PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Decide Customer Research Method to Acquire Unique Customer Insight
Read about different customer research methods, and learn which one to use
There are a few different ways that founders can get insight from customers and potential customers. Here are 5 of the most common:
1. Customer interviews
2. User observation
3. Focus groups
4. Surveys
5. Voting
Founders should use the method that is best suited to give them the insight they need. Face-to-face customer interviews and video calls allow the interviewer to ask follow-up questions and watch the body language of the interviewee as he or she answers the questions. This is great for situations where the founder is looking for a deeper understanding of the problem.
User observation is a great method for learning how customers use your product and website. It can give valuable insight into which features that are being used and how the click flow between different pages and modules work. User observation can be done either by watching in person or by using analytics tools such as Heap and Google Analytics.
The insight acquired from user observation can be used to make the customer experience more seamless, but it gives little insight into which new features that should be added. Many startups are struggling with low retention rates and users using their products differently than it was designed. Designing the software with a well-known design language in mind and having an in-app interactive user guide can encourage users to use your product the way you envisioned.
A focus group is a customer research method where a selected group of users spend some time using the product and then participate in a moderator-led conversation around the product and marketing message. It is considered an expensive option and is subject to bias due to dominant group participants or varying moderator styles.
Surveys give the interviewees the ability to think about their answers for a longer time than during dynamic conversations. The greatest advantage with surveys is, however, that they are easy to send out to many people at the same time. This makes surveys great for questions where a more quantitative decision basis is needed.
Some larger companies now have new feature suggestions where users can vote on which feature they want next. Although this is not an alternative for a young startup due to a lack of followers and interest, it is a great way of capturing what the customers want for companies or founders with a larger customer base. However, companies should be aware of the fact that not all customers are voting in such polls, and the company should therefore gain customer insight by using some of the other customer research methods as well.
Startups should make it easy for people to leave feedback on their website and software products. There are multiple ways to achieve this, including hosting your own community, include a survey on the website, setting up a chat or chatbot solution, or installing an on-demand video chat solution, e.g. like heyhi.io or zipcan.com. All of these alternatives make it possible for people to give feedback when it suits them.
