If you think of market research, you probably envision a survey taker with a list of questions or a mystery shopper, discreetly evaluating the service at your store. However, market research has evolved considerably with the advent of innovative technologies, one of the most notable being Web Mining.
Mystery Shoppers have been an invaluable tool for evaluating products and services for over two decades. Originating in Europe in the 1990s, this approach involves using trained individuals to simulate a customer experience, evaluating everything from interaction with staff to the store environment. This methodology allows companies to identify and correct service failures, avoiding the loss of customers and the spread of negative comments.
But with the accelerating pace of technology, we've also seen an evolution in the way market research is conducted. This is where he goes from Mystery Shopping to Web Mining. Instead of sending people out to make simulated purchases, Web mining allows companies to collect reviews from real, verified customers of all of their outlets. From Google to various marketplaces, Web Mining searches the web to extract the most relevant information for your business.
You are probably wondering why you should consider Web Mining over Mystery Shoppers. In the next section, we'll discuss why web mining can be a more accurate and cheaper option for market research. Additionally, we will talk about how INMEGA uses these two approaches to offer a more complete and effective vision of your company's performance.
Web Mining As An Effective And Efficient Mystery Shopper
The beauty of Web Mining lies in its ability to act as an enhanced Mystery Shopper. How is that possible? Well, think about the concept of Mystery Shoppers: people who pose as customers to assess the quality of your services and products. Now, imagine that instead of just a few individuals assigned to this task, you could have thousands, even millions, of actual "Mystery Shoppers."
These real "Mystery Shoppers" are your own customers who leave reviews online about their experience in your store or with your products. You don't have to train or pay them to pretend to be customers because they are your customers. And because these are reviews from real customers, you don't have to worry about biased opinions or inauthenticity, as can be the case with Mystery Shoppers.
Now, we are going to go into more detail about the benefits of using Web Mining in your market research.
Web Mining's Advantages
a. Verified customers: By using Web Mining, you are accessing the opinions of verified customers, those who have actually purchased and experienced your products or services.
b. Valuable Feedback: Customers who leave feedback often have very positive or negative experiences. This gives you a clear view of which aspects of your service or products are working and which need improvement.
c. Continuous improvement: Negative comments give you the opportunity to improve your products or services. The positives, on the other hand, allow you to replicate successful behaviors in all your branches.
d. Cost Efficiency: Web mining eliminates the need to pay people to impersonate customers, which can result in significant savings.
e. Broad reach: By using Web Mining, you can see all the comments, not just those of a selected sample. This gives you a more complete picture of the customer experience.
f. Instant Responses: Unlike mystery shoppers who may forget details of their experience, online reviews are often written right after the customer experience, providing accurate, real-time insight.
g. Time saving: Web Mining is fast and efficient, it does not require time to collect data in the field and the results are immediately verifiable.
At INMEGA, we understand the importance of adapting to innovations in market research. We offer both Mystery Shopper and Web Mining services, although we see great potential in the latter for the reasons mentioned above. Whatever the size of your company, Web Mining can help you discover your strengths, correct your weaknesses and take your business to the next level.
INMEGA: Driving Market Research to New Heights
At INMEGA, we not only strive to provide our clients with the best market research solutions, but also seek to lead and revolutionize the field with innovative technology and modern techniques. Although we value and employ the Mystery Shopper method, we believe the future lies in the adoption of Web Mining as a powerful and more effective tool for collecting valuable and meaningful customer feedback.
Web mining, with its ability to collect verified data from real customers, offers an unprecedented look into the heart of your business. By providing a comprehensive view of your company's strengths and weaknesses, it enables a more precise and efficient approach to improve and enhance your operations.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a drastic change in how consumers interact with businesses. Now more than ever, consumers are online, and their voices and opinions can be heard and analyzed through Web Mining. Instead of sending one person to experiment and evaluate your service, why not listen directly to thousands or even millions of your actual customers?
From small businesses looking to polish their operations to corporations looking to replicate best practices across all their branches, the adoption of Web Mining can make a noticeable difference in how companies understand and improve themselves.
At INMEGA, we not only provide you with the data, but we also provide you with the tools and guidance to use it most effectively. Whichever method you choose, we're here to help you discover the most useful insights and make the most of them.
No matter the size of your company or the industry in which you operate, your business has a lot to gain by diving into the abundant mine of information that Web Mining offers. Are you ready to take the plunge and take your market research to the next level with INMEGA? We are ready to help you do it.