When is task completion the ultimate online survey metric?

(Originally posted at community.4qsurvey.com)

This post is a mini-addendum to last week's 5 reasons post.

Online survey users often ask us to identify when task completion is the most appropriate measure of success for their diverse visitor segments. Is it most appropriate for buyers? Browsers? The truth is that task completion is always a very powerful measure of success, no matter what task a website visitor is seeking to accomplish, but the stats prove that it is an especially powerful predictor of loyalty for first time visitors with very focused patterns of intent.

When we studied the impact of task completion on visitor loyalty, the coefficient of determination rose as visit frequency decreased and tasks got more and more focused. The reasons underpinning this are pretty simple. By virtue of their familiarity with site navigation and overall usability, repeat visitors might have an easier time accomplishing tasks than newbies. At the same time, because they've been their before, they might be slightly more tolerant of visit hurdles than newbies. For newbies, conversely, the reality is different: a lousy first site experience will be an unpardonable offense more often than not.

Visit frequency is the first layer of the progression. The second layer is specificity of task. We've done the math and it shows that task completion explains a very significant proportion of the variation in loyalty scores among visitors seeking to complete very specific tasks. This makes intuitive sense. Imagine a person who visits a website to complete a very specific task--say, to purchase a Dell Inspiron Mini. For that individual, the success of the visit will hinge on whether or not they are able to complete their very focused mission. The answer to that question will weigh heavily in their loyalty calculus. When the task is less focused or specific, however, its importance in the loyalty calculus decreases somewhat. If you've clicked over to Huffington Post and your intent is to browse today's headlines and you're not really looking for any content in specific, the notion of completing a pre-set task doesn't enter as impact-fully into calculations of visit success.

So, when you're looking for that perfect online survey metric, keep your visitor intent segments in mind. Task completion is a powerful metric in all cases, but it's an especially cogent metric for your focused newbies.