The Customer Experience Experts
Online Diary Study
Online Diary Study
An Online Diary Study provides us with access to a target audience over a prolonged period of time, allowing for more in-depth probing than is possible in a single usability session. By communicating with participants while they are in their natural environment on a daily basis, we do not need to rely on the participant’s ability to recall experiences that may have happened weeks ago, but rather learn about what they are doing today.
Methodology
An Online Diary Study is a unique research method that allows us to obtain personal and natural feedback from respondents about a concept or website that would often be unattainable from traditional research methods.
Participants log in at times and from locations that are convenient to them, answering questions in a variety of formats including text, pictures, and video. Users can also complete specific tasks, either online or offline, and report back on their experience on any device. In some cases, the Online Diary Study can be interactive: users can reply to others’ posts and engage in an online conversation about a particular topic.
The moderator can also interact with respondents by probing on their comments on the fly for more clarification, encouragement, etc.
Benefits
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Understand user sentiment and emotion at key milestones over time
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Interaction with participants to probe on responses or other key subject matter
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Real-time view of participant entries via “virtual backroom”
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Variety of media (text, photo, video) and platforms (desktop, mobile) allow for natural and varied responses
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Lower costs compared to in-person lab studies
Questions
- What does the customer experience journey look like for your product?
- How do your customers’ sentiments, emotions, engagement, and needs with your product change over time?
- Where do your customers go for information and advice when it comes to a specific topic?
- What problems or frustrations do customers experience throughout processes related to a specific topic or product?
- How can you ensure that your brand offers an exceptional customer journey?
Insights
An Online Diary Study allows us to better tap into the emotions and sentiments of a target group. It is also conducted over time – generally over a multi-week period – allowing us to track how participants’ experience and sentiments change over time. Finally, it can include interaction between respondents, which allows for deeper penetration of a subject matter that would not be possible from traditional qualitative research.
