Have you tried talking to them?

In 2007 I was sitting in the boardroom of one of Ireland’s renowned universities listening to a group of stakeholders fight over the label used on a web-form. One side thought the users called it an RFPN number while the other was adamant it was a “Prop Number”. The conversation grew increasingly heated, one side demanding we usability test both and the other pointing at me saying “We hired you to solve this sort of problem“. I snapped out of my daydream quickly.

They watched horrified as I went to the corner of the room and started ringing professors, administrators, and researchers. After 10 phone calls, my research findings concluded that it didn’t matter what label we used. No one fills in that part of the form anymore. They didn’t even know what it was for.

Anyone who works in UX has had this experience of watching clients fight over “What The Users Want™”, oblivious to the fact that they’re usually surrounded by them and could just ask. It’s oddly similar to how people are happy to discuss their relationship problems with a radio DJ and two million listeners, rather than, dare I say it, talk to their partner.

Even UX designers themselves are susceptible to this type of behavior. On the IXDA mailing list, a discussion forum for UX designers, a member asks “What research methods would help identify the reasons for members dropping off a website”. Jared Spool offered up the magical answer…

Talking to your customers is one of the most important things you can do as an app owner, so shouldn’t it be easy?

Return on Communication

For all of 2010 I spent every Friday emailing customers for our product Exceptional. I was learning who they were, what their app did, where they were based, how they used the product, how they found us, what they don’t like, what made them upgrade etc. Any question that was ever pondered out loud would make it’s way into my conversations with customers. Rather than guessing, measuring, or analysing, I was asking, every week, for a year.

Aside from getting an in-depth knowledge of our customers and product space, there were useful by-products of this exercise. Firstly people would blog/tweet to say it was great to receive a personal note (Sidenote: Nothing was automated in this process.) Secondly we had many customers offering their logos to be featured on Exceptional homepage (something that benefits both parties). Thirdly I’d regularly do “Meet our customers” blog posts on the Exceptional blog which made even more customers want to talk to us, which fed the cycle nicely.

Whilst this was valuable and informative, one thing it wasn’t was easy. Finding new & old customers I had yet to talk with, finding out information about them, writing a nice email, dealing with the responses, it was a time-consuming process. Inefficient in that it took too much time per customer and ineffective in that there are better ways than email to do this.

Talking to your customers is one of the most important things you can do as an app owner, so shouldn’t it be easy?

Email is the wrong context

If you use mailing list software Campaign Monitor, you’ll know that no matter how well you write, you’ll never get a great response rate. And if anything it’s getting worse. 25% of emails are read on mobile devices (Source), by readers probably “doing email” while waiting for their friend to return from the toilet. “Xero launches a new widget” Archive. “We’ve just added user profiles” Archive. “Please complete our customer satisfaction survey” Archive.

If you’re a chef wondering if customers are enjoying your new soup recipe, how would you find out? It’s not rocket science. The right time to ask customers about your soup is when they’re tasting your soup. The right time to ask customers about your web app is when they’re using your web app. Context is king for communication.

Customer Communication

Every web app needs someone talking to the customers regularly. It’s their job to know exactly what’s going with all types of customers, new, old, free, paying. What excites them, bothers them, how often they’re using the product, is the feature getting usage, if not why not. It’s their job to answer “What-Ifs” and “I wonders” from the product team. This is how you spot issues before they cost you hard-earned customers. Metrics junkies are obsessed with details like Cost Per Acquisition, it’s worth remembering that it’s investing in customer loyalty and retention can be far more valuable. Buckets fill up far quicker than sieves.

You should be able to talk to your customers…

1. Frequently – the more they talk with you, the more loyal they become
2. Easily – If it’s easy to do, chances are it’ll get done more often
3. Openly – let it be clear to your customers that they can complain or questions decisions, as their opinion is what matters
4. In Context – Talk to users as they use your app, not outside of it. The difference in what they say is remarkable.

For most people it’s not easy to ask 10% of regular customers what new reports they need, specifically while they’re looking at the reports screen. This leads to speculation or very lengthy feedback cycles, neither of which are good for a product. Here comes the plug. Intercom does this with about 7 mouse clicks and a cup of coffee. And the answers come quicker than the coffee.

We didn’t set out to build a user research tool, but for web app owners I’ve never seen anything as effective. If you own a web application, sign up for the beta of Intercom. Continue the discussion on Hacker News or read the follow-up post “Say the right thing at the right time“