=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2340/03-BCSS2019_paper
|storemode=property
|title=Applying In-depth Interview to Explore the Use of Electronic Coupons and Customer Behavior Change
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2340/03-BCSS2019_paper.pdf
|volume=Vol-2340
|authors=Yukitoshi Kashimoto,Jaakko Hyry,Masato Taya,Hiroki Ishizuka,Arei Kobayashi
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/persuasive/KashimotoHTIK19
}}
==Applying In-depth Interview to Explore the Use of Electronic Coupons and Customer Behavior Change==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2340/03-BCSS2019_paper.pdf
Applying In-depth Interview to Explore
the Use of Electronic Coupons and Customer
Behavior Change
Yukitoshi Kashimoto1 , Jaakko Hyry1 , Masato Taya1 , Hiroki Ishizuka1 , and
Arei Kobayashi1
KDDI Research Inc., Fujimono, Saitama, Japan
yu-kashimoto, ja-hyry, ma-taya, hk-ishizuka, kobayashi@kddi-research.jp
Abstract. Thanks to the widespread use of smartphones, many cus-
tomers especially in Japan rely on using electronic coupons with their
smartphone applications. However, in subscription-based electronic coupon
services that are widely used, some customers do not take full advantage
of their electronic coupons, as they forget they have subscribed to the
service. In this paper, we study how to implement persuasive system de-
sign (PSD) model to encourage electronic coupon use for various services.
To be able to create persuasive techniques, we conducted in-depth inter-
views to extract clues on how to achieve suitable methods. The interviews
indicated that we first need to improve the application’s general user in-
terface to fulfill the postulates presented in the PSD model and common
usability goals. We also found that PSD model has several system qual-
ities we can take advantage of such as dialogue and social support to
create more persuasive features in the system. For example using praise,
rewards, reminders, and ’nudge’ to encourage term-limited coupon use.
We also compare the system features to the PSD model with examples
while pointing out that the model lacks development that often uses cy-
cles instead of linear development and is partially vague in describing
system credibility and direct and indirect persuasion implementations.
Last, we shortly discuss ethical implications of using persuasive technol-
ogy and behavioural change methods in a commercial application.
Keywords: Qualitative research · Behaviour change · Coupon use
1 Introduction
The widespread use of electronic coupons in Japan enables purchase of items
and services with discounted price or getting free products. The coupons in
general are ubiquitous and are offered by many companies. Many customers
use multiple membership cards (T-point1 , WAN2 , Aeon3 , etc.), or use coupon
1
http://tsite.jp/
2
https://www.oizumifoods.co.jp/premium/
3
https://www.aeon.co.jp/point/waonpoint/index.html
2 Y. Kashimoto et al.
applications for specific stores, such as McDonald’s4 or Lawson5 convenience
stores. This saves money in a constant and convenient way. The reason they are
so widely used in Japan comes from changes of the current society according
to a web article6 . Japan has high population density and compared to other
countries, competition is more fierce, as they offer good price-performance from
shop to shop to the users. Customers are also more price conscious because of the
long-stagnant domestic economy and want to save more money by any means
available. Smartphone applications also play a significant role in encouraging
customer’s coupon use behaviour, since they can search, show and benefit from
them. According to a report7 , the number of coupons has increased at the same
rate as the amount of smartphones in the market.
However, while coupon numbers increase, not all users utilize them. Accord-
ing 8 , nearly 40% do not use their electronic coupons, because there is too large
variety available, which makes it difficult to make use of them when wanted.
The abundance leads to flood of information. This is a challenge to companies
providing a subscription fee-based coupon service model. When the customers
cannot use their coupons or forget they have subscribed to a coupon service, they
might feel they are paying for nothing and this might degrade their customer
service satisfaction. Therefore, we need to develop an approach using persua-
sive technology to encourage customers to use their coupons, so that they feel
satisfied with the service. KDDI(au)9 , a telecommunication company that offers
telecommunication services, has a similar challenge with their Smartpass coupon
service10 . A customer can buy their subscription and get discounts for example
on foods and drinks at various stores, or to watch movies in a theatre. How-
ever, many customers forget they have subscribed to the service. Thus, we aim
to develop persuasive techniques to encourage its use. For the above-mentioned
objective, we have first conducted in-depth interviews where we inquired reasons
why customers do or do not utilize their Smartpass coupons.
