Complete Web Monitoring

Four Ways to Understand Users

VOC technology is deceptively straightforward: ask your visitors questions and analyze the results. Below the surface, however, those questions are the result of a process of research and planning, sample selection, invitation, clustering, segmentation, and reporting.

There are four ways to understand the voice of your customers, as shown in Figure 7-11.

Figure 7-11. Different methods of surveying a site’s target market

Focus groups

A moderator guides discussion among several topics with a sample of the target market. These provide a great way to understand a customer base that’s readily available. Focus groups let you see nonverbal cues, and a skilled moderator can steer the conversation in new directions you may not have considered, based on the participants’ feedback.

Online surveys

This is what most people mean when they talk about VOC. Visitors are intercepted during their visits and are asked if they will participate in a survey. While not as open-ended as a focus group, online surveys allow you to solicit feedback from hundreds of participants who are familiar with the actual website experience.

Usability analysis

This involves watching a participant as she uses the site. This borders on web interaction analytics (WIA) and may even include eye tracking and other tools to understand how people use a site. Usability analysts often record participants’ faces ...