Key behavioural challenges for AT
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REDUCING AMBIGUITY AND UNCERTAINTY TO ENCOURAGE COVID-19 ADHERENCE
We have identified five high-level key challenges that have impacted and may continue to impact AT and your customers over the coming months. We provide behavioural insight ideas and opportunities to help manage these challenges.
Uncertainty and ambiguity evoke feelings of a loss-of-control, and heightened anxiety.1 During the COVID-19 pandemic, adjusting to a loss of certainty in all aspects of life has been a societal challenge. Instilling a sense of certainty around operations and services, and reducing ambiguity where possible will provide a sense of relief and reduce anxieties for both customers and employees. Each alert level provides its own unique challenges, as will transitioning between the levels. A lack of clarity around the requirements or services or loss of communication channels will lead to a heightened level of stress that may result in loss of confidence, along with an aversion to PT that may be difficult to regain. As noted in AT’s Commuter Journey Mapping sprint in 2019, uncertainty and ambiguity is a major stressor, which puts people off using PT. Ambiguity aversion describes the effort people make to avoid uncertainty. AT must reduce uncertainty where possible, to ensure that commuters have a good experience and continue to use PT.
* Accessed through the internal AT report ‘Customer Voice - Covid-19 Pulse_WE 9 April 2020’. Contact Kareem Abdelkader.
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Practical applications of behavioural science during COVID-19
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MANAGING FEAR AND INSTILLING TRUST “Fifty-nine per cent of survey respondents felt that PT providers were taking effective measures to limit the spread of COVID-19” (Ipsos COVID-19 Tracker, 2020)* Research has shown that different threats evoke different levels of anxiety, and unfamiliar threats lead to heightened levels of panic and stress.2 People aren’t particularly good at assessing risk, yet the level of perceived risk can significantly alter people’s behaviours.2 Open and transparent communication from publicly-perceived credible sources will be essential to reducing fear in NZ. Providing accurate and timely information will help to prevent longer-term aversion to PT and will help to maintain trust and strengthen customer relationships during the transition phase and further into the future. The COVID-19 pandemic has unfolded rapidly and has had severe health and economic consequences globally, which has understandably resulted in elevated levels of apprehension around transmission. Media coverage has been widespread and has predictably also played a role in the public perception of this risk both internationally and in NZ.3 Elevated anxieties can often lead to feelings of distrust and an increased propensity to place blame, either with or without reasonable cause. AT must act to retain the trust of its customers in order to prevent a prolonged aversion to PT after lockdown is reversed.
