows some kind of date stamp such as the calendar from a cell phone.

Such methods start to get complicated and more time is spent collecting the data then understanding it.  A better solution is to use the Behavioral Science concept of Overconfidence Bias.  In this bias, people tend to believe that their skills or judgment is better then it actually is.  For example if you ask a room of 20 people if they think they are better than average drivers, more then half of the group will say yes.  Salesmen are particularly vulnerable to this bias.

Here is how the program would work.  Each salesman would be given a blood pressure monitor.  Instead of asking for periodic updates, a contest would be held at defined times.  At the time of the contest, each person would be asked to guess what his or her blood pressure is.  Then their pressure would be measured.  Points would be awarded based on how close the person guesses to their measured pressure.  Under this model, the participants would have an incentive to measure the pressure on their own and to remember that number.  They would also start to learn what impacts that pressure.  Does it go up after coffee?  Is it higher in the morning or in the afternoon?

By creating a competition based on the Overconfidence Bias, the salesmen would not only use the device on their own but they would also have a better understanding of what their own number is and what impacts that number.  Whether the participant chooses to take steps to reduce high blood pressure is up to them but knowledge of a problem is always the first step.

How much money do I need in retirement?

One of the biggest problems facing people planning for retirement is determining how inflation will impact monthly living expenses.  Most websites offer an online calculator to help you find the numbers.  For example, assume you currently spend $3,000 per month on food, clothing, hobbies and rent, and you plan to retire in 20 years.  Using an online calculator, in 20 years at 3.5% inflation, you will need $6,000 per month to maintain the same lifestyle.

The problem is, that these calculators don’t give you an intuitive sense of the time value of money.  What happens if you postpone your retirement by 5 years?  What happens if you retire in 20 years and your retirement lasts 35 years?  Each of these calculations would provide a new number, which you must record along with the scenario.  Behavior Science teaches us that people are better able to internalize data when it is displayed in a graphical form rather then a numeric form.  This is why analog watches are preferred over digital watches and why people prefer stock charts over spreadsheets to view stock performance.

Instead of offering an online calculator that gives an exact number, companies should use a graphical format that helps people visualize a range of numbers that more accurately represents the real world.

Here is how it would work.  First, find your current monthly expenses on the left side of the chart.  Then move your finger to the right the number of years until retirement.  The line that you cross tells you how much money you will need to sustain your current lifestyle assuming 3.5% inflation.  As you continue to move your finger to the right you will see how each year you need a little more money to compensate for inflation.

By using this graphical format, companies can give people a more intuitive feel for the amount of money the person will need for retirement.  In addition, the graph will make it easier to run different scenarios such as postponing retirement or the impact of a long lifetime.  This will help people better plan for retirement and understand that there are no exact answers for retirement planning so you need allow for deviation from your plan.

We will talk later about how much you need to save in order to withdraw the necessary money as detailed in this chart.

A Desktop User Interface That Fitts

One of the problems with the Microsoft Windows user interface is the fact that the menu bar is attached to the top of the active window.  When you move your mouse to the the menu, there is the potential that you can overshoot the menu and must move your mouse back.  This increases the amount of time necessary to use the menu.

Apple addresses this issue by putting the menu bar at the top of the page.  This makes it impossible to overshoot the menu and speeds up activity.  Bruce Tognazzini wrote about this issue in an excellent article titled, “A Quiz Designed to Give You Fitts”.  In the article, Bruce writes about Fitts' Law that states, "The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target."  Anchoring the menu bar at the top of the screen creates an infinity large target which is in line with Fitts Law.  The problem is, that there is still a distance between the active window and the menu bar that must be crossed which slows users down.  Refer to the Dead Space in the picture below.

