If you’re tempted to skip the beta stage of product development, we have one word for you: don’t. Beta units play an important role in ensuring products are ready to market and avoiding any unpleasant surprises that can both damage your bottom line and your reputation.
Manufacturing testing takes time, but the importance of beta testing makes that investment worth it. The beta testing phase is a crucial part of the product development process.
Let’s look at some of the major benefits of product beta testing.
Risk Reduction
Beta testing is where many manufacturers catch and correct system or design flaws that might not be revealed in a controlled environment. While a prototype is important, testing in real-world scenarios can significantly reduce costly errors.
When errors emerge in full-scale production, it’s much more expensive to revise than in the beta testing phase. Beta testing is extra insurance against problematic issues that can hurt your profitability. Skipping that step is an avoidable risk.
Product Validation
When developing a product, there are two things to keep in mind: technical functionality and market demand. If one or both of these doesn’t pan out, your product won’t be a success.
Make sure you have a viable product by ensuring it meets the needs and expectations of end-users. Ask some basic questions and build upon that. What are the needs and wants of your potential customers? What is missing in the current options on the market? How can your product improve upon these current options? Can it be a unique solution not previously available?
Once you’ve established the market demand, you need to refine your product until it functions optimally. Beta testing gives you needed feedback to adjust product design, if needed, to improve user experience and satisfaction.
Customer Engagement
With the give-and-take aspect of beta testing, you can build a better relationship with your customers. When you request customer feedback, you engage interested customers. This can start to build that much-sought-after customer loyalty.
By engaging customers early in the process, you establish a base of potential advocates and early adopters. This is called “creating a buzz,” and you can do it through beta testing.
Quality Assurance
Testing, feedback and refinement – those are the hallmarks of beta testing. All of these can help you enhance the quality of your final product significantly. The process of bringing a product to market is a multi-step one. Each and every change you make along the journey toward marketability will make your product much better.
Continuous improvement should be the goal here, and with beta testing, you get honest, objective feedback that helps you move forward. There is always a bit of product risk involved in launching a new product. Beta testing helps you take a stronger product to market and can give you an edge over the competition.
Cost Savings
While beta testing is one more step in a long process, it is actually an efficient one. Post-launch product fixes, recalls and poor reviews are costly. When you invest in beta testing, you’re making a strategic decision to combat poor product performance, lackluster reactions and reputation damage.
Need a Partner for Beta Testing?
If you need a partner for the beta testing step in product development, Keller Technology can be your expert manufacturing partner.
As a contract manufacturer, experienced in product development, Keller can provide beta units that allow you to reduce risk, improve product quality and enhance customer satisfaction.
To give you the best chance at a successful product launch, reach out to Keller. We understand the benefits of beta testing, and our team of engineers can help you with the production of quality prototypes.
Talk to Keller today about assistance with the beta testing phase.