Many other studies[2][3][4][6][9] have also conducted questionnaires to extract
the reasons why this happened, but we cannot directly utilize their outcomes,
since these situations vary from service to service. Instead we focused on ex-
tracting the following topics: (i) the frequency of using Smartpass services and
the related smartphone application, (ii) barriers for utilizing Smartpass service,
(iii) discussion on the improvement possibilities of the application and services.
Our major contribution is that we are first to propose encouraging coupon
use by utilizing Persuasive Technology. Specifically, the interviews provided clues
towards using suitable persuasion. Second, we looked into how PSD model’s
system qualities would encourage coupon use in meaningful ways. Lastly, we
compare our system features to the PSD model with examples, and argue how
the model lacks focus when actual development often uses cycles instead of
linear approach. While PSD is good for our system, it is still partially vague in
4
http://www.mcdonalds.co.jp/
5
http://lawson.jp/en/
6
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/business/media/14groupon.html
7
http://www.ilovecouponmonth.com/statistics/
8
https://whatjapanthinks.com/2010/05/02/mobile-phone-discount-coupons-in-
japan/
9
http://www.kddi.com/english/, KDDI refers to a telecommunication company and
au is their mobilephone communication services brand name
10
https://www.au.com/entertainment/smartpass/
In-depth interview on electronic coupon use and behaviour change 3
how system credibility is created in practice and how to implement direct and
indirect persuasion. To the best of our knowledge, there are very few papers
working towards the above mentioned topics.
2 Literature Review
2.1 Persuasive technology design
Persuasion and/or behaviour change are closely related topics, which can be
used in various ways and in fields to change a person’s state of mind, attitudes
or behaviour. For example, they can be used to guide a person to change into
healthier life-style by dieting, reinforce existing willingness to quit smoking, or
form a totally new behaviour. To enable these changes, persuasive technology
(PT), persuasive system design (PSD) and behaviour change support system
(BCSS) methods have emerged. In Oinas-Kukkonen’s [7] definition of BCSS, he
emphasizes that these changes to a person’s behaviour should never use coercion
or deception. While various behaviour changes are possible to create, a study [8]
shows that attitudes are harder to change if its an existing one, instead of being
an originating or reinforcing.
While the use of persuasion and behaviour change techniques can offer advan-
tages in changing a customers behaviour towards using applications or services,
at the same time ethical questions need to be considered, which might be linked
to forcing a user to do or buy something they do not want to. There have been
papers discussing how to approach ethical issues gathered in Karppinen et al. [5],
but there has been no clear consensus on how exactly one should approach it in
persuasive technology cases. Based on their analysis, they suggest that currently
the base of knowledge is still very limited and can not address everything related
to the use of persuasive technology.
However, in the case of Smartpass coupon service, introduced in more detail
in section 3.1, the customer is a willing participant as they have subscribed
to the service to get the coupons. What they need is a support system that
1) reinforces the use of the service 2) reminds the existence of the coupons 3)
encourages other benefits for the user by utilizing e.g. health improvements via
walking or exercises, and 4) is tailored for the users’ specific needs. Our initial
assumption is that behaviour change in the case of electronic coupon use is not
coercive or deceptive in nature and can be utilized.
To create a persuasive system, Oinas-Kukkonen [8] presents the persuasion
context for the person as consisting of three parts; intent, event and strategy.
Initially the target is to recognize the intent of the proposed persuasion. Secondly
to understand the event related to it, and finally to create a strategy how to
achieve the goal. In addition, persuasive systems has overlapping commonality
with human-computer interaction (HCI) design requirements, such as ease-of-
use, responsiveness, good user experience, which should be taken into account
when designing persuasive techniques for better user acceotance. Similarly, the
persuasive aspects should be introduces in the beginning of system development,
so that behaviour change has an effect in all stages of design.