A better solution would be to use the same backstop that Apple uses but decrease the distance the mouse must travel to reach the menu bar.  A backstop should be placed at the top of the active window to prevent the mouse from moving beyond the the menu bar at the top of the window.  This would increase the effective area of the target while decreasing the distance traveled by the mouse.  If a user wanted to access another window, they could move the mouse to the left, right or bottom of the active window to escape.  A user could also use Alt Tab, a key combination that can be accessed by the left hand that usually does not access the mouse.

When the mouse hit the backstop, it would stop and only slide from left to right. If a user continued to push the mouse past the backstop, the pointer would eventually be released and could continue to move across the desktop.

By creating a local backstop at the top of the active window, Fitts law states that the time required to access a menu should be faster compared to both the Microsoft Windows and the Apple Macintosh interface.  This will increase the productivity of anyone who routinely accesses menus such as graphic designers and will also make life easier for people such as seniors who may have poor hand eye coordination.

How heater manufacturers can improve the effectiveness of heaters.

Ever notice how your electricity bill tends to increase during the winter?  One of the major uses of electricity in the winter is for portable electric heaters.  In a typical situation, people will place the heater in a cold room that usually has a window and turn the heater on.  If the room is still cold, they will turn the heater higher.  What most people do not know is that if the heater is far away from the window, much of the heat from the heater can end up at the ceiling while the floor remains cold.  The reasons for this, is that cold air from the window falls while hot air from the heater rises creating a circulation pattern.  See the picture below:

As you can see, when the heater is placed away from the window, the ceiling is hot while the floor is cold.  To solve this problem, the heater should be place near the window.  The warm air from the heater will rise, be slightly cooled by the window, move across the ceiling and then fall down the opposite wall and heat the floor.  This sets up a natural circulation that evenly heats the room.  Architects know this and if you look at the placement of floor vents in a house or a hotel room you will notice that the heater is always placed below the window.  See picture below:

As the picture shows, the cold air near the window is heated before it enters the room and the air on the floor comes from the ceiling  rather than from the window.  Heater manufactures should use the Behavioral Science concept of Anchoring to recommend to customers where to place the heater for maximum comfort.  When people place a heater in the room, their first choice will be near the window based because of the labeling on the heater.  Today people are given no recommendations and the probability that the heater will end up near the window is low.

By anchoring people to the concept of placing heaters near windows, heater manufacturers can help customers heat a room evenly and reduce electricity use. This will ultimately reduce the overall cost of ownership of the heater as well as increase the perception of effectiveness of the heater.

Warning:  There should always be adequate space between a heater and any loose cloth like drapes.  Also not that this concept is not as applicable to heaters with fans.

Special thanks to Leura Greunke for the trigger for this concept.

How restaurants can increase the value of the food served.

Have you ever walked out of a restaurant after eating a great meal feeling physically tired and mentally slow?  The food may taste great but the large portions take a long time to digest.  On the other extreme is the diet menu.  Restaurants may display the low number of calories of an item but the selection may be lacking in taste.

How would you feel after eating this?

Customers must choose between meals that taste great but have consequences after the meal and items that are low in calories but may not taste as good.  If people do choose the healthier choices on the menu and lose weight, Self Attribution Bias from Behavioral Science tells us that people will never give the restaurant credit for the weight loss.

I propose that there is another option.  People are more likely to mentally enjoy a meal if there is a reward that is delivered in the short term.  In this case, restaurants could use the Behavioral Science concept of Framing and tell people how the food will make the patron feel a couple of hours after eating the meal.  While some foods make you fell tired and slow, other foods can make you mentally awake and energized.  To increase value to customers, some restaurants should focus on how you feel after a meal and then advertise those effects on the menu.  Instead of focusing on what the food does not have like calories, or cholesterol, the restaurant should focus on the short-term benefits the food provides.

Here is how it would work.  Imagine you are working in a law firm and you need to prepare for big court case the next day.  The menu would list several dishes that support brain function.  The meal could start with a walnut spinach salad, the main course would be salmon and desert could consist of blueberries.  Of course a couple on a date might opt for the aphrodisiac menu that includes oysters, shark fin soup and chocolate.  Mararthon runners would be offered a meal high in carbohydrates that would increase the storage of glycogen (or energy) in their muscles.  

