I was speaking recently at a conference with well-known consumer psychologist Bart Schutz. When asked about making assumptions in the context of conversion rate optimization, his face lit up with energy:
\n“Assuming is one of our biggest enemies.”
\nHe continued: “What my company [Online Dialogue] brings when they bring a culture of validation into the whole organization, is that we’re fighting against assumptions. We have instant assumptions about why a test result was that typical result. I see a lot of other speakers at conferences giving examples where I go, ‘there are ten, maybe a hundred other reasons why you could have had this test result.’
\nSo the complexity of humanity actually requires you to be more humble about what you actually know. We know the result, whether you should push it live or not, but you never know the reason, we only have assumptions on that, and assumptions are good for new hypotheses, new testing directions, but any assumption that isn’t validated is just an opinion.”
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Yes, indeed. Making assumptions is frustrating in most contexts. But they can be especially counterproductive when it comes to conversion rate optimization.
\n‘Conversion rate optimization,’ if you don’t already know, is the systematic process of increasing the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action — be that filling out a form, becoming customers, or otherwise (thank you, Moz, for the great definition). As they elaborate, ‘the CRO process involves understanding how users move through your site, what actions they take, and what’s stopping them from completing your goals.’
\nIt’s this ‘understanding’ part that often leads to erroneous assumptions. And this is why it’s absolutely essential in CRO to implement surveys and collect user feedback. We’ll explain why below.
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First step of CRO: Get to know your audience
\nLet’s dig into this a bit more. CRO is a discipline that’s focused on the end user; someone making a purchase on an e-commerce site, subscribing to a digital magazine or searching for a cheap flight on Google Flights for their next vacation. We’re all ‘end users’ every single day, so we know what it feels like to navigate through a poorly designed site, or feel frustrated during the checkout process.
\nHowever, this doesn’t mean CRO professionals should assume they know their customers’ pain points, or how they experience the user journey. Just as Bart explains, assumptions (and personal experience) are a good place to mine for optimization ideas – but they should never be elevated right away to a definitive conclusion.
\nInstead, CRO professionals should go straight to the source: the actual end user, the website’s audience.
\nA healthy CRO process should look something like this:
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![\"\"](\"https://proweb.p.blends.be/wp-content/uploads/user-feedback-cycle-768x180-1.png\")
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Step one is, therefore: Get to know your audience.
\nTools for user feedback & getting to know your audience
\nSurveys
\nOne great way to get to know your audience through qualitative data is a survey. Online surveys can go from simple multiple choice or yes/no answers to short or long form formats. Surveys are a good choice when you’re looking for in-depth explanations, to really let your audience express themselves and show you what’s on their mind. It may take longer to analyze and synthesize than a simple NPS or heat map (more on that below), but you’re sure to get richer, more sophisticated data.
\nUNICEF France, for example, implemented an online survey to ask their visitors what they thought of their existing website; where did they go, what did they think was missing, what did they like, etc. The digital team then used this precious feedback to inform their website redesign efforts, to help create a site that would increase conversions, i.e. donations.
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