5 Ways Zapier Makes User Research Zippier
Routine research processes, automated.
At AdRoll, our UX research team is lean (that is, quite small). We don’t have fancy usability testing software suites or usability test coordinators. We handle everything from start to finish, so we’re always looking for anything that can help speed up our process.
Enter: Zapier
What’s Zapier? It’s a sort of “If This, Then That” for business needs. When something happens in one system, you can set up Zapier to make something else happen in another system, automagically. And who doesn’t love themselves some automagic? But how do we use Zapier to make user research more efficient? Let’s begin!
1. Screening Participants
We most commonly use Google Forms to set up surveys to screen participants for research sessions. When a prospective participant replies, Google Forms alerts Zapier, which then filters the response to see if it matches our criteria. If so, Zapier sends a follow-up email to schedule a session with the prospect.
2. Scheduling Sessions
In that follow-up email, we include a link to YouCanBookMe, a free appointment scheduling service that integrates with your calendar. After a participant selects a time, Zapier automatically creates a GoToMeeting and sends calendar invites to all attendees. No more going back and forth via email to set up a meeting time!
3. Promoting Sessions Internally
Zapier adds each calendar invite to an internal UX Research calendar that tracks all research sessions. It’s accessible to anyone at AdRoll, but usage is relatively low. To get more exposure for our sessions and more people to attend and observe, we set up an automation in Zapier to promote the sessions on our company’s Slack channels. Fifteen minutes before a session starts, Zapier sends a Slack alert with details on the session for anyone who’s interested in dropping in and hearing user feedback firsthand.
4. Sharing Feedback and Learnings
Another way we use the Zapier-Slack combination is to share customer feedback in real time. We have many surveys and feedback forums where customers leave comments, but often other people at AdRoll only look at the regular UX research reports. In an effort to share all live feedback, we use Zapier to forward comments to Slack as they come in. This creates great conversations between Product, Engineering, Sales, and UX on how to address a customer’s comments and closes the gap between our customers and internal teams.
5. Ensuring Follow-up
For Net Promoter® Score and customer exit surveys, it’s important to have 100% follow up with respondents so they know we’re listening to their feedback. At AdRoll, we use Zendesk to manage our customer interactions. When we receive a survey response, we automatically create a Zendesk ticket and route it to the appropriate employee based on the customer and the response. Having everything in Zendesk ensures we follow up promptly and appropriately, as evidenced by customer comments such as: “Your response and follow up is admirable.” Aww.
Just Scratching the Surface
These are just a few ways Zapier helps make our lives as UX researchers easier. As Zapier continues to roll out integrations with new apps, we’ll continue to find new ways for Zapier to help streamline UX research. Do you have any other ideas for how Zapier could make UX research teams more efficient? Let us know!
