“FIRST YOU HAVE TO MAKE YOURSELF LOVABLE” Q: Was there any concern that customers might feel manipulated?

Burke Powers headed JetBlue’s voice- of- the- customer programme from 2009 to 2011 ( he now runs people analytics at PayPal). During that time he used insights from the behavioural sciences to infl uence customer behaviour. He spoke with HBR recently about that experience. Edited excerpts follow.

Q: How did JetBlue discover that the way it asked for feedback changed customers’ perceptions?

A: When I joined JetBlue, its CEO had just resigned. We were focused on rebuilding consumer trust. The idea of “nudging” was just hitting the mainstream. We were curious about how you can influence perceptions and behaviour and how we might use our voice-ofthe-customer programme to do so. In graduate school I had learned of Kristen DeTienne’s work on customer surveys and perceptions. Through trial and error we found it worked well to invite customers to share positive experiences, not just complaints.

A: We discussed that a great deal. There are a lot of psychological tricks companies can use to alter customer perceptions, and if they aren’t done right, they will destroy trust. A good rule of thumb is that there’s reality, and there’s perception. You can change perception temporarily, but it will always revert to reality. These tricks don’t work if you have consistently poor customer service. You can’t assume that if you change the wording of a feedback form, people will love you. First you have to make yourself lovable.

Q: If you focus customers on the positive, how can you identify what’s broken and how to improve?

A: In a mature voice-of-the-customer programme, you shouldn’t rely on feedback forms to know what’s broken. Insights about what you can improve should come from a host of other measures, including scientifically rigorous surveys, data analytics, and social listening. Requests for feedback aren’t there just to gather customer sentiments – they should also make customers feel heard or nudge them to remember positive aspects of their interactions.