True or false: Your personalization quiz delivers a relevant product recommendation that solves your customers’ unique needs and expectations.
The truth is, designing a quiz that generates the perfect recommendation for your customers is tricky. But it’s critical for your business to get it right. According to McKinsey’s Next in Personalization Report, “companies that excel at personalization generate 40% more revenue from those activities than average players.”
So, ask too few questions, and the recommended results feel generic, and the customer doesn’t convert. On the other hand, ask too many wrong questions, and your customers will drop off and find a similar product from one of your competitors.
The good news is that mindfully designing and tailoring your quizzes to better understand the customer on the other side of the screen is a doable, if easy, fix.
Your Quiz is Part of Your Brand — Design it Accordingly.
Your brand has developed a personality from your product detail page to your social media feed. Your quiz should feel the same way whether you embody a more casual tone or a sophisticated and sensitive tone.
Too often, a brand’s rich character doesn’t make it into the quiz’s copy or style. And that can be a jarring transition for your customers.
Rather than offer a dry question-and-answer session, thoughtfully and empathetically inject your brand’s voice. Insert pauses as you would in a conversation, grouping questions into topics and not bombarding them with too many at once.
Give your quiz character and make it feel like there’s a human on the other side by:
- Asking for the customer’s name and speaking to them directly. Asking for the customer’s name and using it in the quiz UI is easily the most simple personalization tactic. If you can use the customer’s name in other touch points like the physical product, in-box ephemera, or a signed-in member experience, even better. It will make the customer feel seen and confident that you’re listening to produce the best recommendation at the end.
- Summarizing what they’ve told you as they progress. Repeating what the customer has said assures them you understand what they are telling you and builds their confidence that you will present the best solution in the end. Plus, it gives the customer a chance to go back and change any answers if necessary.
- Informing them about why you’re asking particular questions. You know your product and recommended routines inside and out and how your customer’s answers may affect their final recommendation. But to your customers, specific questions may feel irrelevant or, opposite, pique their interest. Explaining why you’re asking these questions gives you more credibility and further builds trust with your customer.
- Guiding customers by introducing topic transitions that lead to natural groupings of questions. Have you ever met someone who jumps from topic to topic, and you get whiplash trying to keep up? Don’t do that to your customers. Give them a logical roadmap to follow as they progress through your quiz.
When designing Gainful’s quiz, we included a friendly, informative “Why We Ask This” link under certain questions, allowing customers to understand why the question is relevant to the personalized product.
Giving the customer context about how this question will impact their recommendations builds confidence in the quiz and the final output. Knowing why also slows the user down when they understand that each question has ramifications and is not merely a filler.
Give Customers a Truly Personalized Experience By Creating Distinctive Paths
Part of the pull of taking a personalized quiz is getting a customized recommendation that makes customers feel seen and heard. But, if you’re going to deliver that experience, you have to diversify the paths each customer’s answers could lead them down.
In other words? Don’t provide the same path to every user.
Each answer should impact the recommended product and routine when the customer hits ‘Submit.’ Therefore, you must consider how the quiz changes based on each answer.
To achieve a truly customized quiz path:
- Tailor follow-up questions to the previous answers. If your product is a skincare line, you’ll want to know how much time they spend in the sun. If they tell you it’s a lot, you may want to understand if it’s for work or if they’re a weekend marathon runner. The difference could mean a completely different recommendation.
- Ask relevant clarifying questions. If your product is a hair care line, you’ll want to know if the customer’s hair is naturally curly. If so, you may need to know their curl type to offer the right product or routine.
- Show a final review of answers and allow the user to make changes. Allow your users to go back and see what they answered. Maybe they weren’t sure about a specific question or forgot something. One false answer could have misdirected the rest of the quiz’s trajectory.
The key to getting each pathway just right is dialing in on the details. First, think about specific answers that could affect the customer’s outcome. Then, ensure you are asking all the right questions in the correct order, at the right time.
Learn How Your Product Fits Into Your Customer’s Lifestyle
It’s not enough to understand the user’s goals with your product. You also need to know how your product fits into the user’s lifestyle.
After all, you could miss critical needs by not understanding how your product fits into a broader ecosystem of products and personal preferences.
Whether your product is a clean makeup line or all about sun protection, make sure you find out:
- What other products do they use?
- Have they tried products or routines that have or haven’t worked?
- How often do they use similar products?
- When do they expect to use your product?
- Do they have allergies or have specific dietary restrictions?
Getting a holistic picture of your customer can give you the data you need to provide them with the just-right solution that solves their needs. And, if they’re confused about why you’re asking, remember to explain why the question is relevant.
When designing Atolla’s quiz, we needed to gather specific information about the customer’s lifestyle to formulate a genuinely personalized serum.
For example, we asked questions about the number of sleep hours per night, alcohol usage, and what products made up their current routine. Each question was an essential input in determining how to formulate the customer’s unique serum. (Function of Beauty has since acquired Atolla.)
Help Customers Understand the Why Behind the Product Recommendation
After answering detailed quiz questions, it’s exciting to get to the results and see how the recommended product aligns with your needs.
But the recommended products may be less impactful if the customer is left scratching their head over why the recommendations are suitable for their needs. Or they see more upsells than actual quality recommendations.
Reinforce how the product directly ties to the customer’s answers and how it will solve their needs.
You said you have naturally curly, thick hair and live in Florida. Because of the nature of your hair and where you live, we recommend _______________ because it’s known for taming unruly locks in the heat and humidity of summer.
This final pitch is your last chance to make an impression on your customer — don’t leave anything in doubt.
Empower Customers to Make Their Own Product Decisions
It’s only natural: Customers are curious and crave the power to choose. So when you give a customer a tailored recommendation, know that they’ll also want to know what products you didn’t recommend.
So show them. And explain why certain products were excluded based on their answers; it will further emphasize why their recommended product is the right one.
Lastly, make sure pathways to other available products are clear. Allow customers to easily select items that caught their eye but maybe weren’t part of their recommendations. Empowerment through choice will only boost your conversion rate.
A better user experience — and increased conversion rate — is only a personalized quiz away. And the best part is, you don’t even have to study for it.