Painting a portrait

Research often focuses on a detail of the customer’s interaction with a business. Sometimes it’s as focused as where particular buttons should be on a webpage. Ethnographic research enables us to see the bigger picture.

Literally, it means ‘a portrait of people’. Typically, it involves observing or interviewing customers in their own environment, such as their home or workplace. When research participants try to explain what they do, they often forget actions that seem less significant and sometimes aren’t fully aware of the process they go through. By watching them go about their daily lives, we can gain a fuller understanding of their whole customer journey.

We recently conducted interviews with customers in their homes on behalf of a supermarket. The goal was to understand what motivates people to begin shopping online, and what their customer experience is like, from the initial need to shop through to grocery delivery.

The client was able to see how customers integrated their online shopping in their daily lives; where and when they undertook shopping tasks; how they use lists; and who plays a part in the process. Our client also found out where customers believe the goods are coming from (a depot or the local store) and how this influences their behaviour. We could never have learned as much detail as that from a usability evaluation, which in any case would only focus on the online part of the customer experience.

Ethnographic research has grown in popularity in recent years as a way to understand customers’ experiences from their own point of view and in their own environment. It can be particularly useful for capturing multichannel experiences, where a customer might use a call centre and the website together or one after another. Ethnographic research is a powerful way to capture latent needs, which customers are not aware of and so are unable to explain. Customers are delighted when you can address needs they even didn’t know they had, so this can be a powerful way to increase loyalty.