Your mind would be sharp after this meal.

In summary, restaurants should design a menu that provides known benefits in the hours after consuming the meal and then advertise those benefits.  This will bridge the gap between food that tastes great but makes you feel terrible afterwards and food that is less appetizing but may provide benefits 20 years latter.  This will make people enjoy meals that may not have as much taste but have short-term health benefits.  It will also increase the value that restaurants offer to patrons by highlighting the food body relationship.

How Facebook or LinkedIn can help promote professional services.

One of the hardest decisions to make is choosing someone to perform a professional service such as a new dentist or elective surgery like Lasik.  Part of the reason for this is that we typically do not have much experience in the area.  We may only need the service once and after the service is done we lose interest in the subject.  If your new roof has a 25-year warranty, you will forget about it after the work is done.

Another reason that we have trouble choosing professional services like a plumber or painter is that it is hard to find someone in our network who has needed the same service.  Imagine that you want to find a painter.  First you have to identify your friends that live in a house, then you have to find someone that had their house painted recently.  The large amount of work that this takes and the low probability of finding someone in your region, makes this a complicated task.

Here is how the problem looks:

 

It is hard to find someone who is not in your immediate network.

Social network sites like LinkedIn and Facebook already provide the foundation to simplify the process of finding a professional service.

Here is how it would work.  Imagine that someone in your network recently hired a painter to paint their house.  This is not something that is normally discussed on the Wall at Facebook or in LinkedIn so you would not know who in your network had the work done.


The only way that you would find out if someone had worked with a painter is if you asked the person in your network directly.

Under the new system, Sam the painter would have a professional profile.  If Susan was happy with Sam’s work then she would provide a professional reference for Sam and add him to her professional services list.  This list would not take up space on Susan’s home page but if someone was looking for a painter, Facebook or LinkedIn would show everyone in their network who had recommended a painter.

 

Professional Services are now easy to find through your network.

The normal fan pages on Facebook would not be appropriate for a roofer since one would not want to get messages from a service that they may never need again in their life.  Similarly, I would not want to add a roofer as a friend because I don’t want to share my daily life with them.  In essence, professional services need a connection that is somewhere between a fan and a friend.

By promoting professional services, Facebook or LinkedIn would make it easier for someone to find a professional service by using their network.  Additionally, Behavioral Science proposes that the quality of the service will also improve because someone who has a large amount of positive references will subconsciously improve the quality of their work to match up with the references.  People who have poor references will not receive new work and will drop out of the network.

Added BonusUsing the above strategy will also increase advertising revenue for Facebook or LinkedIn by using targeted ad placement.  When someone searches for a roofer in their immediate network that person is ready to make an immediate purchase.  No one browses roofers for fun.  When a search is made in the network for roofers, Facebook or other social media sights can also post ads by third party roofers. These are target and timely ads and should command a high premium because of their relevance and timeliness.  The vast majority of advertising done in the Yellow Pages with the exception of restaurants falls into this category.

How banks can use Mental Accounting to help customers reach financial goals.

Many banks offer a variety of checking options for checking and savings accounts.  Some have higher interest rates if you use an ATM card and others have free online banking if you keep a minimum balance.  Unfortunately, many of these options provide little additional value for customers.  Most people have a single checking account that is used to pay for leisure activities and necessities and they must constantly make sure that they set aside money for bills that are due latter in the month.  If any money is left over, then it might get added to savings.

To improve value to customers, banks should use the Behavioral Science concept of Mental Accounting to offer accounts that are more in line with how people think about their money.

Most financial planners advise clients to prioritize spending so that the necessities in life like long term savings and housing are paid for first and whatever is left over can be used for less important things.  The banks should mimic this system.

