Customer experience (CX) is becoming more important every day. Brands are looking beyond their products and developing new ways to enrich the customer journey and stand out in their industries. Search intelligence can help with that work because search data offers valuable insight into what customers need and want.
This article covers Heather Physioc's Digitalzone23 presentation, 'Improving Search for CX with the 'Jobs to Be Done' Framework'. Physioc, Chief Discoverability Officer at VMLY&R, explains how analyzing search data through the "Jobs to Be Done" method can help brands attract customers through searches their competitors may overlook and achieve more efficient results.
The rest of the article covers four topics:
- What is 'Jobs to Be Done' and Why is it Important for Customer Experience?
- How Search Helps Uncover 'Jobs To Be Done'
- Real Brand Examples of the 'To-Do' Method
- Integrating the To-Do Method into Search Strategy
What is 'Jobs to Be Done' and Why is it Important for Customer Experience?
'Jobs To Be Done' starts with a simple idea: customers 'hire' products and services to perform a specific job. Someone might buy a power drill, for example, because they need to hang shelves. From this perspective, understanding the job a person needs to complete, along with the products and tools involved, can be more useful for customer experience than focusing only on demographic and psychological trends.
As marketers, we need to understand the deeper goal our offering fulfills instead of simply presenting product features. The question is less about who the customer is and more about why they would make the purchase. Defining these functional, social and emotional 'jobs' requires a closer look at customer motivations throughout the journey. With 'Jobs to Do', you can identify needs that customers may not yet recognize and respond with relevant solutions. The aim is not limited to driving transactions. It is also about creating experiences that serve the broader needs of our audience.
How Search Helps Uncover 'Jobs To Be Done's
Search data provides a useful route into 'Jobs To Be Done' thinking for three key reasons:
- Queries reveal intentions and needs.
- It captures problems that arise at touchpoints.
- It reveals gaps where things are not being met.
How-to and question-based searches often point to a task someone wants to complete. Queries such as "How to remove wallpaper?" and "What's the best way to hang shelves?" reveal a clear underlying goal. In her presentation, Heather describes recent work with a paint brand that involved categorizing all search data into basic "need states". This process uncovered key jobs that paint helps customers complete, including 'getting inspiration, comparing products and learning the right application techniques'. Each job gives the brand an opportunity to serve users more effectively.
Questions Reveal Problems and Knowledge Gaps
Search questions can also reveal pain points and areas of confusion. For example, while mapping thousands of queries to relevant search intent for a flu vaccine customer, the team found that almost a third of flu vaccine recipients had concerns such as "Can you get sick from the flu vaccine?, Does it contain mercury?, How long does it take for side effects to disappear?". These queries highlighted people's doubts about vaccines and safety. By addressing those questions directly, brands can guide searchers toward the right information and products.
Identifying Missed Opportunities by Uncovering Gaps
The competitive landscape offers another way to expand 'Jobs To Be Done' analysis through search data. Where are other players failing to meet user needs fully, and which tasks are we better equipped to address? A detailed review of product searches for a diaper brand, for example, found that a chemical smell was driving many parents away from competitors. The brand conducting the research received positive feedback for being fragrance-free, so the analysis turned that quality into an effective selling point to highlight.
Real Brand Examples of the 'Jobs To Be Done' Method:
Now that we have established the basic idea behind the jobs to be done method, let's look at how several brands have applied it:
- Arm & Hammer has expanded its marketing beyond baking soda by showing the many cleaning, deodorizing, and personal care jobs the product can tackle.
- A European campaign for Baileys used search data showing that baking "failures" are common and positioned the creamy liqueur as an ideal ingredient for rescuing failed bakery products. You can click here to watch the Baileys saves failed bakery products advertisement.
Source, YouTube
- For a client that provides mobile health platforms to hospitals, the team broke down the jobs that different healthcare audiences needed to complete. The first group consisted of scientists and researchers trying to keep abreast of the latest science and innovations in the field. The second included healthcare professionals, patients and their relatives trying to understand the disease more broadly. The third included searches from patients who wanted to compare treatment options, consider costs and address side effects. Each category represents a very different job, so the brand needs to respond to each one differently.
Integrating the Job To Be Done Method into the Search Strategy
Here are several ways to integrate To-Dos into your search strategy:
- Start by categorizing a subset of existing keywords according to possible goals and objectives. Look for patterns that can inform persona groups or content topics.
- Survey or interview customers to validate the work you create and learn more about their biggest needs.
- Brainstorm experiential solutions that address key jobs fully instead of repeating product features. An omnichannel approach often works best.
- Prioritize low-competitive businesses where competitors fall short but you can better support the desired outcomes.
Experience is the Future
Search intelligence holds considerable untapped potential. When it is analyzed with a method such as 'Jobs To Be Done', it can inform transformative customer experience strategies. At this point, ask yourself: 'What are the tasks can you help your customers to do?' and 'How can you create content, products and touchpoints to make your customers' lives easier?'. Customer experience always offers new ways to uncover and meet people's needs.
I hope the examples and tips in this blog post inspire you to connect search insights with customer experience growth opportunities. Click here to watch Heather Physioc's full presentation at Digitalzone23!
