In their book Good Services, Lou Downe, the former Design Director of the UK Government, tells the story of when the National Health Service in Britain was given a mandate to ensure doctors saw patients within 48 hours of the patient calling to book an appointment. This effort to ensure patients could be seen quickly backfired, as offices simply refused to book appointments more than 48 hours in advance, leaving patients to call multiple times in hopes of booking an elusive slot.

This is an excellent example of a perverse incentive, which is an incentive that has unintended negative results often directly opposite the problem the incentive was trying to fix. This inspired us to consider ways we can help our government customers avoid similar issues in the services they operate.

Read the full post on Ad Hoc’s website