Posts filed under 'Qualitative Research Case Studies'
Using a variety of discovery methods, Whyze Group identified sixteen opportunities to improve the customer experience.
A customer experience management audit revealed that managers knew what skus were moving and at what margins, but little about what drives positive customer experiences.
Whyze Group performed in-store cue scans at our client’s and competitors’ stores. We also conducted interviews with customers, store employees and corporate staff.
Many of the most valuable insights we garnered were through metaphor analysis. Metaphor analysis enabled customers to use images and photos describing their deepest emotions about buying and giving gifts. One key finding was that men and women differ in their gift shopping and giving habits. Through metaphor analysis, our clients discovered several meaningful opportunities to enhance the gift giving experience at relatively low costs.
In addition, our client identified numerous opportunities to improve customer experiences through revamped store layouts, staff training, compensation and return policies.
We helped managers prioritize those opportunities that would most quickly and cost-effectively enhance customer experiences and repeat business.
Tags: case study, cue scan, customer experience management audit, Gift-giving experience, metaphor analysis, Qualitative Insight into Customer Experience, retailer, Whyze Group
October 7th, 2011
A leading property and casualty insurer needed to improve its customer experiences fast to avoid continued flat line growth. Customer referrals drive sales in this industry and our client was at significant disadvantage.
Whyze Group facilitated a customer experience management audit with the company’s innovation team. Once the team reviewed and discussed all of the evidence from research studies the company had conducted, team members agreed that the company’s value proposition and customer experience were less compelling than those of competitors. Even with all the company research at hand, the team was still unsure of where to focus the company’s innovation efforts.
To fill the team’s knowledge gaps, Whyze Group mapped the customer experience, surveyed customers, interviewed employees and led cue scans with the innovation team. These were instrumental in imbuing the team with a visceral understanding of what their customers really go through. Moreover, the team galvanized around a focused set of opportunities to improve customers’ experiences.
The most important finding was that nearly all of the company’s investments in the customer experience were focused on getting prospects to buy policies. Customers received little or no attention from the company after they bought.
This lack of attention mattered to customers in varying, but significant degrees. Whyze Group identified four customer personae. Each was unique with respect to their mental models and expectations of insurers. Of the four customer personae identified, one was particularly sensitive to the level of care they received after the sale.
Whyze Group facilitated a series of customer experience design sessions aimed at delighting this persona. The innovation team identified six customer experience innovation opportunities and prioritized them according to criteria that we helped them develop. These included the number of customers affected, the increase in experiential value to customers, the change management challenges for the company and brokers’ businesses and the effectiveness to which each innovation would fulfill the company’s brand promise.
We identified and prioritized a set of initiatives that are being implemented with the support of the CEO and executive committee.
Tags: design, insurance, mental model, persona, property and casualty, Qualitative Insight into Customer Experience
July 9th, 2011
Managers at a leading hand tool manufacturer wanted to innovate the company’s next generation of hand tools. Previous research pointed toward the existence of diverging needs among professional builders and DIYs.
There was little agreement among managers in marketing, product development, manufacturing and finance about which segment the company should focus on or kinds of product improvements that would increase sales and profits. Whyze Group facilitated the team through a customer experience management audit. The team identified several critical gaps in their knowledge, which Whyze Group filled.
Over the next six months, Whyze Group worked with managers to prioritize segments, develop ideas, refine prototypes and prepare for production and rollout. We conducted customer interviews that identified innovative product features that built on buyers’ mental models about usability, durability and safety.
Whyze Group helped the team find the optimal combination of new product features with a customer experience survey that included discrete choice analysis. While finding the most desirable product features was a goal, we also wanted to minimize cannibalization of our client’s existing products. Working closely with our client, we found a new product configuration that increased buyer preference for our client’s product portfolio by 22%.
Tags: builders, DIYs, hand tools, manufacturer, product development, Qualitative Research and Innovation
October 7th, 2008
A top-ten insurer wanted to improve its relationships with independent insurance brokers, the channel through which the company generated most of its sales. An experience management audit revealed that brokers had grown increasingly frustrated with the company.The company’s broker satisfaction studies showed declining ratings across the board. Some brokers had stopped selling some of the company’s products. Most company leaders guessed that high pricing and poor customer service contributed to broker sentiment.
For years, the only feedback that most managers viewed as credible was a closed-end broker satisfaction survey. This provided no opportunity for managers to act on issues outside of those addressed in the survey.
