Take Notes Like a Scientist.

Good ideas for any of us strategist types to keep in mind when logging a study. Or, meetings! Or, really any time you’d want to take notes about something. Check out these great reminders from Life Hacker! 

Lindsey’s Insight 

Do’s and Don’ts of Germany

I’m getting a few pointers on German etiquette for my contextual interviews in Deutschland next week – check out the do’s and don’ts! 

Rachel’s Insight 

I ran across this article on common marketing mistakes that negatively impact conversion rates – check it on the Marketing Resource Index.

First off, fantastic piece by @SethStevenson – http://bit.ly/Kg1Bsw

I joked about Klout last year when I found it through Google and it said I was influential in things like Vampires (to be fair, I had just watched two of the Twilight movies and did tweet a few times about #teamjacob and #whyisbellasuchawhiner… and #jacobsabs) – it was a laughable moment.

Klout is touted as this new badge of ‘something’, be it cool or influence or popularity, and as such, it also (naturally) comes with perks. In addition, the article points out how Klout scores now bear weight on your job prospects. People trying to raise their Klout scores via Twitter (*Note: you can gain Klout points from other social networks, but since I shunned Facebook, I only can talk about Twitter) have to accomplish two things: One, they have to tweet a lot more.  And two, their tweets have to be more focused. I imagine, overall, that my tweets and yours are pretty focused on your interests or what you find interesting. However, what baffles me is that people put effort into this to boost their scores or become minor thought leaders concerning certain topics.

This section of the article made me cringe: “Lee once took a vacation during which he had no access to the Internet. This made him uncomfortable. ‘I was worried that brands couldn’t get in touch with me. It’s easy for them to forget about you. And I knew my Klout score would go down if I stopped tweeting for too long.’”  This guy was actually concerned that the brands couldn’t get in touch with him – is this really what brand loyalty is all about?

While I get the application of Klout, I do not believe that it is as relevant or powerful as it could be. It’s also why I advocate for qualitative, in-person research, human to human. That’s not to say that this kind of research doesn’t have its purpose, but it should be an add-on, not a driver. Klout scores could be applied to a greater body of knowledge – it could be actionable once we understand who users really are, within a certain scope.

What I appreciated most about this article was Stevenson’s last paragraph: “The un-Kloutiest’s thoughts, jokes, and bubbles of honest emotion felt rawer, more authentic, and blissfully oblivious to the herd. Like unloved TV shows, these people had low Nielsen ratings—no brand would ever bother to advertise on their channels. And yet, these were the people I paid the most attention to. They were unique and genuine.”  I couldn’t agree more.

Talk to me @bethyeckley. 

The idea of putting customers first is not a new one. In fact, it was the start of the 20th century when Harry Gordon Selfridge coined the phrase “The customer is always right.”

But customers have never been as powerful as they are today in the social media age.

The potential damage that can be done to a reputation on social media raises the stakes higher than they’ve ever been. A new era means new ways to collaborate with and serve valuable customers. It’s time for companies to stretch beyond customer satisfaction surveys and stop relying on demographic research to determine how their brands should interact with their customers. It’s time to start talking to customers, one on one, in order to understand who they are and how to wow them with a product or service.

Today, more and more companies realize they must spend time and effort to really get to know their customers. If one person has a bad experience, news travels at lightning-fast speed. They will post their woes to their friends, contacts and Twitter followers.

“If we knew someone had 50,000 Twitter followers, our call centers would escalate their call for support,” someone once told me.

That’s certainly understanding the power of social media, but the goal should be larger: to make sure the customer experience is as good as it can possibly be to avoid all complaints in the first place, whether public or private.

The Case of Qwikster

Netflix clearly underestimated its customers last year when it announced it would rename its DVD-distribution service Qwikster. Creating separate charges for DVDs and streaming video would almost double prices. Plus, a high schooler already owned the Twitter handle @Qwikster, indicating even worse foresight. 