2.2 PSD postulates
PSD presents seven guiding postulates to design, as seen in Table 1, or for
evaluating a system design, as is also our case. While on the surface, postulates
4 Y. Kashimoto et al.
Table 1. Persuasive system’s design postulates
Postulates
1. Information technology is always on and present
2. Offered information should be organised and consistent
3. Direct and indirect routes are key to persuasion
4. Persuasion happens mostly incrementally
5. Persuasion should always be open and up front
6. System should be unobtrusive
7. System should be useful and easy to use.
6 (unobtrusive) and 7 (ease-of-use, useful) are common usability goals for any
system, being able to persuade also requires a system that is pleasant. This leads
to user acceptance , and for the acceptance of future behaviour or attitude change
as it is easier to achieve with usability. Some users found it frustrating or difficult
to find information about the coupons or had problems locating coupons they
needed, suggests postulates 2 (organised and consistent info), 6 and 7 should be
implemented in the next iteration of the application to reach basic usability levels
for the software. We can also utilize various direct and indirect routes (postulate
3) to persuade users within the application, while making sure persuasion is done
in an open manner (postulate 5).
2.3 PSD system qualities and sub-principles
PSD guidelines, as seen in Table 2, offers four main categories of system qualities:
1. Primary task support, 2. Dialogue support, 3. System credibility and 4. Social
support, each including seven sub-principles for reference. These offer design
improvements and basics that focus on different parts of a system and the user,
so that the end product is assisting in the main tasks of the user, encourages
use with different dialogues, is presented in a credible format and also focuses
on social aspects for the user. The end goal is to make use of the sub-principles
to create more effective persuasive system features.
3 Research method
3.1 Introduction of Smartpass coupon service
Smartpass is a subscription-based coupon service. Fig 1 illustrates the flow of
starting and using of this service. First, a user subscribes to the service for a
monthly fee and gets the right to use any coupons distributed in the Smartpass
application (Smartpass App.) separately installed in a smartphone. With the
coupons, they receive discounts and items for free at grocery stores, restaurants,
movie theaters, and other locations. Smartpass is offered in two types of sub-
scriptions: Smartpass-premium and Smartpass, where the only difference is that
users can get more discounts and items when using the former.
In our survey, most users joined the service when they purchased a new
phone or when they upgraded their old smartphones. In Japan, users often do
In-depth interview on electronic coupon use and behaviour change 5
Table 2. Persuasive system qualities and principles
Qualities Principles
Primary task Reduction. Reduce complex behaviour into simple tasks
support Tunneling. Guiding a user creates changes to do persuasion
Tailoring. Tailoring to needs, usage context and others to a group
Personalisation. Personalised content/services is good for persuasion
Self-monitoring. Keeping track supports user achieving their goals
Simulation. Simulating provides cause and effect linking behaviour
Rehearsal. Practicing enables change in behaviour/attitude
Dialogue support Praise. Using praise can make users open to persuasion
Rewards. Rewarding target behaviour is great for persuasion
Reminders. Reminding target behaviour affects achieving goals
Suggestion. Fitting suggestions is good for persuading
Similarity. A system that remind users themselves are persuasive
Liking. Visually attractive system is more likely persuasive
Social role. A system in a social role is more likely persuasive
System credibility Trustworthiness. Creates increase in persuasion
support Expertise. A system viewed as competent affects persuasion
Surface credibility. Initial impressions affect credibility
Real-world feel. System highlighting creators has more credibility
Authority. System’s roles of authority enhance persuasion
Third-party endorsements. Well-known sources boosts credibility
Verifiability. Content accuracy should be verifiable
Social support Social learning. Target behaviour motivation by observing others
Social comparison. Motivation by comparing to others performances
Normative influence. Peer pressure increases adopting behaviour
Social facilitation. Performing with others increases change
Cooperation. Motivation to change from natural cooperation drive
Competition. Motivation from natural competition drive
Recognition. Public recognition increases target behaviour change
this exchange in yearly or biyearly intervals, while often forgetting about the
subscription service later on even though they pay a monthly fee. This is a
challenge for the service. In order to correct this, KDDI has held campaigns like
“Santaro-no-hi” three times a month, where customers were able to get special
foods or items at stores, while also advertising the campaign on TV and in print.
