{"id":12299,"date":"2017-04-04T18:01:05","date_gmt":"2017-04-04T17:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.intercom.com\/?p=12299"},"modified":"2024-07-18T12:07:58","modified_gmt":"2024-07-18T11:07:58","slug":"messaging-customers-for-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/messaging-customers-for-research\/","title":{"rendered":"7 questions to ask before messaging your customers for research"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’re not talking to your customers and listening to their feedback, your product is destined to struggle.<\/p>\n

But how you go about gathering that feedback is as important as the feedback itself. For product teams not in regular contact with their customers, surveys can seem like the right solution to this problem, but they’re often misunderstood and misused<\/a>. Here at Intercom, we\u2019ve found that sending highly targeted, open-ended questions are far more valuable and reveals more of what customers really<\/em> think.<\/p>\n

Just like Intercom\u2019s designers use Intercom to come up with better design solutions<\/a>, the research team uses it to target and talk to our customers. This allows us to segment our customers and their answers, so we can treat our open-ended questions as qualitative (reducing the number of answers needed) rather than quantitative (i.e a survey requiring hundreds of respondents).<\/p>\n

However, if done wrong, you can end up with questions that don\u2019t map to the information you need or answers from the wrong types of customers.<\/p>\n

A highly targeted, open-ended research question is like a 60-second interview with your customer, where you only get to ask one question. Unlike multiple-choice survey questions, it allows you to collect an infinite number of possible answers and as much detail as a customer wants to provide, which ultimately means you\u2019ll end up learning things you didn\u2019t expect. Even if you\u2019re not an Intercom customer, you can still send research messages like these, via any available channels where you can accurately target and talk to your customers.<\/p>\n

In this post, I\u2019ll outline the key questions to ask yourself before starting to write a research message to your customers.<\/p>\n

1. Do we have a plan?<\/h2>\n

The biggest mistake I see non-researchers do is jump straight into writing the message they\u2019re going to send to customers. This is about as efficient as trying to decide where to go for dinner when you don\u2019t know what type of food you want to eat that evening.<\/p>\n

“Ultimately, the most valuable and reliable insights will come from sending the right research message, at the right time, to the right person”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s essential to plan ahead in order to figure out what you\u2019re really trying to answer. Ultimately, the most valuable and reliable insights will come from sending the right research message, at the right time, to the right person. But it takes planning to figure out what the \u201cright\u201d everything is.<\/p>\n

2. What do we want to learn?<\/h2>\n

Think about the types of answers you would like to get back<\/a>, and how that would impact the decision you are trying to make. What new information will you need in order to make your decision? Turn this into your research objective, which will define what it is that you want to learn e.g. \u201cWhy do customers visit the Settings page?\u201d<\/p>\n

It can be helpful to write these down as simple questions \u2013 such as Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? \u2013 or around two predetermined answers, e.g. \u201cDo customers want feature X because of A or B?\u201d. When you write down all of your objectives you might find you have more questions than you expected, and some might be better answered via different methods<\/a>, or you might have to send multiple research messages. Don\u2019t panic. Talk to your team, prioritize what you want and need to learn and plan out how many messages you\u2019re going to send.<\/p>\n

3. Who do we want to ask?<\/h2>\n

Having a clear idea of who you want to message ensures you aren\u2019t collecting data from the wrong customers. It will also stop you from sending an irrelevant research message and annoying your customers.
\n\"Having<\/p>\n

When defining the audience for your message, talk through these questions with your team:<\/p>\n