Here is how the program would work:

First, you would define your repeating expenses such as rent and car payment, and then you define your financial goals.  Second, the bank would create multiple accounts with descriptive names such as Necessities, Savings and Leisure.

The Necessities account would only allow online banking payable to a fixed number of expenses, the Savings budget would be a savings account with limited access, and the Leisure would have ready access to cash in the form of a debit card.  When you deposit your paycheck each month, the bank would automatically make deposits into each account depending on your preferences.  A fixed amount would first go into the Necessities account, then another smaller fixed amount would go into the Savings account then whatever is left over would go into the Leisure account.

Under this plan, you could consistently spend all of the money in you leisure account and still be confident that you could pay your bills even if they were due several weeks after you receive your paycheck.  This system works because people spend based on what is in their account.  At the end of the month when your Leisure account is low, you would act like you were out of money yet still have confidence that you will reach your financial goals.

This program would shift the relationship between banks and their customers.  Today banks only offer security and convenience, which the customer views as a commodity.  By creating physical accounts that reflect people’s Mental Accounting and prioritizing deposits, banks can start to act as financial partners.  This would increase customer retention, reduce delinquency on mortgage and credit card payments and help customers reach their financial goals.

How online discount brokers can help investors get better returns.

When people buy stocks through an online brokerage, there is always the risk that the stock could lose value.  With the exception of day traders, most people are not watching a stock constantly.  Many times, normal investors may return to their account several days latter to see that the stock has decreased in price and their account has lost value.  One way to address this is through alerts.  If a stock reaches a set value, an email is sent.  Unfortunately, the investor may not get the email quick enough in order to make a sale to prevent further losses.  The other way to solve this problem is by using a stop loss.  With a stop loss, the investor sets the price where they want to sell and then they go on with their life. If the stock drops below the fixed price, the stock is sold automatically.

For many brokerages, setting the stop loss is a two-step process.  First you have to buy the stock then you have to enter a sell order as a stop loss.  If you only want to have 2% loss, you have to calculate the new sale price by hand.

To help customers minimize their losses, brokerages should use the Default Heuristic from Behavioral Finance to automatically set a stop loss.  When someone purchases a stock, a stop loss should be automatically set at a 2% loss.  This allows a little fluctuation after the stock is purchased but still limits the total loss to 2% plus transactions fees. Of course you can always remove the stop loss or change the price.

A 2% Stop Loss for Google

Automatically setting the stop loss prevents two major errors in Behavioral Finance, Loss Aversion and Disposition Effect.  Under Loss Aversion, people treat losses 2.5 times worse than a gain.  The stop loss will help minimize the feelings of loss.  The Disposition Effect states that people sell winners and keep losers hoping that the stock is bound to make up all of its losses.  Setting a stop loss will automatically sell the stock at a 2% loss avoiding the Disposition Effect.  Furthermore, this decision is made when the investor is making rational decisions because they are in a Cold Mood as described by Richard Thaler in his book “Nudge”.

This benefit can be taken one step further by increasing the strike price of the stop loss as the stock gains value.  If the stock increases by 3% from the original purchase price, then the stop loss should be reset at 1% above the purchase price (2% below the current price).  This will lock in any gains that the investor receives.  As the stock continues to increase in value, the stop loss would also continue to increase always trailing by 2%.  When the stop loss is triggered, the investor just needs to reevaluate whether they still want to be in that particular stock.  While a 1% gain does not sound like much, if that 1% was realized in only one month then the stock would have an effective annual interest rate of 8.7%

The Stop Loss automatically Increases with gains.

Using the Default Heuristic, online brokerages like E*Trade and Fidelity could minimize the losses for their customers while helping to lock in any gains.  If someone told me that the most I could lose on an investment is 2% but any gains that I received would be locked in, I would feel very confident about that investment.

