Customer Conversations
Nothing comes easy. In order to truly understand your customers, you have to be open to having conversations with them. You have to do your homework.
In practice, listening to your customers and using their insights to better your business is a lot like developing good study habits before taking an exam. It’s the only way to know who your customers are, and what it is that they want.
Facilitating customer conversations is what we do.
Our research methods have helped organizations and businesses answer tough questions like:
- Does your target audience know what you offer?
- How are people using your website?
- What parts of your user interface are problematic for customers?
- What features make or break your product experience?
- Why are people engaging with your company?
More than just “yes” or “no”.
Our brand of research isn’t about surveys. It’s not about logging numbers. And it’s certainly not about reading through questions and checking boxes.
It’s about having a quality conversation. It’s about building a dialogue and listening so that people open up, say what they want to say, and offer true insight.
That’s the gold. And that’s what we uncover for you.
Our process works like this:
1. Getting to know you
To get started, we gather essential information about you and your business. We then schedule a kickoff meeting to get our teams aligned, discuss your goals, and build a robust outline of the research plan.
2. The who, what, when, and where
After we’ve gathered enough info, we write a series of questions and talking points to use as a framework during our customer conversations. Quite literally a “discussion guide”.
At the same time, we work with you and your team to screen and schedule the conversation sessions.
3. The conversation
We connect with your customers by phone (or in person) and conduct each conversation based on the framework of the discussion guide.
Every session is recorded, so you can listen to the conversations and draw your own insights (we strongly encourage this).
4. The heavy lifting
Conversations generate heaps of raw data. Like miners, we dig through hours of recordings and stacks of notes during our internal breakout sessions. This is how we find those precious nuggets of insight.
More importantly, it’s how we uncover the trends and “universal truths” that you can use as the basis for understanding your customer.
5. The pay off
We sit down with you (you’ll want to be sitting down) and present everything that we’ve learned. Most of the findings will surprise you, and some will validate what you already knew in your heart of hearts.
It’s a win-win, and it will feel good to finally know.
“Field’s discoveries led the strategic direction of our new e-commerce and media platform. They provided an exceptional level of professionalism, fusing just the right mix of art and science to be both beautiful and functional.”
— Emi Kubota, V.P. at green sprouts
Any questions before we get started?
What kinds of businesses / organizations do you work with?
Many of our engagements are with businesses that run e-commerce websites and platforms. We also have extensive experience with B2B and B2C software / application interfaces, user dashboards, online communities, and healthcare services.
How much time will this take?
From start to finish, an average engagement with six customers takes about 4-5 weeks. If everything runs very smoothly, engagements can sometimes wrap in under 4 weeks.
What will I find out?
It depends on what you want to find out. During our kickoff, we work closely with you to create a thorough research plan and discussion guide that encompasses your unique goals and objectives.
How do you recruit customers?
We usually start with an existing customer or lead list that you provide. We then work with you to develop screening requirements that will determine which customers we contact. This ensures that we talk to the right people and get the most relevant data possible.
What if I don’t have a customer or lead list?
If you don’t have a list, or if your business serves a group of people who might be difficult to reach, we suggest hiring a dedicated recruiting firm. We’ve worked with several recruiting firms in the past, and we’re happy to coordinate with them.
If you’re interested in working together, fill out this form to apply.