When educational publisher Nationwide Learning wanted to get to know their teacher customers better, they turned to an iterative research approach that was as forward-thinking and robust as the learning process itself. They turned to voice of the customer (VoC) research via online communities.
Doing online VoC research is much like the ideal elementary classroom, one that’s buzzing with focused discovery and response. Students are initiating, collaborating and growing. And the excitement doesn’t end when the school bell rings — students carry the excitement for learning home with them.
That’s what VoC research should and can be for your business.
Learning is not a static thing and neither is VoC research. Your research insights should be enlightening, stimulating, iterative, active, organic, and ongoing.
If my classroom metaphor doesn’t resonate for you, then consider the candid words of one of my clients, Anne Best, Marketing Manager for Nationwide Learning.
Nationwide Learning turns students into published authors. (How cool is that?) Nationwide wanted to continue to grow their customer base, but also strengthen their connection with the voice of the customer. They saw the online community qualitative research approach as a way to shorten the cycle to growth. To more nimbly connect with educators. To react to various changes in the market. To respond to teacher feedback and refine their marketing tactics and messaging.
“One-off focus groups were limiting our ability to adapt to a conversation and do reiterations of a product,” says Anne. “We wanted to iterate our product variation very quickly, both product and messaging.”
Anne Best nicely expressed her experience with online VoC research in our webinar on May 28, 2015 (Title: Is Your Marketing Responsive? Using iterative insights from customers to make your marketing nimble).
Anne found the online community VoC research process to be robust.
“We got to know our customers better, improved our marketing message, and we could enhance our product by improving a tiny feature or by creating an entirely new line of products,” says Anne. “We also found that we could continue a dialogue with customers long after the initial research was complete.”
Acting on iterative insights starts with getting to know your customer, and Nationwide Learning wanted to get inside the hearts and minds of their teacher segments.
Segmentation: getting to know customers better
To gain customer insights, Anne Best from Nationwide Learning and Sean Mannion, an Analyst with Keane Consultants, worked in concert to initiate online VoC research with elementary teachers.
Sean strongly recommended understanding the customer segments first.
Sean says, “Number one on the list is segments, segments, segments. I can’t stress segmentation enough. Whether it’s business-to-business or business-to-consumer marketing research, no matter the industry, you need to look at all your discovery process and product variations through the lens of segments.”
Sean helped Anne define customer segments for Nationwide Learning by determining which customer segment metrics to use.
“Defining can be by business code or geo-demographic segmentation. You can segment by best performers, poor performers, lifetime value, or former customers. It depends on the research goal,” says Sean.
Of course, you also need to do some research planning basics, like recruiting the right participants and offering an adequate incentive. That can be accomplished with a well-crafted email to potential participants.
“One of the great things about online VoC research is that you can do multiple groups with multiple segments and run them in parallel. For example, you can compare responses to the same questions posed to best performers and poor performers,” says Sean.
Improving both your product and message
If you’re doing VoC research, then you probably want to know what improvements are critical to your product quality. You’re looking for what customers like and don’t like. You’re in luck because online research participants tend to respond with complete candor. Like a fussy restaurant patron, they will not hesitate to send their overcooked steak back to the kitchen.
The customer is always right. But the real research key is this:
“How are you reacting to that feedback — good or bad?”
By acting on the iterative insights of VoC research, Sean’s company could help Anne and Nationwide Learning make the most of their direct mail marketing budget, specifically, the dollars per name mailed based on segment.
“We were able to show participants different messaging and different offerings and see how different segments responded, and we could re-market to targets based on their segments. We used messaging that was proven to work with specific segments in the research — and we saw massive improvements in the revenue generated per name mailed,” says Sean.
Keep the conversation and the learning going
Not only did Sean and Anne aggregate segment responses and note the differences in a final report for Nationwide Learning, but they also sent out invitations to core group customers, asking if anyone wanted to keep the conversation going after the initial research was complete.
About one-third of the teachers agreed to talk more about Nationwide Learning products, so the education brand continued to bounce ideas off of their customers.
“We thought it was important to leverage the group afterwards. The ability to continue talking with teachers is huge,” says Sean Mannion, analyst for Keane Consultants.
“It’s as if we gave each customer their own voice. In a nice way, our teacher participants took over the discussion and gave us more than we expected,” says Anne Best, Marketing Manager for Nationwide Learning.
Frankly, I’m not surprised at Sean or Anne’s experience with online VoC research. These online communities offer a more social aspect. You get more than participants responding. They initiate conversations. They respond to each other’s comments.
The result is, you get more of that iteration bubbling up from the community instead of just from one moderator in a two-hour session. The conversation can take on a life of its own — in a good way. And you as a marketer or brand manager can become the inspiring teacher who is the catalyst for exciting new things in your organization.
So excuse the educational pun but today’s research lesson is:
When VoC research is responsive, energized and action-oriented, then your marketing gets active, responsive and energized, too.
The learning never stops. And in turn, here’s something else that doesn’t have to stop: acting on iterative insights to continuously delight your customers.
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