How Google or Microsoft can transform email

When you review your email, there are several categories that email typically falls into such as FYI, Task Requests and Status Updates. For each email, the sender must compose the information into writing and the receiver must read the message and then perform other tasks such as updating a task list. Google can simplify this process by having the sender enter the information into standard format when the email is composed so the reader does not have to waste time translating the information.

Here is how it would work. Suppose you want Jeff to send you a file on sales for the month. Instead of writing the email and sending it to Jeff, you would enter the request directly into Jeff’s task list with all the pertinent information such as the due date and what kind of reminders that you want to see. Now instead of reading through his email trying to figure out what you want, Jeff would see that he has a new task. He knows who created it, what is expected and what reminders that you are looking for. This saves Jeff the hassle of adding the task to his list and makes ensures that the request does not get lost in all of Jeff’s other emails.

At the same time, your request list has been updated and you see that you have an open request with Jeff. When Jeff has completed the file with the monthly sales, instead of sending an email to you that could get lost with your other emails, he would upload the file to the open task. He would then close the task and the status of your request list would get updated to show that the file has been uploaded. This would cut down on people’s email and allow people to focus on their jobs rather than reading and writing emails. Status updates could also be added to the task with a time stamp rather than by sending out emails.

From a productivity point of view, this would also allow companies to identify areas for increased process improvement. If someone gets 30 requests a day for the same information from different people then the company should consider making that information easier to obtain for the interested parties. Similarly, if one person has 100 open tasks then this would provide a good justification for increased resources.

This method would also work for calendar invitations, directions to an event and forwarded URLs. Any information that requires the receive to enter data into a standard format should be done by the sender ahead of time. This would be simple for both Microsoft and Google to implement because they not only have an email platform but also a task list and a calendar function.

By having the sender enter information into a standard format, people’s inbox would have fewer emails, information would not be lost reading and writing emails, and new tasks and task requests would be easier to track.

How Valley Fair can improve the kids playground.

On rainy days, the Valley Fair Mall in San Jose California is a great place to take the kids to get some exercise when they start to get cabin fever.  Since other parents are also feeling claustrophobic on these days, the play area can get pretty crowded and it can be hard to keep track of your children in all the chaos.  There are two things that the mall could do to make it easier for parents to watch their children; lower the wall by the slide and put a gate on the entrance.

The picture below is a representation of the play area.  The entrance is at the bottom and the play area is surrounded by a bench like you find in booth seats at a restaurant with a high back.

Several times while watching my own children, I have watched other small children leave the play area and head into the busy mall. Parents near the entrance usually stop the child and eventually the child’s parent will come looking for them.  This usually happens because the parent has two children and while the parent is watching one child, the other slips away.  It is just a matter of time until one child escapes without being stopped.

To solve this problem, Valley Fair should install a small gate at the entrance.  This will keep small children from walking off on their own.

The other problem stems from the large wall by the slide.  5 year old boys can climb the wall quite easily and usually take the fast route of jumping down.  Each day the older kids narrowly miss jumping on top of the smaller kids playing below the wall.

Another problem with the wall is how it blocks the vision of parents.  Because of the wall, there are only a couple of seats where you can see the whole play area.  If you are not in those seats, then the wall creates a blind spot where you cannot see your children.  As soon as you kid enters into a blind spot you need to stand up to walk around the wall to see your child.   See the picture below.

As you move left and right from the seat behind the wall, the blind spot also shifts.  The same blinds spot exists for parents sitting on the right hand side of the wall.

The only place that you can sit and see the entire play area is marked with an "X" below.

By removing the wall and adding a gate to the entrance, Valley Fair can greatly improve it's play area.  This will allow parents to see their children at all times and prevent small children from wandering off alone when parents are distracted.

How to improve ordering lunch for a group.

Many times someone has to set up lunch for a group.  Typically they will send out an email to everyone with a link to the restaurant and ask everyone to reply with their order. The organizer then has to re-enter the individual orders into the website. Often times there are errors and clarifications have to be made.