However, the effects were only temporary and limited in encouraging customers
to make full use of Smartpass coupons.
3.2 Research flow
Fig 2 illustrates the flow of our research. In “In-depth interview”, we conducted
a questionnaire survey to extract reasons why customers do or do not utilize
their Smartpass coupons. In “Plan persuasive techniques”, we will develop tech-
niques to encourage customers to take advantage of the coupons using Persuasive
Technology and behaviour change approaches. In “System deployment”, we will
develop a smartphone application system that takes advantage of the techniques
6 Y. Kashimoto et al.
One bottle of Coke
FREE of CHARGE!!
KDDI customer signs up
to purchase Smartpass Select the coupon Exchange the coupon Customers
service, when he/she in Smartpass App. to items at store make use of coupons.
buys phone.
Fig. 1. Research flow
Plan
In-depth System
persuasive Pilot test Evaluation
interview Deployment
technique
Fig. 2. Research flow
developed in the previous phase. Lastly, we will evaluate the persuasive tech-
niques and the systems in “Evaluation”. In this paper, we focus only on the “In-
depth interview” parts of the flow where the interviews were done as follows.
First, we conducted a screening questionnaire to exclude unsuitable subjects,
and second we gathered the subjects for in-depth interviews.
3.3 Screening questionnaire
Method We had a questionnaire to extract individuals whose frequency of using
Smartpass service was low. It consisted of the following items:
– Demographic information: gender, age, occupation, marital status, children,
income, etc.
– Information on subject’s phone model, hours of use, used functions, and their
service provider
– The use of au services: term, uses Smartpass (yes/no), frequency of Smart-
pass application use, and the use of Smartpass services
– Lifestyle: the use of coupons besides Smartpass, frequency of eating out and
the names of the restaurants, frequency of using leisure and other services
In-depth interview on electronic coupon use and behaviour change 7
Data collection We conducted a web-based questionnaire between 02.10.2018 –
05.10.2018 for users registered to Rakuten Insight11 . The subjects were asked to
answer the questionnaire via email or by pushing notifications from the Rakuten
App. Users answering the questions, earned Rakuten super points, which they
could use as money in Rakuten services and an in an Electric Commerce website.
8,000 subjects answered the questionnaire ranging from 18 to 69 years of age.
Screening results From the 8,000 we screened users suitable for in-depth in-
terviews with the following steps. Empirically, chose subjects who fulfilled:
– Frequently-used phone type: smartphone
– Frequently-used service provider: KDDI(au)
– Smartpass application status in the user’s phone: installed
– Median frequency of coupon use other than Smartpass was more than 2.0
– Subjects who have used any point or discount cards.
– The use hours of their smartphone in a day was more than an hour.
– The number of used smartphone functions, such as calling, internet, and
email was more than three.
In the end we arrived at 12 subjects by choosing them by their individual
scores, using au service, loyalty scores, and frequency of using Smartpass apps,
so that they would all be different with each other. Average age was 41.25. Table
3 shows the profiles of the 12 subjects for the in-depth interviews.
3.4 In-depth interview
We conducted semi-structured interviews between 17.10.2018 – 22.10.2018 for
the 12 subjects extracted from the screening process. The objective was to
find out the difficulties and barriers for the customers to using their Smart-
pass coupons. The interviews lasted on average for 90 minutes and the questions
focused on the following topics:
– How often they used the Smartpass App., how they launch it, in which
situation and activities they used it, and if there has been changes in how
often they use it, and if they use the Premium service or not
– How often or rarely they used the coupons
– How often they use other coupons besides Smartpass either electronic or
paper ones, and what are the differences from Smartpass coupons
– Frequency of using restaurants and other food related services, and if they
took advantage of Smartpass coupons in these services, and if not, to explain
reasons why.