We’ve seen organizations get tunnel vision from focusing too much on survey results before. The company’s numbers-driven culture served it well in pricing products and handling claims, but not in managing broker relationships.
We scheduled a discovery session with the management team. We knew that when we aired our observations about the company’s focus on the broker survey, it would create a fleeting, valuable opening for managers to question the status quo. And, they did.
Several managers seized the opportunity to publicly criticize the broker survey process. They said it didn’t address several recent breakdowns in the company’s broker relationship management process. This got the attention of the rest of the team. It also created a new openness among team members to learn what was really going on with brokers.
Whyze Group conducted one-on-one interviews with brokers in every region. It turned out that brokers regarded the company’s underwriting and customer service operations highly. Pricing was an issue among a small minority.
The real problem was brokers’ growing mistrust of the company. Brokers were increasingly suspicious that their hard-won books of business would be decimated when the company unilaterally withdrew products from some markets. This had been happening with increasing frequency over the previous three years.
Some brokers simply stopped investing altogether in selling our client’s products. They increasingly turned to selling products from competing insurers whom they regarded as more committed.
Adding to the mistrust, retiring brokers’ books of business were sloppily transferred to the brokers who bought them. Sometime, multiple brokers divided these books. There was little transparency in this process and perceptions of unfairness and favoritism prevailed.
Whyze Group facilitated the management team through design sessions aimed at increasing the transparency, accuracy and timeliness of these transfers. The team also reconsidered making its contracts more favorable for brokers in light of the company’s desire to maintain flexibility in moving in and out of markets. These and other broker experience innovations are being implemented with the support of the CEO and executive committee.
Tags: broker relationships, broker satisfaction survey, independent insurance brokers
October 7th, 2008
Managers at this billion-dollar proteins processing company hired us to help them deepen relationships with supply chain partners like Campbell’s Soup. The company wanted to explore alternative account relationships that would add value to partners. In addition, the company wanted to understand the implications of migrating from the existing account team structures.
Whyze Group interviewed key company executives, reviewed internal documents and mapped the company’s national accounts relationship process. Whyze Group conducted detailed industry analysis and supply chain research. In addition, we interviewed key managers of Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Winners, such as Solectron and Fedex, which successfully addressed similar partnering challenges.
One of the most productive shifts Whyze Group accomplished was reorienting managers from a supply chain view to a demand chain view. Our client’s downstream partners were closer to consumers. Downstream partners experienced pressures that shifted in response to consumers’ eating habits and budgets.
Whyze Group presented the executive team with three models for building deeper, more profitable relationships with its demand chain partners. All three models were conceived with the intent to enhance our client’s ability to sense shifts in consumer demand, contribute insight to industrial partners and respond proactively to joint opportunities.
Working together, we drew the implications on account team organization, skills, timing, activities and performance metrics. These partnering models have become foundations of the company’s partner strategy. They’ve enabled our clients to build and strengthen relationships with national account partners.
Tags: account relationships, Baldrige award, demand chain, food processing, national accounts, partnership, Supply chain
October 7th, 2008
This billion-dollar distributor of maintenance and repair supplies wanted to find ways to deepen its relationships with small businesses.A customer experience management audit revealed that the company relied heavily on research with large business customers to guide improvements in the customer experience. Small business customers, however, were becoming far less loyal.
Whyze Group led in-store cue scans and focus groups with small business customers. These showed that small businesses have buyer personas and needs that are different from large customers.
Small business customers’ usage of phone, internet and store locations correlated with these personas. This helped the company to anticipate the expectations of small business customers depending on which channel the customer used.
Whyze Group identified opportunities in sales, customer communications, products and pricing to deliver improved customer experiences to each small business persona. This became the foundation for redrafting customer communications and customer relationship management processes in ways that resonated with small business customers.
We prioritized these opportunities to improve small business customer experiences in light of changes in the size and composition of the small business market. Our analysis showed that the size and makeup of the small business market was likely quite different than the management team had believed. We worked with managers to prioritize opportunities in accordance with assuring mutual benefits to customers and company.
Tags: cue scan, focus groups, large business, maintenance and repair, Qualitative Insight into Customer Experience, small business
October 7th, 2008
A manufacturer of exterior coatings wanted to find ways to initiate superior customer experiences among shoppers browsing for deck stains.Managers wanted to know what consumers currently experience when they shop for deck stains.
