No customer research method is perfect. Not even search listening (it pains me to type that, but it’s true).
To help you decide which methods are right for you, we’ve created a helpful table showing you some of their pros and cons.
Our best advice, and something we talk about quite a bit, is that to get to some really solid customer insights, you need to combine at least a couple of different methods.
It’s too easy to get stuck in a rut and over rely on a single data source. But, as you can see below, if you do that, your data is going to be flawed.
To make the best possible decisions, to get a competitive edge and kick-arse results, you need to plan from solid, multi-dimensional customer insights ongoing.
Customer research method | What is it? | Pros | Cons |
---|---|---|---|
Customer focus group | A focus group is a targeted group of consumers who are brought together for an in-depth discussion, usually about a business’ products or services. | • Provide immediate responses. • Allow for rich insights and context. • Help us understand our audience’s unique perspectives. • Access to non-verbal clues, such as facial expressions. • Can be used to spot trends. • Allows tight definition of audience. | • Can be prone to social desirability bias. • Sample size can be too small to be truly representative of our audience. • Can be expensive, requiring skilled moderators. • Geography can be a barrier. |
One to one interviews | These can be face-to-face, on the telephone or through things like FaceTime, Skype or Zoom. | • Provide in-depth responses and context. • Can introduce stimuluses (e.g. products, adverts etc.) if face-to-face. • Telephone interviews can be fast and cost-saving. • Can build rapport to help people open up. | • Require skill in encouraging people to be honest. • Rapport with interviewees can lead to social desirability bias. • Small sample sizes can mean that results aren’t representative. |
Social listening | Social analytics help companies understand what people say about their brand in social media | • Provide immediate responses. • Can track trends at scale. • Provides individual context. • Provides a strong barometer of advocacy. | • People who post and participate on social provide an incomplete picture of our audience. • Relies on customers posting about your brand, product or service. • Social desirability bias is rife – people know they are being watched by others on social media. |
Search listening | Search Listening enables organisations to use search data to understand what people think and do. | • Totally candid customer insight that’s free from social desirability bias. • Provides immediate responses, at scale. • Can be low cost – search data is provided by Google for free. • Tools like Google Suggest and AnswerThePublic.com make Search Listening easy and non-technical. | • Customers cannot be tightly defined. • Context can be unclear. • Relies on people actively searching for your brand, product or service. |
Surveys and polls | Typically completed remotely via websites, mobile devices, mail, email or telephone. | • Can provide large sample sizes. • Can remove the geographic barriers. • Quick and easy to create. • Relatively quick and cost-effective to run. | • Respondents may not feel comfortable providing honest answers. • Lack of memory and boredom can skew accuracy. • Respondents can interpret questions differently leading to unclear data. |
If you want to learn more about how to use search and social listening together effectively, sign up to our Search Listening and the Customer Journey course.