When should I conduct Focus Groups?
What is the difference between Customer Satisfaction and Customer Experience Management (CEM)?
This is a common question when trying to gauge online consumer behavior. Customer Satisfaction measurement is a subset of Customer Experience Management. Here’s why—the latter is experiential, meaning it takes into consideration the real experience on your Website vs. the self reported experience. So, users might say they had difficulty with the checkout process, but unless you really understand their click paths and comments they’ve made throughout the process, you only get half the story.
Additionally, some users can report relatively high satisfaction levels, but they may not return. Satisfaction alone is not an indicator of loyalty. It is critical to understand how the experience impacts their attitudes and intentions. For example your site may be targeting a key segment, however, those users may have missed the content on the site that was relevant to them, so they don't understand the value proposition and wouldn't likely return. Customer Experience Management combines the how’s, why’s, and where’s to create an accurate picture of the experience as it translates into future activity.
When should I conduct offline Usability Labs vs. online Customer Experience Testing?
Usability labs are best used to uncover low-hanging-fruit problems with user-interface design and to identify clear solutions for resolving those problems. They are also helpful when you want to understand the consumer’s emotions, or physical interaction with the site, such as mouse movement or facial expressions.
Since usability labs are conducted with a smaller sample (usually 5-6 sessions per day), they are qualitative in nature so the results cannot be projected on the larger population. They should only serve as indicators of consumer behavior and should be followed by quantitative research to provide reliable projections. eVOC recommends conducting in-person usability labs during the early stage of a site (or new feature) development process, prior to running a larger-scale quantitative usability or benchmarking study with a significant sample size.
When should I conduct Focus Groups?
Focus groups are best used to generate ideas and stimulate discussion about a new concept or product. eVOC recommends running a focus group when you are in the concept testing phase of a Website or an online tool or application.
It is important to note that the quality of the focus group is largely influenced by the quality of the participants. Focus groups can be negatively influenced by vocal opinions of one or two participants, but they can also generate a flood of positive insights that can only be stimulated through group interaction.