The day Netflix announced Qwikster, online conversations spiked almost 300 percent. Seventy percent of the chatter was negative when emotion was tied to the posts. Netflix stock dropped 20 percent. $2 billion in value evaporated in eight hours. Hundreds of thousands of subscribers canceled their service. The customers had spoken — Netflix abandoned the idea, and the CEO apologized.

On the flip side, if consumers love a product, store, brand or experience, they will shout it out into their vast digital networks. Take for example, musician Tommee Profitt, whose love for Target led him to record a music video using his iPhone 4S.

A New Take on ‘User Experience’

Since today’s customer truly is king, with powerful communication tools right at their fingertips, companies have to pay more attention to the overall “user experiences” they are creating for people. User experience, or UX, is a broad term used to describe all aspects of a person’s experience with a system or brand.

User experience research and testing helps companies “put the customer first” in all aspects of their businesses.

In today’s many-to-many world, consumers group themselves, especially online, largely based on values, interests and aspirations – not by sex, race and age. In this scenario, companies must understand their consumers’ behaviors and motivators – the why behind their actions.

An example: A company in the financial services industry came to my firm, User Insight, to get to know its customers better. Based on the demographic and segmentation information, this client believed that people chose banks according to life stage. After spending hours one on one, in consumers’ homes, interviewing them on how they choose a bank, we discovered that it wasn’t about their sex, age, race or stage of life at all. Instead, we found three groups based on values and behaviors: customers who preferred to bank online, those who like a branch nearby, and those who want a banker who knows them by name and handles their complex finances.

Getting insights from the customers who will actually use the product at the end of the day allows a company to focus on the core experience these customers are looking for. It’s not about “if” someone can use a product; it’s about “will” they use the product. The key today is serving up the right content at the right time in the right way. Consumers have many ways to interact with a brand; understanding how they want to do that will make the brand successful.

Smart companies should be willing to seek out and accept the tough love they need to serve consumers and manage change well. They also need the right people to guide them who are passionate, pleasant and collaborative. Putting time and effort into quality user experience research can mean healthier businesses, happier customers, and fewer reputation-flaying diatribes online. Because in today’s social media age, user experience matters.

Michael’s Insight 

Need some motivation to exercise?  Make a game out of it!  This is a really interesting concept to me. Oftentimes, lack of motivation is what kills someone’s intentions to get in better shape. And games are a powerful motivator for many! When they’re well designed, they hit just the right spot in the reward center of the brain. Today, the same principles that B.F. Skinner used to get pigeons to keep pecking a key also keep people dropping coins into slot machines and performing repetitive tasks in online games.  It’s nice to see that someone’s figured out a way to use it to get people to be more active and make money at it to boot.

Allison’s Insight 

The Advertising Zombies are Coming!

Apparently the ‘next big thing’ in the ever-evolving arms race to advertise to you as much as possible is an Australian startup called Social Loot. The essence of this organization is that you can earn money by promoting products to your friends through their social media streams. I’m sure on the advertiser’s side it sounded wonderful – people with similar interests can be ‘brand advocates’ for the products they love, thereby forming a stronger connection and higher likelihood for a sale, while getting a bit of extra compensation for their opinions. Celebrities partake in this form of electronic product placement, so why not give the average Joe a chance to cash in on the same thing?

On the consumer side, that just sounds horrible – it’s really spam of the most invasive kind. While a lot of spam advertisements are easy to ignore because they aren’t targeted or are obviously an ad, communications promoted by the likes of Social Loot require a bit more energy to work out.

It’s all just really exhausting… continuing my thoughts from last time, I spent a lot more time with Pinterest this week to see how invasive the spam had gotten – and to my dismay some keyword searches were over 90% spam. I’ve had to alter my browsing behavior there – I have to look at comments, likes, and repins to determine the validity of a link, and even that is something I’m sure they’ll eventually start spoofing.

All this just makes it hard to sort through the good and bad data, and makes me not want to use whatever service that doesn’t use a robust spam filter. I have a feeling that Pinterest’s days of usefulness are numbered for me, and if any of my friends start telling me that Product X is really awesome through my email then their days with me might be numbered too.