– Discussion on barriers and limitation when using the Smartpass application,
improvement ideas, and discussion on what they thought about privacy is-
sues our suggested new features
4 Result
4.1 Smartpass App. use style
From the answers, we found out that users do not always launch the Smartpass
App. from the main icon. Four subjects did it from within “au Service Top”. A
11
https://member.insight.rakuten.co.jp/
Table 3. Subject list
# Gender Age Profession Phone type Years Premium Frequency Income(JPY) Married Children
1 Male 26 Student Android over 4 No 2–3 a week 600 – 800 No No
2 Male 36 Full-time employee iPhone 1–2 No 2–3 a month 800 – 1,000 Yes Yes
3 Male 37 Others Android over 4 Yes 4–5 a week less than 200 No No
4 Male 41 Contract employee Android over 4 No once a month 1,000 – 1,200 Yes Yes
5 Male 50 Full-time employee iPhone over 4 No once a month over 1,400 Yes Yes
6 Male 58 Full-time employee iPhone 2–4 No 2–3 a month 1,000 – 1,200 Yes No
7 Female 28 Part-timer Android over 4 Yes everyday 600 – 800 Yes No
8 Female 32 Contract employee iPhone over 4 No less than once a month 600 – 800 Yes No
9 Female 36 Contract employee iPhone over 4 No 2–3 a week 200 – 400 No No
10 Female 46 Part-timer Android 1–2 Yes 4–5 a week 600 – 800 Yes No
11 Female 52 Full-time employee iPhone over 4 No once a month 800 – 1,000 Yes No
Y. Kashimoto et al.
12 Female 53 Full-time employee Android over 4 No 2–3 a week 800 – 1,000 Yes Yes
8
In-depth interview on electronic coupon use and behaviour change 9
au service top App. Notification view Smartpass App.
Fig. 3. Smartpass launch flow
separate application, even though they also had the Smartpass App installed.
“au Service Top” is a portal application for au customers, where they can check
their current telecommunication fee, apply for changing their contract and for
example read news online.
The portal application also has in-app notifications, that show the availability
of Smartpass coupons, which leads users to launch the application from within,
instead of launching the app separately.
4.2 Difficulties in finding suitable target coupons
Ten subjects answered that they had trouble finding information on their target
coupons when discussing their coupon frequency. They had trouble looking up
suitable coupons from the application, while one commented having trouble get-
ting information on the prices or items from the coupon banners. As a summary
from the answers, we found out that the user interface design of the application
is poor, as it was hard to find or access preferred target coupons. The design of
an easy to use interface for the user is a fundamental postulate of PSD and HCI,
so before conducting a new evaluation, we need to improve the application.
4.3 Barriers for using target coupons
From discussions on the differences of coupon use between Smartpass and others,
eight subjects answered they had trouble using coupons, because they could only
be used during specific times and they had a habit of forgetting to use them
on time. These comments imply that persuasion with for example a reminder
notification or using others like a ’nudge’ style behaviour change features from
the PSD model would help inform the user of an impending expiration date or
otherwise encourage the use.
10 Y. Kashimoto et al.
5 Discussion
5.1 Implications for Persuasive Technology use
In this section we discuss some examples and improvements which we can create
derived from the guidelines of persuasive system design.
Persuasion context We looked into using the PSD model from its persuasion
context of ”Intent - Event - Strategy” for the current coupon system. The in-
tent, is about recognizing the persuader and the type of change we are looking
to achieve (attitude, behaviour change or both). In the case of Smartpass, the
persuader is the developer of the software, and the related parties offering ser-
vices for it. The intended change is to have customer’s behaviour towards the
use of the application changed. We can also argue that we are trying to change
the indifferent attitudes towards an unused application in some cases. The event,
is the use-context, where the system has a problem where customers forget to
use it, have trouble finding the correct information, or can not effectively use
when needed. Mostly these use-context events are the characteristics of a persua-
sive system, as the coupon application events enable change in behaviour. Most
important factor is to understand the user’s goals, which would be to increase
coupon use to save money, or as an example, to use the application to exercising
via visiting coupon locations far away. According to Oinas-Kukkonen[8] a per-
suasive system should offer ways for user’s to reach their goals, and encourage it
in a systematic way. Offering these goals is also essential to achieve persuasion.
