Message Metric Switches in 2015 from Private to Limited Public Beta Testing: Reasons Behind the Paradigm Shift
Ladera Ranch, CA, December 16, 2014 (Newswire.com) - In its beginnings, Message Metric conducted private beta testing for companies of varying sizes as a way of figuring out what customers want. Privatized testing is conducted in small batches with reviewers or product/service testers thoroughly –and often, quietly – scouring details and notating potential bugs or concerns. With the ever-expanding toolbox its website was only available to business owners and marketers, via private beta testing by invitation only. However, now the private beta testing requires specific contributors that are – preferably – within the target market and reliable in terms of opinion provision. Also, the opinions of a few select people may not fully represent the larger population. Message Metric sought more.
Limited public beta testing serves a completely different purpose. Message Metric is now utilizing public beta because it gets the product or service in the hands of real customers. Limited public beta testing allows the brand to find customers in demographic subsets the company may not have intuitively perceived. It also creates more mass hype for the company or brand. The primary difference between a public beta test and a product release or service launch is that if a product or offering is branded as a “beta” option, companies feel that they have more freedom to make changes based on broad feedback. The feedback is not merely a criticism that will have to await the next version or upgrade – those upgrades can be made immediately. This also allows the common person – anyone, really – to feel as though their opinions are being considered by companies. In the end, everyone is more informed.
Message Metric is moving to limited public beta testing from private beta testing because it maintains the intimacy between customer and brand while allowing the client higher exposure for services.