USER RESEARCH
Learning customer habits
Getting information with strategic impact for citizenM hotels
The Problem
CitizenM hotels were puzzled by some customer behavior that they saw in their metrics during the pre-booking phase. Why were customers visiting their website but then booking on aggregator sites?
The Solution
This is a classic case for user interviews. Qualitative data from the interviews would provide the missing insight into the quantitative data they had already. With the results from the study, citizenM would be able to understand their metrics more accurately and make adjustments to their marketing strategy.
Project at a glance
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Worked as single researcher
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Plan was developed in conjunction with Head of UX
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Included 60 interviews in person with hotel guests
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Project time was about 1 month, with interviews taking place over 2 weeks​​
Deep Dive
My philosophy of user research is to tailor the approach to the situation, to be flexible with the methodology. Academic standards have their place, but in the business context, the rigor should be commensurate with the business situation. The research question, timeline constraints, accuracy, precision, and approach are all variables in an equation that can be tweaked to arrive the most useful data for a particular situation. In this case speed was of the essence.
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I also believe that with every targeted study, there is an opportunity, or even a need, to widen the lens to make sure we’re getting the right context. This opens the door to unplanned learning, or discovery research.
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In this case, there was the specific question about where customers booked and why, but to understand that it would be important to know more about the booking process in general. What did customers go through to get information and make decisions?
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With the general research approach set, the plan usually falls into place quickly. The Interview Guide is written, crafting unbiased questions to elicit good data, starting with general topics and getting more specific. The other main planning task is recruiting. How best to do this depends on the available options, whether internal lists or other sources. In this case, we had a pool of potential respondents at nearby hotel locations, so I would visit hotel lobbies and conduct shorter intercept interviews.
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The interviews took place over two weeks, by which time I had plenty of data to construct the customer journey through the hotel booking process and answer the specific questions posed at the start. The final deliverable was a detailed report.
The Outcome
​With a more detailed and accurate picture of the booking process their guests took, citizenM was able to understand their metrics better. The corporate culture at the company is data-centric, and but their data wasn't telling them the whole story. With the results from the study added to the mix, they were able to make more informed decisions about business strategy and marketing tactics.
Contact me if you are looking for more detail. I can provide it privately.