‘Survey Stink!’
Yeah, that was the partial title of Justin Trondeau’s INBOUND 17 session where he talked about conversion optimization without relying on customer surveys. As the title suggests, Justin is not a big fan of surveys and as he announced his session, he explained that survey hurts business.
Hear all about why relying on surveys will hurt your business. Head over to East 157 I’m starting soon! #inbound17 pic.twitter.com/3VCNHyh7pZ
— Justin Rondeau (@Jtrondeau) September 27, 2017
He classified survey data as “active user data”. It means that your data collection users are aware of the fact that they are being observed. And that, he explained, is the biggest shortcoming of surveys or with active user data in general. Because what people report is ideal self and not the actual self.
Problems with surveys: people answer as ideal self vs actual self #INBOUND17 @Jtrondeau pic.twitter.com/r0jnygOUVN
— 190west (@190west) September 27, 2017
Another problem Justin pointed out is that people themselves are not aware of what they want.
“People don’t know exactly what they want. But when you start asking them, they’ll start to tell you.” @Jtrondeau #INBOUND2017
— Tara Robertson (@taraerobertson) September 27, 2017
He borrowed validation for his argument from Dr. Howard Moskowitz, the man who transformed the way the food industry thinks about marketing.
“People don’t know what they want until you show them.” @Jtrondeau #Inbound17 pic.twitter.com/eKR3Xn3P8P
— Alexis Silvers (@Alexis_Silvers) September 27, 2017
The best part of his presentation was when he gave handy tips to analyze the data our heat mapping tools generate. We all have struggled with that!
Love this slide @Jtrondeau “Know your users” #truth #INBOUND17 pic.twitter.com/J0xZNQNyrC
— Tara Robertson (@taraerobertson) September 27, 2017
And those who missed the session and didn’t know that we’ll be covering it were shattered!
Hey Justin, I didn’t make it to the session, will the slides be available anywhere? I need your insights! pic.twitter.com/zEASzZKsZN
— Kuba Kowalczyk (@KubaMKowalczyk) September 27, 2017
Also, Justin has written a full blog post on CRO without the help of survey, which you can check out if you are as curious about conversion optimization as I am.
For other session recaps, sketches, and more head on to our dedicated INBOUND17 page.