The strategy, is to find ways to reach the previous steps by analysing what needs
to doing; emotional and logical persuasion using direct or indirect routes, be it
messages or other features. For Smartpass, a direct strategy could be reminding
users of coupons that are often used, but are about to expire. However, the PSD
does not go into a lot of detail on how these routes can be implemented, so we
need to look more into how direct and indirect routes can be done effectively.
System qualities use As presented in the section 2.3, the PSD model offers
design support in the form of four system qualities, with seven sub-principles
each. For Smartpass application use, we can detect several principles that apply
for the current version, or could be used in future designs, based on a Persuasive
Technology approach. From the current and distinct problems of Smarpass, we
looked into how the principles could fit into our design, while presenting them
each with examples and suggestions. Each system quality is analysed below.
1. Primary task support: From the interview results is shows we should
reduce clutter on screen and organize information while reducing the effort to
find things the users want. Next, when a user is interacting with the au portal app
or the Smarpass app, tunneling them towards their intended goal and persuading
them along the way is possible. These include possible sub-goals like exercising,
offering healthier coupon choices for weight loss, or assisting to meet friends
outdoors. It is also essential the application adjusts to group needs, interests,
personality, usage context or other factors. For Smartpass this could be done
by gathering data about the users, their location, and other agreed and shared
information. This would also lead towards sub-principle, personalisation, where
In-depth interview on electronic coupon use and behaviour change 11
information is offered to specific traits of a single user and should offer an increase
in the chances of persuasion. Self-monitoring is often a choice in many sports
applications where users can see their overall progress history and is a good way
to increase persuasion effectiveness via user own motivation. The principle of
simulation, where simulating a behaviour in Smartpass, could be about showing
a user what are the calorie benefits of a chosen routes when using coupons at
stores and how choosing a store a bit far away is healthier. Users could see
the cause and effect link of doing something. Rehearsal principle, is when one
can practice a target behaviour, leading to change. The last principle might not
be needed in our coupon application as the goal is intended for other kinds of
persuasive systems. Using indirect routes of persuasion might make it difficult
to have rehearsal function.
2. Dialogue support: Praise, virtual rewards, reminders and tailored sugges-
tions are sub-principles for dialogue support, and each can make user’s more
open to persuasion. These are all suitable for use in the Smartpass App, as an
example, the system could issue awards when lots of coupons are used in a single
store, e.g. ”You have bought 10 items from this store with discount! Here is a
silver stamp! Get three more stamps for an extra discount!” or public recognition
”You are crowned the king of this store with most visits!”, would likely entice
others to do the same, or increase the likelihood. In the interview when asked
for improvement ideas, the subject gave similar ideas to the above-mentioned
ones. Principle of similarity, creates persuasiveness if a system reminds the user
of themselves. This refers to for example using slang or customizing features to
more closely remind the end users behaviour or manners. Liking the system or
it’s visual attractiveness, appeals to users and thus creates persuasion, which can
be also considered to be one of the usability features, also for Smartpass. Last,
the principle of using the system in a social role, suggest using it as a mediator
between the user and the other targets. For example having a virtual coupon
mascot for the Smartpass application might achieve more use.
3. System credibility: An application should have features like trustworthi-
ness, where the information is always accurate, fair and unbiased. Expertise, to
keep the software always up to date and professional. Surface credibility, is cru-
cial as the initial impressions of a system is often the most critical point for future
use, so the application needs to be complete and competent. The real-world feel,
is when the people behind the software are highlighted in some ways to make an
application more credible. Authority is when a software is quoting authoritative
figures e.g. a doctor, will have a bigger chance of persuasion, thus affecting for
example people to trust the app more. Third-party endorsements, are also used
to create credibility for a software if they are well-known and respected. Verifia-
bility, is when information provided within the application should be verifiable
from other sources. For Smartpass, not all of the features are totally fitting for a
coupon application. As such they should be considered general suggestions to be
implemented if it has good correlation for the user needs. A casual user might
not treat the development team behind an application as essential.