Rachel’s Insight 

Recently, I ran across this Fast Company article and video about kids’ reactions to cigarette packaging. The video embedded in the article is disturbing but also very powerful as a way to illustrate the point that design and branding matters – and it affects our kids and what they take interest in (good and bad) - http://bit.ly/IK39xl

Digital Dish 

I have a passion for athletics and social media, so immediately I was drawn to my morning email discussing Under Armour and digital social campaigns – my two loves coming together!

Under Armour unveiled its new “What’s Beautiful” digital experience and competition. At first blush, there are things I love but also things, based on our research, that either need to be tweaked or communicated more effectively.  Which begs the question: Did they ask the all-important question, “Would you do this?” 

The contest is being promoted via social media and being hosted on a microsite. The jist is that you upload a video announcing your fitness goal for the next 9 weeks, and then you complete a series of “challenges” that include additional videos or photos about your journey. Under Armour will choose the top 10 contestants as winners and then the final 3 (2 by the UA and 1 by the public) win “sponsorship” by UA. Here are some additional details .

Our research shows this campaign is perfect for a group of users that enjoy sharing their information with everyone, thrive on encouragement and have a deep desire to meet more people through social networks.  For this group, Under Armour will have a significant following during this campaign.

But here’s the problem: our research also shows that, in social media, there are certain weight loss/athletic behavioral clusters, and the ways in which they interact with social media are very specific. I’m going to go in-depth with just 1 of them to explain and I chose this group because, well, it’s me!

These types of people would be willing to do a complex digital campaign around fitness and actually carry it out for an entire 9 week period, but the kicker is that they don’t want to share their experience on their own social media pages (Facebook account, Twitter account, etc.) Content that would get pushed out to “public” sites would not work for this group since you cast your experience out to everyone, contrary to their core behavior. For example, I would never share my Nike plus run out on Facebook. However, I’m open to a private online community that’s separated from a Facebook or Twitter account.

Frustratingly for me, I can’t tell if this fitness stuff goes to my Facebook profile when I update it or just the community. This is a big deal to this group of users that are like me! Simply telling me that it does and not giving me the option to disable – I don’t sign up. Telling me that it stays in this community – I’m in! In fact, adding a feature that allows me to create my own discreet community of friends would be highly compelling. Not only would I participate, but I would get my close group of friends to do so as well. We would want to give words of encouragement, but also trash talk each other! So by not telling me clearly who I am sharing with makes me scared and unwilling to participate.

Based on our research here at User Insight, I know there will be some users that will participate in the campaign. However, if they just tweaked a few words here or there because they know what their digital audience wants and needs in order to act; they would capture another segment entirely! Great idea? Yes. Missed opportunity? Also, yes. 

Corey’s Insight

This week I was thinking about how, as Americans, we live in a culture that subscribes to the idea that “bigger is better” (e.g., more features). However, a larger, more robust product does not always appeal to all consumers. Through our research here at User Insight, we clearly see segments of the population that are turned off by bundled, all- inclusive products, even though it meets their needs (and more)!  Some people just want what they need.  This consumer desire often works in contradiction to what many companies feel is best for the consumer. So the next time you think that you know what’s best, ask your customer what they think first. You might be surprised about what you learn! 

Allison’s Insight

This week, during our in-context interview sessions with customers, I got to see some really different reactions than I usually do from our respondents. One respondent, a baker, came in with a box bursting with doughnuts for us, while another hesitantly asked if we were trying to sell something before she sat down at the table. It got me thinking about how we approach our respondents, and if there’s any way we can make them feel more at ease before they get to the table. I think this question is a very important one, especially if you are getting that first-time participant. Of course, given what we do, I want to start analyzing our respondents and see if there are any patterns to their behavior that would help us address their questions and concerns. I think being conscious of their perspective is a good step in the right direction! I remember that I was always very skeptical and never participated in surveys and interviews until I had to conduct my own in graduate school and realized how hard it is to find people. While we do all we can to make our respondents feel at ease here at User Insight, I would welcome your suggestions and ideas on how to make that experience even better for them. Thoughts? 

