How video surveys help you understand customers

The competition in many industries is fierce. One way to stand out is by understanding your customer better than your competitors. That can be done by hearing from them - like literally hearing their voice, seeing their facial expressions when talking about your brand.

Authentic feedback, dare I say spoken from the heart, can be gathered through video feedback from customers. With 81 percent of the U.S. adult population owning smartphones, getting video feedback is easier than ever.

Video surveys aren’t new in market research. But capturing and analyzing them has become so much easier in the age of smartphones and technology that makes analysis easier and automatic.

Let’s dive into how video feedback works and how brands can use it for useful customer insights.

What is a video survey?

The basic definition of video surveys:

• Companies ask customers specific questions about the brand, brand experience, product feature, etc.
• People can then answer on their own time by recording video responses with their smartphone
• You can ask always-on questions and add ad-hoc questions for specific projects

Insights and customer experience professionals can then take the responses and review them for:

• Sentiment
• Key topics
• Ideas
• And more

Those data points can then help brands make useful updates to their products and services. Andy Barraclough, Co-Founder and CTO of Voxpopme, explained on Reel Talk: The Customer Insights Show, that this feedback can be used in every stage of the ideation lifecycle. Don’t just think of video feedback as ‘one and done’, but insert it into the process at the right times.

Benefits of using video question types in your survey

Imagine what kind of response a friend sends via text compared with a video call. You get a much more complete story because there’s a lower barrier to entry when talking versus having to write something out. People are more willing to explain via video, too, which can yield insightful information.

Authenticity is another benefit of video surveys. When we write a response we procrastinate, re-write, edit and edit some more. Recording a video survey tells an authentic story.

Video survey responses are especially helpful when you’re trying to investigate a complicated pain point—one that a multiple-choice questionnaire doesn’t quite address. The survey can get you the what, while the video feedback gets the why. Why are customers feeling a particular way? On video, that’s easier to explain for many people.

How Alaska Airlines uses video surveys

To assess customer satisfaction, Alaska Airlines used Voxpopme’s video platform to ask their customers about what friendliness meant to them.

The company had learned in its quantitative ‘Alaska Listens’ survey that friendliness was a consistent issue. This prompted them to launch a video survey, to help them determine how customers defined friendliness and, ultimately, how they could create a more pleasant flight experience.

Video allows you to obtain raw, unfiltered stories directly from your consumers. It delivers depth and emotion.

Alaska Airlines also found that stakeholders were much more invested in customer data. The videos helped leaders empathize with customers’ experiences, so they were more driven to solve their issues.

Understand the ‘why’

Stories make it easier to drive home a point with your research. Video makes consumers the narrators of their own stories, turning them into much more than a statistic.

In quantitative studies, you can notice trends in the data and get insights. But some questions couldn’t be answered. The data might show that one customer group is more likely to buy your product than another segment, but you don’t know why that’s the case.

Survey your audience with video after running a quantitative survey, and you fill in knowledge gaps. Video gives your audience the chance to bring a human element to your data and gather specific stories and nuances behind the data.

Humanize feedback for decision makers

Understanding customers isn’t a one-time event. Companies should constantly be learning about their customers’ needs to improve their products and services in relevant, helpful ways.

But it’s not always easy to get leadership excited about the results. Especially if it’s communicated via graphs and charts. By sharing videos of real consumers sharing feedback, you can command the attention of your stakeholders. They can get excited about your research because they can see the business impact in a real, human context.

Forbes revealed that 59 percent of executives would rather watch a video than spend time reading text-based alternatives.

If consumers’ stories are heard by the right leaders and stakeholders in the organization they’re more likely to drive positive change across all departments of your organization. And, more specifically, leaders are more likely to investigate customer issues further to solve them.

And let’s not forget how busy executives are. Executives are typically too busy for an in-person focus group. But a sampling of submitted video responses organized by sentiment? It just takes a few minutes to view. And by having your executives pay closer attention to feedback, you have a greater chance of increased funding to address customer issues.

How to start with video feedback

To get started, make sure you have good questions that you are asking respondents. Questions that you need to get answered from a business perspective and that customers can actually answer.

To brainstorm what makes good questions, here are 67 open-ended questions to consider.

Then decide who should answer the questions. Here’s a few options to consider depending on they type of research you’re doing:

• Your own distribution list
• A panel, such as the Voxpopme community of respondents
• Specific customers in certain phases of the buying journey

Once you have the questions lined up, send them out for people to respond to on their own time. Sending questions to the Voxpopme community usually gets answers quickly.

How to analyze video responses

I find it easiest to follow this process when I review my video feedback projects.

1. The platform automatically transcribes all video answers. I like to look through them to see quickly what people are saying, what trends I might notice, etc.
2. Next, I check out key themes as analyzed by the platform. That includes looking at the wordcloud, recurring keywords and topics. That helps me get a high-level overview of feedback.
3. Then I look at the sentiment gauge in the platform to see what the overall reaction has been. Was it mostly positive or negative or neutral?
4. Finally, I start watching some of the videos.

It can get quite mesmerizing to watch video responses about your brand. I love watching the videos, but the technology also allows me to consume the content without watching any.  There are so many things to learn from and also appreciate. Who doesn’t want to listen to videos with positive reviews? And even the negative ones can give you something to improve on as a brand.

Integrating video surveys into your experience management

As Insights Professional Brenna Ivey said on an episode of “Reel Talk” it’s about integrating quantitative with qualitative research to get the full picture.

You can also integrate video feedback into your Qualtrics account using the Voxpopme integration.