Now that we’ve explained the differences between CX, UX, and HCD, let’s look at one of the most important parts of the CX process: research and validation.
As practitioners of a human-centric field, our top priority is understanding the needs of the people who will interact with our clients’ systems. These include employees, customers, managers, and business partners. We also consider the needs of company leaders and the organization at large; any changes we recommend need to serve business goals.
So, what does the Customer Experience research toolbox contain?
CX research methodologies – and why we use them
Before we list each of our CX research tools, we have to admit there’s one that didn’t make the list. And it’s the most important tool of all:
Listening.
Why didn’t listening make the list? It’s part of every research technique, albeit one that’s often overlooked.
Many research tactics rely on talking done by clients and their customers, employees, etc. CXers must actively and empathetically listen; if we don’t, our research techniques are much less effective. We’ve discussed this in The Most Overlooked Steps of Empathy, Active Listening & Customer Research: A Practical Introduction, and Active Listening & Customer Research: What Not to Do.
Another important technique is knowing which questions to ask. But that, too, is another article. For now, let’s stay focused on CX research by tackling an important debate:
Qualitative vs. quantitative research
Most CX research can be divided into two broad categories: qualitative research and quantitative research. While some techniques can fit into both categories, most firmly belong in one or the other.
Why is this important? Qualitative and quantitative research gather different kinds of information in different ways. The results tend to answer specific questions; if you select the wrong research technique, it may not help you solve your problem.
So, what’s the difference between quantitative and qualitative research?
- Quantitative research is about how a customer completes tasks – the what, how, and where of the equation. You’ll often see quantitative results expressed numerically: error rates, time to complete an action, page loading times, etc. This research is usually compiled indirectly via data analytics, customer surveys, etc. The insights are often geared towards building, improving, and fixing experiences or processes.
- Qualitative research centers on the “why” – the customer’s motivation and feelings about their experience. It’s often based on direct observations and in-person user tests and interviews – although remote versions have become increasingly common post-COVID. This information focuses on emotions, behaviors, mental maps, and other intrinsically personal information.
Qualitative research is very helpful when you’re in the earlier stages of development and you’re uncovering what customers want and need. These insights are often best for building empathy and generating ideas.
Entire books have been written on the differences between qualitative and quantitative research. At this point, we only need to remember that qualitative and quantitative research methods answer different questions. We use both types of research in our CX design process.
Qualitative CX research
Let’s briefly overview the main research methods we use at CX by Design. We’ll start with the qualitative research methods; most projects kick off with at least some of the following:
- In-person usability testing – We observe how a user interacts with some part of their journey, e.g. browsing the website or completing a return.
- Remote usability testing – In moderated remote usability testing, we perform a usability test over a videoconferencing platform or another remote service. Often, participants are encouraged to ‘think out loud’ as they move through the test. In unmoderated remote user testing, users are recorded completing pre-assigned tasks (e.g. navigating through a website). After this, they complete a survey about their experience.
- Interviews – We talk with customers, employees, stakeholders, decision-makers, and others to learn more about their goals, preferences, and challenges.
- Field studies – We observe customers during their normal experience at a physical location (e.g. shoppers in a store). This helps us bridge the gap between what happens in theory and how things actually work.
- Job shadowing – We sit with employees as they do their daily work; this helps us understand what their job entails and what friction points they deal with.
- Surveys – Qualitative surveys often include open-ended questions that focus on feelings and behaviors.
- Concept testing – We use mockups to test and refine ideas and gather feedback on what people would like the solution to provide.
- Participatory design – We involve direct users in the design process to understand what features they need for a successful experience.
- Customer feedback – We use surveys and other tools to gather feedback from customers and others directly involved in the process.
Qualitative research methods answer questions like:
- What do customers expect from this app/store/tool, etc.?
- How, when, and where are they performing this action?
- What business processes are being used? How do these processes interact?
- What are the pain points? Where is the friction?
- What ideas should we develop as a prospective solution?
- How well does the proposed solution fit the users’ needs?
Quantitative CX research
Quantitative research helps us drill down and refine the insights unearthed by qualitative analysis. It’s also critical in measuring and refining existing processes, tools, and experiences. Here are the quantitative research methods we use:
- A/B testing – We directly compare the performance of two versions of the same thing – e.g. two landing pages on a retail website – to understand which is the most effective.
- Competitive analysis – We examine competitors’ public information (websites, social media, marketing activities, etc.) to understand our client’s strengths, weaknesses, key differentiators, market position, and potential improvements.
- Web analytics – We use metrics like page loading times, bounce rate, session duration, etc. to understand how well our client’s website functions.
- Usability analysis – We evaluate the usability of our client’s processes, tools, etc. against established benchmarks to identify areas for improvement.
- Card sorting / tree sorting – In card sorting, people arrange cards in an order that makes sense to them; e.g. animal → mammal → canid → dog → poodle. In tree sorting, people arrange items in a hierarchy that makes sense to them; e.g. store manager → department manager → shift supervisor → employee. This can also be done as qualitative research.
Questions these research methods answer include:
- What is working well? What areas can be improved?
- How easily can users accomplish tasks?
- How does our client compare to their competitors and their industry in general?
- What benchmarks and KPIs should we set? What metrics will we use to measure success?
Aligning the Results
In our series on mapping the customer journey, we talked about the importance of validating research results. In CX research, we ‘validate as we go’ by talking directly to the people involved in each process – whether they are employees, managers, customers, or others.
The final step of CX research is aligning our results with the project goals. We do this by discussing our findings with stakeholders, decision-makers, and front-facing teams. This allows us to create a shared definition of the target customer experience and a plan of how we’ll get there. It’s a relatively short part of our CX journey with the client, but it’s critical to the success of our partnership.
Up next: When do you need a CX consultant?
We’ve examined almost all of CX’s core ideas. But one question remains: How do you know when it’s time to hire a CX consultant? We’ll answer that in the final article of this series.
