To deliver the ultimate customer experience, you need to get to know your customers inside out. You need to know what their wishes and needs are, what frustrates them, what challenges they face, and what they dream of.

A deep understanding of your customers helps you, for example, when developing your new website or app, when establishing your new proposition, and also when defining your strategy.

Need help with your research?

Lia Bardoel — Lead Service Design & Innovatie

Send message via LinkedIn lia.bardoel@valsplat.nl

This is how we go about it

There are various ways to understand customer needs. Which one you choose depends, amongst other things, on your target audience, your research question and your product. These are the four methods we use most often:

Diary study

In a diary study, we track your customers over a longer period of time. We’re in daily contact with them, often via WhatsApp. We ask questions and set small tasks. We receive messages, voice memos, screenshots, photos and videos. This provides in-depth insight into your customers’ behaviour and thoughts regarding your service or product.
In-depth interviews

We use this method when we want to learn more about your target group’s needs and frustrations. We sit down with them one-to-one. We ask questions and present some ideas. We often combine in-depth interviews with a diary study: first, we observe them for a while, and then we sit down together to explore in more detail what we’ve observed.
In-context research

Exploratory research doesn’t always take place in the lab. Sometimes we seek out your target group in their natural environment, in the very place where they use your service or product. We observe and ask questions. This gives us a reliable and comprehensive picture of the customer experience. And we don’t just talk to customers: we also consult experts or those with first-hand experience within your own organisation, such as your customer service team. This helps us to paint a clear picture.
Quantitative validation

We almost always conclude exploratory research with quantitative validation. This ensures that our insights accurately reflect your entire target audience. It also provides insight into which needs are most important – which, in turn, helps with prioritisation.

Keeping a constant finger on the pulse

Research into customer needs can be on a larger scale and a one-off exercise, but it works best when done continuously and in small steps. We call this Continuous Discovery. By exploring continuously, you stay on top of the changing needs of your customers and the market. This ensures that you can always adapt and come up with the right solutions – solutions that deliver value to your target audience and benefit your organisation.

Proud of our clients

What you can expect from us

Research is a specialised field. And we’ve been doing it for over twenty years. We’re true researchers: we’re precise, we’re sharp. This is what you can expect from us when we work together:

Experienced researchers who’ll guide your team. We’ve been conducting research ever since we started Valsplat in 2000. It’s in our DNA. It’s the foundation of everything we do.
A strategic perspective. You’ll get more than just a handful of insights. We’ll work with you to identify the right next steps and solutions.
Over the past 20 years, we’ve carried out research for just about every major player in the Dutch market that takes digital seriously. You’ll reap the benefits of that accumulated knowledge.