A customer experience management audit revealed that the company had done little consumer research before. The company had only recently hired a marketing staff. Cryptic product names reflected chemical properties that were meaningless to us and, we presumed, other non-chemists. We suspected that homeowners needed more user-friendly information before they’d even consider buying this brand.
Whyze Group moderated interviews with do-it-yourselfers who own patio decks and other exterior wood products. Through this exploration, we identified six expectations and 14 different concerns among prospective users of deck stain products.
With Whyze Group’s help, managers identified 12 measures it could take to communicate more effectively and initiative positive experiences with shoppers in store aisles.
Tags: deck stain, do-it-yourselfers, exterior coatings, Qualitative Insight into Customer Experience, shoppers
October 7th, 2008
The human resources division of a large regional bank was experiencing classic change management fallout: low morale and high turnover among HR relationship managers. The job descriptions of these managers had recently changed.HR relationship managers coordinated other HR functions such as, recruiting, compensation, benefits and training.
An employee engagement survey showed that HR relationship managers rated their job satisfaction far lower than other managers. Relationship managers rated their bosses’ leadership and communication lowest. HR leaders wanted to know what they could do to improve the situation.
Whyze Group conducted a series of focus groups with HR relationship managers. We learned that HR leaders recently announced changes in the role of HR relationship managers. These managers would become the sole points of client contact for other HR functions including compensation, recruiting, benefits and training.
In reality, each HR leader wanted to own internal client relationships. They were undermining the changes. Relationship managers were caught in turf wars between HR leaders. Moreover, relationship managers were working harder with less to show for their efforts.
Facing longer workdays and greater frustration, more HR relationship managers resigned and others began looking for jobs elsewhere. Had HR leaders addressed these change management issues and aligned on who would own client relationships, these problems could have been minimized.
Changing to a single point of contact within the HR function probably sounded like a good idea to some people. But, as we’ve written before, there isn’t a shortage of good ideas at most companies. There is more often a lack of alignment about which ideas to implement. Innovating successfully requires getting coworkers energized and aligned on implementing the best ideas.
Whyze Group’s recommendations focused on getting HR leaders to resolve who would own client relationships and how all HR functions would work together. An aligned HR leadership team would engage their staff and internal clients far more productively.
Tags: engagement survey, Facilitating Change, HR
October 7th, 2008
A mortgage bank was planning several marketing campaigns, one of which included a large investment in radio advertising promotion. Whyze Group developed a marketing ROI model to prioritize marketing investments and help executives determine the optimal investment in radio advertising.
We projected how many prospects would be shopping for loans during the radio advertising flight. Media buyers told us what portion of households would be exposed to the ads and we estimated high and low response rates.
Whyze Group collaborated with the chief financial officer. We built a model that included selling expenses, anticipated product mix, costs of goods (loans) sold, and the anticipated lift in sales. By running various scenarios through the model, we concluded that the bank’s net profit potential would be far higher by significantly increasing its radio buy. Bank leaders agreed.
Four months after the end of the campaign, we measured the results. The bank had increased its market share and net profits by approximately 20% over the previous year’s timeframe.
Tags: advertising, management innovation, prioritizing, ROI, ROI model
October 7th, 2008
Managers of a wireless communications company wanted to improve customer experiences, loyalty and sales in two geographic markets. The company was considering several alternatives. These included changing its rate plans, improving customer service, investing in transmission quality improvements and increasing its advertising expenditures.
Improving “everything” was not feasible. Managers needed to focus its efforts in the areas that mattered most to consumers. Whyze Group designed, conducted and analyzed 1,000 interviews with cellular users, including competitors’ customers. Questions focused on perceptions of quality, price and overall value for each competing wireless carrier.
Comparing customers’ perceptions of each carrier enabled us to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor. Additionally, we determined the relative importance of each quality and price attribute we explored.
Whyze Group demonstrated to managers that consumers in the first market were quality-sensitive. Also, consumers perceived that our client’s transmission quality was inferior to competitors.
The company needed to improve consumers’ perceptions of its transmission quality. We recommended that our client measure its signal strength throughout this market. If our client’s signal strength was on par with competitors, then our client could effectively employ marketing messages bolster perceptions of quality. If not, then managers should consider increasing signal strength.
In the second market, consumers perceived that our client’s quality, price and value were on par with competitors. Consumers in this market were more sensitive to price. We recommended that our client incorporate messages about its competitive rate plans in it marketing materials to boost its share of this market.
Tags: loyalty, Qualitative Insight into Customer Experience, Qualitative Research and Innovation, wireless communications
October 7th, 2008
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