The Top Five Essential Benefits of Getwizer’s IHUT

Social distancing and stay-at-home mandates forced an almost complete shut down of CLTs (central location test facilities) over the past two years. This robbed many brands of the ability to conduct product usage studies, an essential tool for product development. However, in-home usage testing (IHUT) was a perfect solution as it does not require person-to-person contact or test facility visits, can be conducted quickly and cost effectively, and takes place at home where the user would normally use the product.

Growth in IHUT Usage  

With the rapid growth of at-home testing, Getwizer has incorporated IHUT into its platform giving its customers access to one of the largest and most profiled consumer databases in the US to carry out product testing. Consumers, who are part of Getwizer’s IHUT database, receive free product samples and provide detailed insights and feedback. They are also encouraged to post product reviews and social media posts, which amplifies engagement and can support sales efforts. 

This type of research is ideal when a brand needs to test there are no issues with a specific product line and how it performs against competitors. Getwizer can add the authentic voice of the customer through the use of videos and pictures, bringing a combination of qual and quant.

IHUT also adds a sensory element to the research where respondents can detail how they feel not only about the look of the product but also its touch, smell and, for the food industry, its taste.

This type of research is ideal for all industries to gain a better understanding of how people use products in their own homes both pre-launch and post-launch. Getwizer adds to the authentic voice of the customer in this research through the use of videos and pictures, bringing a combination of qual and quant.

If you are looking to test out IHUT here are the five benefits that will ensure once you use this new tool within the Getwizer platform, regardless of what Covid brings us in the future, you will never return to other methods of user testing. 

1. Testing in a Natural Environment 

Testing products in artificial environments gives artificial results. However, give consumers the opportunity to use a product within their own home and the feedback they provide will be far more realistic. This is the tried and tested concept behind IHUT, where consumers are given your product to use at home, instead of a test facility. This will elicit more genuine feedback regarding product satisfaction, usage, and potential improvement areas. The more comfortable home surroundings also allows respondents to give deeper, more detailed answers to open-ended questions, which leads to more accurate and honest feedback resulting in great insights. This feedback is instantly available in the Getwizer dashboard, giving full control and oversight of each IHUT project.

2. Easy Access to Targeted Consumers 

Trying to find consumers to take part in traditional surveys is time consuming, expensive and haphazard. In-person focus groups are limited as participants need to live near the research location in order to attend. Using IHUT means location and access to the correct target users is not a limiting factor. Getwizer’s IHUT functionality intelligently matches brands with relevant, highly engaged consumers. You decide who tests your product, by identifying who you want, when you want. You can select consumers, for example, based on demographics, geographic locations and likes and dislikes. If your target users are millennials who care deeply about sustainability and are located on the east coast, you simply set this as your criteria. This means you can seamlessly tap into the right audience, at the right time and in the right locations, with more specificity than previously available. 

3. Cost Effective and Fast

Setting up IHUT from scratch is a time consuming and costly effort. Accessing a testing audience is a key challenge as it requires recruitment and screening. You will also have to take into account that not everyone recruited will actually complete the survey, so you will need to factor in the use of additional participants. Participant completion rates with Getwizer are far higher, due to the engaged user base, so much so that you can expect near 100% participation rates. Getwizer’s IHUT is also instantly accessible, streamlined and more affordable. It not only eliminates the work involved in recruiting but also takes away the burden of sending product samples to participants. Everything is managed within the platform so you can focus on developing the insights as the research rolls in via the platform. As the process, structure and participants are already in place, it makes it possible to slash the time it takes for a successful IHUT from months and weeks to days. 

4. Allows Brands to Keep Ahead of the Market

Consumer behavior has been radically altered by the impact of Covid, and brands are under more pressure than ever to ensure their offerings still resonate. The flexibility and adaptability of IHUT makes it ideal to be tailored for a wide range of research requirements, including product reformulation, product benchmarking and product development. And its speed and efficiency allows brands to get deep, accurate consumer insights to keep ahead of the changing consumer landscape. 

5.  Offers The Power of Experts 

With smaller teams and smaller budgets a reality in a business world turned on its head by lockdowns and the various variants of Covid, having access to expertise is highly advantageous to help navigate IHUT research projects. The Getwizer team of experienced research professionals is there to help align your IHUT projects to match your unique and specific requirements.Our team is there to work closely with you to develop project timelines, create structured usage directions, set data collection parameters and any other guidance you need. Through the entire process we are there to support and help were needed to ensure you achieve optimum results. 

To summarize…

With IHUT capabilities at your fingertips on the Getwizer platform, you now have the ability to test products and harvest feedback far more cost-effectively with less time to insight than previously available. 

Give it a test run by arranging a demo here.