Ethnographic Research

This article, written by Neil Mason, was originally published on Clickz.com and is republished here with permission. 

The past few weeks I have been looking at the need for organisations to focus more heavily on the user experience and to more rigouroulsy understand what their customers want online and how best to deliver that to them. Good customer insight is core to that process and insight comes from a range of systems, methodologies and techniques. Last time  I looked at the use of quantitative approaches to customer insight and this week I want to look at some of the more qualitative approaches. Read more…

With a few exceptions, call centres are pretty awful. One reason is that customers aren’t pushing hard enough for improvement. They might complain bitterly about the lousy wait times, but they will consider that against a background of all the other poor call centre experiences and partition it off. If the value of a brand is truly a measure of ‘everything’ including all customer touch points then it seems there is an opportunity being missed.Ethnographic research has shown that customers compare online experiences between different brands, and even different sectors so they expect the same service from a white goods supplier as they do from one that provides consumables. So why haven’t customers started to compare experiences between different channels and demanded an improvement in the call centre? Read more…

Having previously worked as an ergonomist in safety critical industries, I have spent hours conducting detailed task analysis, cognitive workload assessments and ethnographic research in order to inform design development and provide safety assurance. However, since moving into the world of customer experience, I have been surprised by the somewhat haphazard approach that companies take to understanding their customers. The impact of a poorly designed customer experience is significantly less than a poorly designed control centre. However, the understanding of customers can drive innovation and help make the customer experience a core differentiator.Recently, I have become particularly interested in the use of mental models and the idea that you can map out the beliefs, assumptions and goals that are held in customers’ heads. After all, a customer experience exists in the mind of the customer.

A mental model can be defined as: “An explanation of someone’s thought process for how something works in the real world” (Wikipedia, 2008). One of the best books I have read in this area is by Indi Young, titled ‘Mental Models – Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behaviour’. This book explains what mental models are, when and why you should use them and what they can bring to a project. It begins with the belief that good design depends on empathy, which in this case means “that you completely understand what a person wants to get done and that this is distinct from simply studying how a person uses something.” Young outlines a detailed methodology that involves conducting interviews, carefully combing through the transcript identifying tasks, feelings and philosophies, recognising patterns and then building an affinity style model.

Mental models will not only show the tasks that customers do, but also how and why customers accomplish something. Indeed, one of the most important elements is not only understanding customer and emotions but also underlying influencing factors. By understanding these factors it is possible to develop strategies to improve the overall experience. This year, we conducted some ethnographic research for one of our multi-channel clients in order to understand their current customer experience. As part of this research we mapped out the experience shaping factors and how these influenced the cross-channel journey of specific customers. This proved to be extremely valuable and the visual deliverables talked to stakeholders at all levels.

In conclusion, mental models can complement other techniques, such as Personas and Scenario or Journey Mapping in order to provide a more complete understanding of customers. This understanding can be valuable throughout the design lifecycle to align existing products or to trigger new concepts. I believe that many brands will benefit from a more strategic approach to customer research and that through investing in understanding customers’ minds they would develop a knowledge base upon which future design developments would flourish.

The goal for forward-thinking retailers is to re-organise their entire businesses around the customer. The tougher challenge is how to make this change whilst continuing to grow, servicing customers and gauging the extent and pace of change necessary to meet employee and customer expectations without damaging the brand.

Multi-channel retailing provides an answer to this dilemma. If implemented effectively it can prove a catalyst for change across your business, moving away from product-centric operations to a more customer-centric organisation, thereby developing a model that meets the expectations of future customers whilst delivering profitability and growth. The opportunity lies in understanding how to win and retain those customers of the future demanding to buy what they want, when they want and where they want.

To achieve this, multi-channel retailers must first understand who their customers really are and then segment them into groups which share common characteristics. Only then can retailers understand the lifestyle touch points, wants, needs and influencing factors that their brand can be associated with. In order to achieve this, insight ‘personas’ are a must.

- What are personas?
Personas are fictional, but realistic, character sketches based on a break-down of the target audience into groups of users that exhibit common characteristics. They are created using knowledge drawn from customer experience research (qualitative), web analytics and survey data (quantitative), as well as interviewing influential stakeholders of the website.

- How are personas used?
Personas are used throughout a site review or re-design project. They help build a shared understanding of who will be affected by any site re-design, the relative importance of different groups to the site, and how different groups are motivated. In detailed design phases, personas can inform design decisions by allowing multi-channel retailers to explore a range of ideas, hypothesise the potential consequences on target audiences and select the best options.

I have worked with the largest and most successful retailers in the UK and globally over the past three years helping them achieve an enhanced online customer experience, and yet I often still take time to ask the question: “Who are your customers?” My clients know the answer to this based on research they have conducted and their perception of who they wish to target, however there is often a deeper requirement to understand more about the characteristics and buying behaviours of these customers.

How exactly does a retailer deliver the right online content for the core persona while satisfying the needs of secondary personas? The internet is the most measurable medium available and most organisations have rich data available to them in the form of web analytics, pre and post purchase online surveys and so on. This is a good starting point but further research must be done to truly develop an accurate persona, such as ethnographic research (this involves observing a customer or acquisition target in their natural environment), focus groups, usability testing and in a multi-channel environment, interviewing customers in-store.

Pulling all this data together is of course a skill in itself, as well as a core competence of Foviance.