What makes you follow a brand or a twitter handle? Our research shows that it’s either because of you want to keep up with a select group; or engage with a smaller core group of friends, companies and outlets; or engage with a larger group and get lots of news, celebrities and trends. No matter how you engage on Twitter, you’re looking for some type of information. There are groups of consumers online who would really enjoy consuming information with real fiscal value from, you guessed it, the financial services industry! Yet, this industry has been painfully slow to the party and, while they are joining now, the content is lacking and the strategies are scatter shot. 

Now I can’t completely blame these companies and firms for the slow adoption – they have some very serious rules to follow and snooping regulatory committees that do not play around. Earlier this year, the SEC brought charges against a financial advisor, Anthony Fields, who they claimed committed more than $500 billion (http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2012/2012-3.htm) worth of fraud by utilizing LinkedIn postings and other social media sites. That said, the rules really haven’t changed (fraud is not okay), it is just the tools that have changed. There’s an eager audience on social media, some seeking the financial information that these firms can provide and, interestingly, it appears that a number of the advisors, brokers and dealers see the value and are trying to push their firms out onto social media as well. However, it is up to these large firms to partner with the marketing and legal compliance teams to develop lock-tight guidelines around social, but then offer training and encourage use.

In a recent New York Times piece, William Alden describes how big financial companies are starting out; albeit, with a vetting process for each post, but still starting. The firm Morgan Stanley gave about 600 financial advisors access to Twitter and LinkedIn last summer and recently tweeted its 2,000th post originating from a library of pre-approved content. Looking to other players in the financial services industry, one of the most dominant in the social space is American Express (http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/172391/amex-tops-financial-category-in-social-media.html). While not everyone in financial services is in the same business as American Express, and there are surely to be some additional struggles along the way, AMEX is currently a social media lighthouse in the industry. 

It will be interesting to follow and see which financial services companies step up their social strategies, how they’ll execute them, and how the information will be consumed by customers. In the meantime, we’ve got this learning from American Express: Social media marketing in the financial services industry can actually be done. It’s about understanding the customers on social and crafting a strategy that will resonate with them – do you know who your customers are? Are you talking to them and sharing information with them in a meaningful way? If not, it’s time to start. 

Corey’s Insight

Even “Small” User Experiences Can Make Or Break a Product’s Success

Last week, I watched my wife’s perception of her brand new top-of-the-line Windows computer decline in a matter of hours. Providing a quality user experience in the first hour of usage is absolutely critical and, in this situation, would have made all the difference. 

The point of sale left my wife with a great impression of the device.  She admired the quality and scale of her new laptop as she removed it from its packaging.  Then she started it up.  The confusion and poor start-up experience that ensued over the next hour was enough to destroy all credibility.  What a tragedy that such a small part of the user experience can have such a large impact on a product’s success!

As a result of this poor user experience, my wife is now the owner of a brand new Mac computer.  She returned the Windows laptop after owning it for just 8 days. Consumers have high expectations (particularly when they purchase the “best” of a particular product) and can easily go elsewhere when that product doesn’t satisfy their expectations.  Having such a competitive product selection is great for consumers but creates significant challenges for providers. This is why a quality user experience is no longer an asset but an actual necessity.

Allison’s Insights

The UX Throwdown 

Ooooooh snap! Check this Wired article out! Someone has said that Jakob Neilsen is wrong! I don’t know if I think he’s wrong, exactly; more that I get where he’s getting his data – a lot of mobile site ports are just not that great. Some of our clients have had this exact problem, trying to determine what users are going to do on mobile sites. We’ve even told them, “users aren’t going to do X on a mobile site!” What do you think? Thoughts? 

Lindsey’s Insights

Smart Glass Fun & More from Jon Stewart 

Hulu – The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: The Social Networth: Google Unveils Smart Glasses & Facebook Buys Instagram – Some lighthearted commentary from John Stewart on the less-than-practical Google glasses, and whether or not Instagram is worth $1 billion.