Instead, delis that serve deliver lunch like Specialties should update their website.  The organizer should be able set up a group meeting at the website. The organizer then sends out a group ID that has a link to the website. People follow the link, enter their name then enter the sandwich order. The organizer can quickly look at who has ordered and what their order is. This would eliminate double entry, minimize mistakes and sandwiches would arrive with the persons name on it. No more asking who ordered the ham and cheese.

How to design a healthy refrigerator.

Think about the last time you were hungry. If you are like most people you open the refrigerator and look to see what you have.  The top shelf may have eggs, meat or cheese. The middle shelves may have unlabeled Tupperware with aging soup from several days ago. You may even find take out Chinese food or a doggy bag. Now look at the bottom of your refrigerator, this is where the food that you should be eating is stored. Inside of the two drawers is where you keep your vegetables. Lettuce, tomatoes, celery, onions and carrots, for some reason all of these vegetables are the hardest to get to. Not only is the healthy food hard to reach, but it is also hidden behind drawers creating a further barrier to choosing these foods.

In a typical refrigerator, the unhealthy foods are at eye level.

Given this arrangement, it is no wonder why the food that you choose to eat is the meat or cheese when you are snacking and you ignore the veggies until they become a rotting mess in their bag and you have to throw them out.

Behavioral science has an explanation for this type of behavior called Availability Bias. You encounter this bias the day after you buy a new car. As soon as you start driving your car, you realize how many other cars there are on the road that look exactly like yours. You notice things that are familiar and ignore things that are out of sight. Grocery stores have this down to a science. Foods that they want to sell with higher margins are placed on the top shelves while generic brands and non-impulse items are placed lower. Most people with children make frequent trips to the store just to purchase milk. Rather than make life convenient by placing the milk near the front of the store, it is placed in the back of the store causing people to pass all the isles of food. If you really want something, you will find it but it is hard to pass up the other foods that are at eye level.

Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein in their book “Nudge” share an example from school cafeterias. One cafeteria changed the location of the food in the cafeteria line and recorded what foods where chosen. They found that they could directly influence what foods people ate merely by changing the order of the food. Foods that were placed first were chosen over foods that were placed near the end of the line regardless of teenagers’ natural aversion to veggies.

If a manufacturer really wanted to make a healthy refrigerator, they would make it easier to find the healthy foods. Instead of placing the veggie drawers at the bottom of the refrigerator, they should be placed on the top shelf at eye level. Furthermore, the crisping drawers should be eliminated. Instead some sort of automatic opening mechanism should be created that opens a door when the main refrigerator door is opened. This way, the food would be fresh but still easy to access. 

The veggies should be placed at eye level in your refrigerator.

Next time you open your refrigerator, think about where things are placed and try to keep your healthy food at eye level and hide the unhealthy food in the drawers at the bottom.

An Ergonomic Blackberry Keyboard

When you look at the keyboard on a Blackberry smart phone, you see that the keys are arranged in a Smile pattern.  This pattern is ideal for full-size ergonomic keyboards because people have broad shoulders and their hands rest on the keyboard at an angle but it is not ideal for handheld smartphones.

In the layout below, thumbs have to move in and out as they trace a single row of keys.

The Frown layout below is even worse.  In this pattern, the thumbs need to stretch to reach the T and Y.  However, to reach the Z and M, the distance is much shorter which causes your thumb joint to bend and lift up while the whole lower part of your thumb moves back.

While a curved pattern seems ergonomic and definitely is helpful for full-size keyboards, thumbs follow a different pattern.  If you make a fist and wiggle your thumbs you will see that the thumbs move in an arc left to right.  To make your thumbs follow a smile pattern like the Blackberry, you need to pull your thumbs in for the middle of the arc and push your thumbs out at the end of the arc.

Instead Blackberry should organize the keys in a windshield wiper pattern that follows the natural arc of your two thumbs.  This will allow more keys to be accessed by simply moving your thumbs left and right.  Your thumbs will still need to move in and out but this motion will be reduced with the new keyboard layout.

