Problem
How to evaluate an online service?
In an online world a lot of digital products tend to have a sales price of zero. Some areas have strong competition at this lowest price possible. Anyhow customers compare the services offered and are willing to change quickly the moment they find more value from another provider. The international company researching the problem needed to distinguish people’s needs from wants in order to design the perfect product.
Solution
Offline and online research combined
In several focus groups with different groups of customers and non-customers a hierarchy model of needs was developed. In a second step this model was evaluated within 1200 users of similar products to benchmark the company with its main competitors.
Content: Company’s services in comparison with competitor’s evaluation
Methods: Qualitative focus group to develop hierarchy model. Quantitative online survey using several models
of the analytic hierarchy process.
Field Report
Offline and Online
Company: American online service operating an email service in Germany
Number of participants: 4 focus groups, 1200 online interviews
Time frame: 3 months
Language: German
Result
Improved communication of advantages over competitors
The company received a clear view of their own strength and weaknesses in a high competitive environment. As a result of the study the functionalities could be improvement and communication strategy for the most relevant features was set up.