The topics we will cover in detail in the rest of this article are as follows:
- What Are 'Jobs To Be Done' and Why Are They Important to Customer Experience?
- How Search Helps Uncover 'Things to Do'
- Real Brand Examples of the 'Things to Do' Method
- Integrating the To-Do Method into Search Strategy
What Are 'Jobs To Be Done' and Why Are They Important for Customer Experience?
‘Jobs to be Done’ revolve around the core insight that overseas chinese in europe data customers ‘rent’ products and services to do a specific job. For example, a person might buy an electric drill because they have a job to do, like hanging shelves. For these reasons, it’s more important to analyze the jobs, products and tools people need to do their jobs than to examine demographic and psychological trends in the customer experience. As marketers, we need to understand the deeper user goal that our product fulfills, rather than just showcasing product features. In other words, it’s more important to understand why the customer will make a purchase than to try to understand who they are. Identifying these functional, social and emotional ‘jobs’ means delving deeper into customer motivations throughout their journey. With ‘Jobs to be Done’, you can identify needs your customers don’t even know they have and be there for them with solutions. It’s not just about driving transactions, it’s about creating experiences that serve the holistic needs of our audience.
How Search Helps Uncover 'To Do' Things
Search data provides a great gateway to To Do thinking for three key reasons:
- Questions reveal intentions and needs.
- Captures problems that arise at touch points .
- Reveals gaps where tasks are not being met .
How-to and question searches clearly state a task to be done . For example, queries like “How to remove wallpaper?” or “What’s the best way to hang shelves?” clearly indicate an underlying goal. Heather talks about working with a paint brand recently and categorizing all of their search data into basic “needs.” This revealed the basic tasks that paint helps customers with, such as “getting inspired, comparing products, and learning proper application techniques.” Each task is an opportunity to serve users better.
Questions Reveal Problems and Knowledge Gaps:
Analyzing search questions also reveals pain points or confusion . For example, when a trial was conducted to map thousands of queries to a relevant search intent for a flu vaccine customer, it was found that nearly a third of people who were going to get a flu shot had concerns such as “Can you get sick from the flu vaccine? Does it contain mercury? How long does it take for side effects to go away?” The implications of the queries highlight people’s skepticism about vaccination and safety. By addressing these queries directly, brands can direct users searching for relevant information and products.
Identifying Missed Opportunities by Uncovering Gaps:
Looking at the competitive landscape is another way that ‘Jobs to Do’ are being leveraged through search data. Where are other players not meeting user needs? What tasks are we better equipped to tackle? For example, when looking at product searches for a diaper brand in detail, it was discovered that a chemical scent was turning many parents away from competitors. The brand in the study received positive feedback for being unscented, which became an effective selling point to highlight after the analysis.
Real Brand Examples of the 'Things to Do' Method:
Once you have a solid understanding of the to-do method, let’s take a look at some inspiring examples of how brands are using it:
- Arm & Hammer has expanded its marketing beyond just baking soda to showcase the many cleaning, deodorizing and personal care tasks it tackles .
- A European campaign for Baileys drew on search data showing that baking "fails" are common, and positioned the creamy liqueur as the perfect ingredient to save failed bakery products. To watch the Baileys advert to save failed bakery products, click here .
Source, YouTube
- For a client of ours that provides mobile health platforms to hospitals, when all the tasks to be done for different healthcare audiences were separated, it was observed that the first group of searches were scientists and researchers who were trying to follow the latest science and innovations in the relevant field. The second group was healthcare professionals, patients and their relatives who were trying to understand the disease in a broader sense , and the third group was patients who were looking to weigh treatment options, consider costs and address side effects . Each of these categories represents very different tasks that need to be done, and the brand needs to address them in different ways.
Integrating the To-Do Method into Search Strategy:
Here are some tips for integrating ToDos:
- Start by categorizing a subset of existing keywords by possible purpose and goals. Look for patterns to base personas or content topics on.
- Survey or interview customers to validate the work you’ve created. Learn more about their biggest needs.
- Brainstorm experiential solutions that truly address core businesses and don’t just iterate on product features. Taking an omnichannel approach often works best.
- Prioritize low-competition businesses where competitors fall short but you can better support the desired results.
Experience is the Future
Search intelligence has a lot of untapped potential. When analyzed with the right method such as ‘Jobs to be Done’, it can drive transformative CX strategies. The questions you need to ask yourself at this point are ‘What jobs can you help your customers do?’ and ‘How can you create content, products and touchpoints to make your customers’ lives easier?’ In customer experience, there are always new ways to uncover and meet needs. I hope the examples and tips in this blog post inspire you to connect search insights to CX growth opportunities. You can click here to listen to Heather Physioc’s presentation at Digitalzone23 in detail !