4. Social support: The most interesting system quality principles are through
social support, as it provides clear connectivity to the features of the Smartpass
12 Y. Kashimoto et al.
application. Social learning, is when a user looks at others and learn from them
to change their own behaviour, while Social comparison, is when a user shares
their data and compares it to others. Normative influence, is what users feel as
commonly know peer pressure, i.e. how others influence you. Social facilitation,
on the other hand, is about seeing others doing the same behaviour, which leads
to the user doing the exact same behaviour. Cooperation, for example, is about
having a common goal with others to lose weight, while Competition principle
is about competing for those same goals against each other. Last, recognition
principle is about rewarding the user in some ways, that others can also see.
These all suggest that social interaction between the users Smartpass could pro-
vide more persuasion from competitiveness, peer pressure, shared goals, or from
just following what others do. Smartpass could implement shared coupons be-
tween friends, comparison of walking distances as a common goal-driven event,
or competing to get recognition from virtual rewards for the winner. In the pri-
vacy answers, agreeing to share location data was fine by many but not all.
If the users would get something back from location sharing then maybe these
users, who initially declined, can be persuaded to share. In addition to increasing
coupon use, it might be good to connect persuasion to features that offer other
clear benefits to customers. These can be personal needs, hopes and goals, or
interests such as weight loss, exercising, personal improvement. Targeting these
goals for positive effects when using the system, would most likely affect how
effectively persuasion for coupon use would work.
5.2 Discussion on ethics towards the use of persuasion
In this section, we present our views on some ethical concerns when using per-
suasive techniques for our system. Smartpass customers want to use coupon
services, so at first glance encouraging its use via Persuasive technology would
not be unethical. However, conditioning and surveillance would not be accept-
able, while also being open about the persuasion and offering users a change to
opt-out if needed, are essential.
In the interviews we also inquired privacy issue concerns with the subjects
and from the answers almost all of the subjects did not care about their privacy
related to gathering personal data. Some answered that they would agree, be-
cause they would be able to utilize their coupons better from the more accurate
and tailored information.
In [7] and [8], Oinas-Kukkonen et al. discuss that in a persuasive system
“(P7) persuasion through BCSS should always be transparent to the user. ”
and in Berdichevsky and Neuenschwander’s statement[1], they give a baseline
for the transparency: “The creators of a persuasive technology should disclose
their motivations, methods, and intended outcomes, except when such disclosure
would significantly undermine an otherwise ethical goal. ”. Considering the above
advice, we need to explain our motivations, and other necessary information to
the customers and request for their consent before an evaluation is performed.
In addition, Karppinen et al. [5], propose three methods for discussing ethics.
First, is the guideline-based approach. The second one is a stakeholder-analysis-
based approach. The last one is a user-involvement-based approach. Before eval-
uation, we need to analyze our system whether it has the required transparency
with any of the above-mentioned approaches.
In-depth interview on electronic coupon use and behaviour change 13
6 Conclusion
In this paper, we presented in-depth interview results to finding out clues for
encouraging customers to use their Smartpass coupons. Our in-depth interview
focused on the reasons why customers do or do not utilize these coupons and
how the system could be improved. From the interviews, we got several impli-
cations such as a reminder notification, and usability improvements suggestions
which would encourage the customers to use the coupons. Based on the find-
ings, we plan to develop persuasive techniques towards these goals. In addition,
we discussed the ethics based on the articles reported in Persuasive Technology.
While the PSD model offers a good starting point for persuasive work, the model
should add parts that clearly expand on how to implement direct and indirect
routes for various types of user goals. Our future work includes planning the per-
suasive techniques, creating a pilot test and deploying a full system, and lastly
analyzing the system within an open and ethical framework.
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