Why they don't buy: research with customers and non-customers
To learn why people don't buy from you, you have to ask the people who don't. A qualitative study with customers and non-customers in separate groups shows which barriers stop the purchase, when they appear and what the chosen alternative offers that your brand does not get across, told by the people who made that decision.
What does this study answer?
- When the purchase falls through: when they do not even consider the brand, when they compare it or when they are about to decide.
- Which belief about the brand weighs most, whether it is true or not.
- What the chosen alternative offers that your brand does not communicate or does not have.
- Which past experience, their own or someone close to them, pushed them away.
- What would have to change for them to consider it next time.
- What customers value that non-customers do not get to see.
Sales and churn data tell you how many left and at what stage. They do not tell you why. That explanation is exactly what a well-moderated conversation with people who chose something else provides.
Why separate customers and non-customers?
A customer defends their purchase; a non-customer defends theirs. In the same group, one side usually goes quiet or gets defensive, and the session turns into a debate between brands instead of an explanation of motives. Apart, customers say what convinced them and what disappointed them later, and non-customers explain what kept them from considering the brand, which is usually what the brand knows least.
Who counts as a customer is set by what each person states in the recruitment screener, for example the brand they use today, not by an old database. More in customers and non-customers.
What does it not answer?
It does not tell you how many non-customers hold each barrier or how much each one weighs in sales. It shows which ones appear, how people explain them and whether they repeat across groups. To size them, a later survey can measure the barriers the study found. Nor does it replace sales data analysis: it adds the why that the data cannot show.
How does WAV design it?
We start from the decision, not from a questionnaire. In the first conversation we agree on what has to be settled when the study ends, and from there we build the groups, the guide and the stimuli.
- Groups by profile. Customers and non-customers in separate groups; if the decision calls for it, also former customers or category users who never tried the brand, each profile in its own group.
- 6 to 8 people per group, sessions of 90 to 120 minutes. Enough for contrast, and enough time for everyone to speak.
- Concrete stimuli. The brand and its alternatives, ads, the website, the buying experience or the product. Each person also walks through their last purchase step by step, to locate the exact moment the brand dropped out.
- In writing first. With the nominal group technique, each person notes their reaction before hearing the others, so you know what they thought before the group had any influence.
- A 360 room in Santiago. A 360 camera records the whole room and each participant wears their own microphone. The brand can follow the session live.
The session follows a guide in blocks, each with its goal and minutes; there is an example in the focus group discussion guide template.
What do you receive?
A report that orders the barriers by stage of the purchase and says which ones repeat across groups and which appeared only once. Every finding comes with its literal quote, the profile of the person who said it (for example "Woman, 35-44 · Non-customer") and the exact minute of the session. WR3, our software, separates who is speaking with 90.4% agreement with a human review, measured on 141 moments of a real session (how we measure it), and every quote is checked word for word against the transcript, which is produced on our own computers.
The deliverables come in Spanish and English: the 360 video of each session with English subtitles, the report on the web and as a PDF, a deck for the board and an action tracker with the evidence behind each action. You can browse the format in the sample report, built from a fictional study.
Frequently asked questions
How do you find people who don't buy my brand?
We recruit them ourselves, with a recruitment screener that asks which brand they use today and which ones they considered. Only people who chose another option join the non-customer group.
How many groups do I need?
At least one of customers and one of non-customers, because they are kept apart. If the decision needs to compare more profiles, groups are added. We agree on it with you in the first conversation.
What if non-customers never considered my brand?
That is a finding in itself: the barrier sits before the comparison, in how the brand is known or perceived. The study explores what they know about it and where that idea comes from.
Why isn't a satisfaction survey enough?
Because only people who already bought answer it. The reasons of people who do not buy never show up in a customer survey.
Can I watch the session?
Yes. The brand can follow the session live, and also receives the 360 video of each session to return to any minute later.