The graphic below shows the improved keyboard layout that uses the windshield wiper pattern that follows the arc of your thumbs.

Windshield Wiper Keyboard Layout

By adopting the new windshield wiper layout, people can reach more keys by simply moving their thumbs back and forth and minimize the amount of in and out motion of their thumbs.  This should decrease typing fatigue and allow Blackberry users to get more value out of their smartphones.

How Solyndra can improve its marketing.

The solar manufacture Solyndra has recently opened up its new manufacturing facility in Freemont along Highway 880, which is a vital artery for Bay Area traffic.  While the building does have the company name in big letters, the roof is not visible and we are left wondering whether there are solar panels on the roof. 

Now we all know what solar panels look like but Solyndra has a unique tube design hence the name, which is visually different from any other product.  

By not showing the roof and any solar panels that may be up there, Solyndra has missed out on a golden opportunity to show their product to the world.

How big is this opportunity? Lets do a little math to estimate the missed impressions.

Assume the following:

Average speed of cars on 880 is 50 mph including traffic or about 73 Feet per second.

8 Hours of daylight.

The freeway has five lanes of traffic each way and cars are separated by about 100 feet.

Calculations

73 Feet per second / 100 feet per car = .7 cars / second.

Five lanes for each direction = 5*2*0.7= 7 cars / second

1 day = 8*60*60*7=201,600 cars per day.  

If the average cost per 1000 impressions (CPM) is $1.00 then Solyndra would have to spend $200 a day to get the same exposure or $73,000 per year.

How to beat jet lag.

I recently flew from San Francisco to Zurich on a non-stop flight and realized that airlines are missing a golden opportunity to improve customer value. Currently airlines feel that their only responsibility is to transport you from A to B in the most economical and comfortable fashion. I argue that people feel the impact of the flight for up to three days after the flight in the form of jetlag and it is here where airlines could improve their service. By implementing an anti-jetlag program, airlines can create differentiation and improve the value offered to their customers with no additional costs.

Time: From the second that you step on the plane, everything should be done as if you were in the new time zone. If it is dark at the destination, the lights on the plane should be dimmed and the blinds drawn. Soft music will also help remind people that it is quite time. The old time zone should not be displayed anywhere and only the new time zone used. For the rest of the flight, everything should be done according to the new time zone such as lights and meals.

Food: Meals should be referred to by their name in the new time zone. The 9:00 AM meal should be called breakfast even if it is served at 10:00 PM at the origin. Also, save the pasta or chicken for the dinner and use the egg dish for breakfast. A nutrition scientist may even be consulted to find out what foods are more conducive for encouraging sleep or to wake people up.

Chemistry: could also be used to regulate people’s circadian rhythms. Chamomile tea or other calming beverages should be served in the evening to promote sleep while coffee should be served with the morning breakfast. Even if people fall asleep for a nap later, their body is starting to receive signals about the new time zone.

Behavioral Science: In additional to physical things such as light and the timing of food, Airlines should apply behavioral science, namely framing. Passengers should be told prior to boarding that the airline is executing an anti-jetlag strategy and reminded periodically during the flight. People who are aware of the program and looking forward to it will be more receptive to the techniques. Pre-flight jetlag tips can also be mailed out prior to the flight to help people start the program early. One tip is to have people wake up at 5:00 AM the morning of a flight East. Not only does this help people get used to waking up in the new time zone earlier but it also helps people to fall asleep on the plane quicker at the new time zone.

Anchoring is another behavioral technique that can be used. By encouraging everyone to set their watch to the new time zone at the beginning of the flight people will quickly forget the old time zone.

By using light, food and behavioral science, airlines can improve the value for their customers by helping people fight jetleg. While the length of the flight will be the same, people will have more effective time on their trip because they will adjust the new time zone quicker.