Operation "secret buyer" in 50 leading web studios Runet
Hi, Megamind! Sergey Martynov, with the support of Ruward, conducted a comprehensive study of the customer focus of leading Runet web studios . The study was conducted in the classic format of "secret customer" among the 50 largest companies specializing in custom web development services in Russia.
The study consisted in the interaction with the studios under study using the “secret customer” method, primarily using a telephone. For each studio, we looked at the phone number on its website (as a rule, the phone was placed on the main page or on the contact page).
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Telephone calls were carried out by specially trained employees who “got used” to the role of customers. They telephoned studios independently, in random order, at different hours (only during working hours), on different days of the week. To reduce the variability of the results in each studio called at least three times. In cases where a studio employee offered to communicate by correspondence, the interaction was also carried out via e-mail.
For the study, two developed “legends” were created, corresponding to a small service company that needs a corporate website, and a large trading company wishing to order the development of an online store. In the course of communication, “secret buyers” were also interested in advertising and / or SEO promotion of the developed site. We decided not to publish the full details of the legends in order to exclude the influence on the results of possible future studies.
For full emulation of real conditions, separate email addresses were registered, as well as Moscow telephone numbers from which calls were made. Incoming calls to these numbers were also recorded - in the event that the judge called back on her own initiative (looking ahead, it can be noted that there were not many of them).
In most cases, the phone was picked up pretty quickly. It should be noted that many companies have a voice greeting, and we measured the time before the beginning of the recorded response. This seems to be close to the impressions of a real client, because at the moment he already understands that he has phoned to the right place.
A very important factor when choosing a contractor is the first impression of a conversation with a living person. And here we found examples of both very successful and very unsuccessful communication formats.
Since separate numbers were purchased for the study, the callers openly called this number. In addition, we believe that most studios use the services of IP-telephony, allowing you to track and record the numbers of callers. Therefore, the studios had the opportunity to call back and ask how the client is doing.
The analysis of prices and terms is not included in the primary objectives of this study, but since the information on indicative prices and terms was collected, we decided to give a little attention to this issue, which is undoubtedly important in the choice of artist.
First of all, we looked at the comparison of prices for development (using the example of a more complex project - an online store). The graph shows the voiced prices in ascending order.
As we see, our research reaffirms the popular idea that prices in the web development market differ by more than 100 times. With the same introductory, preliminary estimates of the cost range from 50 thousand to 3.5 million rubles (we think the reader will easily guess which studio voiced this maximum figure).
It is interesting to note the characteristic "shelf" at the level of 1.5 million - apparently, this is the industry standard "de facto" for evaluating more or less complex projects.
The next step we looked at the correlation of price and estimated development time. There is an opinion that with a fixed quality (and since we took top studios, this implies a decent quality level) price and terms are inversely proportional. Our observations do not confirm this.
On the contrary, the terms of development, voiced by the studios, are directly proportional to the price, which they also called. Since we are talking about the same requirements for the project, apparently, this difference arises due to different approaches to the assessment.
You can get acquainted with the full version of the study on the project page on Ruvard .
About the technique
The study consisted in the interaction with the studios under study using the “secret customer” method, primarily using a telephone. For each studio, we looked at the phone number on its website (as a rule, the phone was placed on the main page or on the contact page).
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Telephone calls were carried out by specially trained employees who “got used” to the role of customers. They telephoned studios independently, in random order, at different hours (only during working hours), on different days of the week. To reduce the variability of the results in each studio called at least three times. In cases where a studio employee offered to communicate by correspondence, the interaction was also carried out via e-mail.
For the study, two developed “legends” were created, corresponding to a small service company that needs a corporate website, and a large trading company wishing to order the development of an online store. In the course of communication, “secret buyers” were also interested in advertising and / or SEO promotion of the developed site. We decided not to publish the full details of the legends in order to exclude the influence on the results of possible future studies.
For full emulation of real conditions, separate email addresses were registered, as well as Moscow telephone numbers from which calls were made. Incoming calls to these numbers were also recorded - in the event that the judge called back on her own initiative (looking ahead, it can be noted that there were not many of them).
Some results on measured parameters
Time to answer
In most cases, the phone was picked up pretty quickly. It should be noted that many companies have a voice greeting, and we measured the time before the beginning of the recorded response. This seems to be close to the impressions of a real client, because at the moment he already understands that he has phoned to the right place.
Qualitative response rating
A very important factor when choosing a contractor is the first impression of a conversation with a living person. And here we found examples of both very successful and very unsuccessful communication formats.
Repeated call
Since separate numbers were purchased for the study, the callers openly called this number. In addition, we believe that most studios use the services of IP-telephony, allowing you to track and record the numbers of callers. Therefore, the studios had the opportunity to call back and ask how the client is doing.
Data on prices and terms
The analysis of prices and terms is not included in the primary objectives of this study, but since the information on indicative prices and terms was collected, we decided to give a little attention to this issue, which is undoubtedly important in the choice of artist.
First of all, we looked at the comparison of prices for development (using the example of a more complex project - an online store). The graph shows the voiced prices in ascending order.
As we see, our research reaffirms the popular idea that prices in the web development market differ by more than 100 times. With the same introductory, preliminary estimates of the cost range from 50 thousand to 3.5 million rubles (we think the reader will easily guess which studio voiced this maximum figure).
It is interesting to note the characteristic "shelf" at the level of 1.5 million - apparently, this is the industry standard "de facto" for evaluating more or less complex projects.
The next step we looked at the correlation of price and estimated development time. There is an opinion that with a fixed quality (and since we took top studios, this implies a decent quality level) price and terms are inversely proportional. Our observations do not confirm this.
On the contrary, the terms of development, voiced by the studios, are directly proportional to the price, which they also called. Since we are talking about the same requirements for the project, apparently, this difference arises due to different approaches to the assessment.
You can get acquainted with the full version of the study on the project page on Ruvard .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/293742/
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