the bouqs co.

User Research: Survey Analysis & Design

Understanding the background, motivations, and needs of our current subscribers, to inform & prioritize new marketing, product, and membership features.

TL;DR

The Bouqs Co. is a leading online flower delivery service that offers fresh flower subscriptions as part of its business model. As part of our ongoing commitment to improving customer acquisition and lifetime value (LTV), we sought to gain a deeper understanding of the motivations and needs of our subscribers through a 12 question survey, sent to a representative selection of subscribers.

Methedology

Who

To address the challenge, the survey was designed and distributed to a representative sample of 3 different cohorts of our flower subscribers.

Loyal Subscribers: 24+ orders (165 responses)

Average Subscibers: Joined 2-6 months ago (231 responses)

New Subscribers: Joined in the past 2 weeks (306 responses)

What

We divided all 3 surveys into sections: Background, Motivations, and Needs. Each consisted of a series of open-ended and closed-ended questions to collect both qualitative and quantitative data.

In order to compare responses, we gave much of the same questions to all 3 cohorts, but deviated a bit in the motivation section of the survey. For our average and newest subscribers, who may not have had much interaction with the service yet), our focus was rooted in reasons for sign up (acquisition). For our loyal subs, we focused on benefits of the subscription (LTV).

Challenge

We wanted to improve the overall experience for our potential and current flower subscribers by better understanding our customer base.

This included:

Gaining insights into subscriber demographics and psychographics.

Understanding the motivations behind choosing a flower subscription, and staying with one.

Identifying pain points or areas for improvement.

Finding solutions & prioritizing new marketing strategies, product enhancements, and membership features based on customer needs.

Takeaways

Background: Recipient is the basis for potential and current subscriber decision-making, and informed overall motivation and needs, which in turn, will inform our personalization efforts.

Motivations: The majority of subscribers in all 3 cohorts cited our fresh, long-lasting bouquets as the biggest benefit of a Bouqs subscription. Digging deeper into this motivation allowed us to focus on messaging and service enhancements.

Needs and Pain Points: Subscribers expressed a desire for more better/more varied bouquets options and had confusion with subscription management; specifically how to change their bouquets per delivery. This feedback helped drive product enhancements and membership benefits.

Jump to Takeaways & Solutions

Survey

Background

Background questions allowed us to segment our subscriber base effectively. Here, recipient became one of the most important responses, which helped us come to robust conclusions about our current subscribers.

Jump to Segmentation Analysis

Motivations

Motivation questions lent us a deeper understanding of the emotional and practical drivers behind customer engagement. Analysis of motivation, when segmented by recipient, created an even deeper understanding of what drove new subscribers to sign up, and what allowed loyal subs to stay with the program long-term.

Jump to Motivation Analysis

We used Likert scale questions to asses feature and brand satisfaction. By mapping these questions back to feedback on features/benefits, we could also assess if qualitative and quantitative feedback were aligned.

New/Average

Loyal

Needs

By continually assessing and fulfilling subscribers' needs, we can foster long-term customer loyalty. Satisfied subscribers are also more likely to become advocates and refer others to the service.

Question worded differently for New/Average & Loyal subscribers.

Jump to Needs Analysis

New/Average

Loyal

Follow Up

It was important for us to make respondents feel valued, as well incentive them to take the survey.

Analysis

The survey received responses from over 700 subscribers, providing a rich dataset. The data analysis involved quantitative analysis of closed-ended questions and thematic analysis of open-ended responses.

Background

Analysis on how our current subscribers identify, and how they choose to use their subscription provided valuable insights into the diverse customer segments within our subscriber base.

Key Observations and Implications:

Demographics: Females make up the vast majority of total subscribers.

Recipient Categories: Gift givers, mixed givers & self givers

The majority of average subs fall into the mixed giver category: sometimes buying for themselves and sometimes someone else, which is different from Loyal and New subs, who tend to gift to one special recipient most often.

Key Insight:

Although the 3 different cohorts had similar motivations, we determined that recipient was the basis for subscriber decision-making. Thus, segmenting responses by recipient gave us a deeper understanding of those motivations, allowing us to personalize even further and create/update product features for each recipient segment.

From here, analysis will be further broken down by recipient category.

Totals

Gender by Cohort by Recipient

Takeaways & Questions

  • Men mainly send to one special person - how do we lean into this?

  • Women make up the entire self giver category - how do we lean into the idea of “treating yourself” “something to look forward to”?

  • Average subscribers (~2 months) send mixed most often - how do we lean into retention efforts around this time?

