Build to suit

Editor’s note: Tammy Humm Donelson works in marketing and public relations at Metaphase Design Group, St. Louis.

Most companies concentrate their customer satisfaction research after the buying experience in a post-purchase analysis. Mystery shops, mail surveys, and one-on-one interviews with customers reveal perceptions of the product or service they have experienced. Mystery shops offer an inside look at the point of purchase. Surveys provide quantifiable data that can be very valuable when the right questions are asked. The same applies to one-on-one interviews. With the right questions and a bit of probing, customers may provide significant insights into the quality of the product or service they received and the associated satisfaction. With the research data in hand, you can tell Mr. Big that customers are not happy; the product needs to be redesigned and the manufacturing equipment retooled. Not good. So what’s missing?

Begin at the beginning

Customer satisfaction research that takes place before product development, even before product conception, can create products and services that thrive in the market. This pre-emptive customer satisfaction research allows the experience to be designed around customers’ task and usage situations, thereby eliminating failures in the marketplace due to products that don’t match customer needs and expectations. In this early phase of product development, prior to manufacture, it is much easier to specify a product that satisfies customers. Customer satisfaction research conducted after the buying experience occurs when design changes are most difficult and most expensive.

At the front end, customer satisfaction research is accomplished through reality-based observation to gain an understanding of customer needs. This approach to customer satisfaction begins with an analysis of customer needs long before product conception. By placing an emphasis on research before product conception, product developers can incorporate the insights derived from the research into a new product.

At this early stage the research questions focus on usage environment, preferred product features and task analysis rather than the post-experience focus on attitude. A thorough, on-target understanding of customer needs in the pre-development phase leads the way to products that are targeted to their respective audience. Pre-development research may include traditional measuring sticks such as numeric ratings derived from phone and mail surveys and focus groups. This type of research quantifies the magnitude of preference. A deeper analysis requires observational research. Like a heat-sensing missile, observational research gets to the heart of the matter. Video observation, direct observation and surveillance techniques capture the habits and behaviors of customers in their natural environments. By recording the subconscious and unconscious actions of customers, observational research captures how customers actually interact with the product.

The changing view

In the changing marketplace, customer satisfaction is a moving target. Customer needs, perceptions, desires and the associated levels of satisfaction are continually changing as the purchasing climate, technology and the customers themselves change. As the market constantly evolves, customer expectations change. They want a product to do more, do it faster and better. They want services that keep pace with technology. The changing market requires customer satisfaction research techniques that accommodate the shifts and speed facilitated by the new economy. In this environment, static quantitative research quickly loses its clarity. Part of the story is missing from the numeric data. How do customers really use this product? How do we need to change our services?

Observational research provides some of the missing information by capturing the small details unavailable through quantitative studies. These details are the key to customer satisfaction because they can create the subtle differences between your product and the competitors’. Let’s face it: all the players will get the big issues right or be out of business in a hurry. The superior product comes from knowing the exact environment and circumstances in which the customer uses the product and how the customer is likely to interact with the product. Observational research gleans important information from what customers aren’t saying as well as what they are saying to provide a more complete understanding of customer perception, response and behavior.

Understand what they aren’t saying

Your impression of someone on the phone often changes somewhat when you meet him. Similarly, direct observation supplies the subtle nuances that promote a more complete understanding. Direct observation eliminates the blind leaps from straight quantitative research to product development. Direct observation brings in the reality. Manufacturers may think they know how their product is used. But where is it stored? Who is actually using it? Is the same person buying it?

Effective customer satisfaction research begins in customer’s homes, cars, and other fields of use. Here researchers can observe customers in their natural surroundings and minimize the resistance that occurs in an artificial environment. Customers respond unconsciously. Video or self-portrait action shots of customers using products capture the reality that can be missed through interviews and surveys. Video research and direct observation help capture the unconscious actions and habits that people aren’t aware of. (“Oh, did I do that? I didn’t realize it.”) The unconscious behavior may manifest itself as individuals naturally seek their comfort zone. Studies show that humans and animals consistently seek the most ergonomic conditions for themselves. More than just proper physical fit, proper ergonomics embraces cognitive and behavioral fit. Placing customer satisfaction at the front of the development process allows proper ergonomics and intuitiveness to be designed into the product.

A case in point

A client hired Metaphase Design Group for a facelift on an existing home health care device whose sales were drooping. The client wanted to know which design had the most appeal. Research participants evaluated the existing product and the new prototype. The choice of the research participants was clear: They liked the new styling.

On the surface, the client had the information it wanted. But further observation research and deeper questioning revealed that styling wasn’t important. The customers’ main concern was the mechanical operation of the product not the aesthetics. A product that simply had stronger visual appeal did not pacify them. The new design would not persuade them to buy the device. They wanted a product that worked better. Since the facelift would be a significant investment with little anticipated return, the research team recommended that the client delay creating a new package exterior until the client had the resources to redesign and retool the operation of the device.

Without an understanding of the issues most critical to customers the client could have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and valuable time developing a new package that didn’t address the customer’s true needs. The client went back to the drawing board to ensure that customers would be fully satisfied with the new device when it reached production.

Commit to listening

This client avoided the trap of succumbing to the pressures of internal timeframes. They sought the objectivity of an outside research firm. They listened to the research, believed what the video clips revealed and refused to rush to market with a product destined to fail. The objectivity of an outside team is important in delivering impartial untainted data. The manufacturers have the very real pressures of getting product into the market, but it may obscure their vision of reality. Even when they do hire an outside firm, they have to commit to listening to the data, accepting the results and being prepared to change their thinking. If your company can’t commit to listening and changing, don’t waste your time and money on any form of customer satisfaction research.