Motivations

Understanding reasons for subscribing and getting feedback on features/benefits and overall satisfaction was important in creating targeted marketing campaigns and maintaining a competitive edge in the subscription flower delivery market.

What are three of your favorite features about The Bouqs subscription? (Top 5)

New

  • Arrangement Variety & Originality

  • Flexibility

  • Cost/Value

  • Flower Quality

  • Convenience

Average

  • Arrangement Variety & Originality

  • Flexibility

  • Flower Quality

  • Cost/Value

  • Convenience

Loyal

  • Arrangement Variety & Originality

  • Flower Quality

  • Convenience

  • Cost/Value

  • Flexibility

Takeaways & Questions

  • All: Attributes of the product itself, like variety, originality and quality were the biggest benefits to all subscribers - how do we leverage these benefits in acquisition and retention efforts?

  • New: Cost/value was more important to this cohort (vs. average and loyal), and plays a bigger role in acquisition, as it's the one of the top reasons to subscribe in the first place.

  • Loyal: Flexibility isn’t as important as it is for average or new - Why? Do they take it for granted?
    We also have a feature to "set it and forget it, where we choose what bouqs get sent - Are loyal subscribers not as engaged with the subscription as newer subs?

  • We know that subs who are more engaged have a higher LTV - Does valuing flexibility mean that users are more engaged? And if so how do we continue to leverage this value for loyal subs?

New Subscribers

Think back to when you joined the Bouqs subscription, what was the reason you subscribed?

There is very little difference in responses between average and new subs. When broken down by recipient, the answers were obvious; where gift and mixed givers focused on "recipient experience", self givers focused on "something to look forward to".

Key Insight

  • How do we continue to leverage reasons for signup in retention efforts, as they seem to align with overall favorite features?

Needs

Needs-related questions helped us gain insights into subscriber expectations, pain points, and desires. This information was invaluable for making improvements to our service and retaining customers long-term.

Question worded differently for New/Average & Loyal subscribers.

New/Average

Loyal

Takeaways

  • Subscription Management: Although "nothing" was noted most for all cohorts, digging deeper, we understood that needs centered around subscription management.

    Upon further research (CX tickets, user recordings), we realized that our subscription dashboard is a high-value area for improvement.

  • Subscription Management: Although "nothing" was noted most for all cohorts, digging deeper, we understood that needs centered around subscription management.

    Upon further research (CX tickets, user recordings), we realized that our subscription dashboard is a high-value area for improvement.

Loyal Subscribers

How interested would you be in gifting a subscription to someone where they could manage their own deliveries?

Since we know males are predominately gift givers, the breakdown by identity allows us to understand subscription management on a deeper level, where male gift givers are more inclined to keep their deliveries a surprise at their chosen frequency.  

Key Insight

  • More people find the prospect of gifting a sub at least somewhat interesting – if we gave customers the ability to gift a sub with management capabilities what would engagement over time improve?

Takeaways & Solutions

1

Personalization & Tailored Offerings

By understanding the recipient's identity and relationship to the subscriber, we can segment our subscriber base effectively, and tailor our marketing messages and product offerings accordingly.

We know that the majority of our subscribers are gift givers, so leaning into personalized landing pages for Gift Givers and Self Givers can work to funnel potential subscribers based on their first motivation for subscribing.

Competitive analysis from companies like Trade Coffee and Barkbox also shows that many subscription services lean into this tactic.

2

Service Enhancements

Our subscribers are our best customers, yet we don't treat them like our best customers because they can't choose their first bouquet.

Insight:

Attributes of the product itself, like variety, originality and quality were the biggest benefits of a Bouqs subscription. This also aligned with new customers as the biggest reasons to sign up.

Solution:‍

MVP to allow customers to choose their first bouquet. A/B test and watch for drop-off on payment.

3

Service Enhancements

We see more average orders per subscriber when that subscriber is engaged with the dashboard, yet despite most subs wanting to select their own bouq for every delivery, total dashboard engagement is low (15% of total subs).‍

Insight:

50% of loyal subscribers are at least somewhat interested in gifting the subscription to a recipient who manages their own deliveries.

Proposed Solution (wip):‍‍

A way to transfer ownership/management to the recipient (the more engaged user).

4

Product Optimizations

Based on the needs subscribers noted, our subscription management process is a high value area for improvement. The ability to change the bouquet per delivery is what makes our service standout from the competition, but users were having a hard time figuring out how to do just that.

Proposed Solution (wip):‍‍

With further analysis from user testing, we've already begun the process of updating our dashboard with quick win solutions.

User flows coming soon...

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