In Home User Testing (IHUT)
From intake to destruction we own every step of your in-home trial.
Across hundreds of trials and thousands of units for some of the world’s most demanding consumer brands we’ve built an IHUT operation that turns a complex, multi-moving-part study into something that feels effortless from the client side.
That’s not a claim. That’s a track record.
How We Deliver
An IHUT has more moving parts than almost any other research methodology. Products need to arrive correctly prepared, reach the right people at the right time, be used properly throughout the trial, and return or be destroyed cleanly at the end.
Every one of those stages is a potential failure point, and every one of them is owned entirely by Zest.
We recruit the right participants, prepare and package every unit with care and precision, dispatch with full tracking and control, support testers throughout the trial, and wrap everything up cleanly when it’s done. One team. One point of contact. No gaps.
01Recruitment & Participant Management
02Product Handling & Preparation
03Collateral & Reworks
04Tailored Product Packaging
05Dispatch, Delivery & Logistics
06Fieldwork Support
07Post-Trial Wrap-Up
Recruitment & Participant Management
Great IHUTs start with the right testers, people who will actually use the product properly, follow instructions, give meaningful feedback, and stay engaged for the full duration. We recruit with that standard in mind, not just the spec.
- Targeted recruitment including niche categories
- Allergy & safety screening
- Validation calls for behaviour, articulation, and reliability
- Product ownership checking (photos, videos & experience)
- Clear briefings, reminders, and ongoing comms
- Dropout management & respondent retention
- Ongoing trial check-ins and follow-up coordination
- Management of survey hosting platforms
Product Handling & Preparation
Every unit that leaves our facility has been properly received, checked, prepared, and packed. Nothing ships until it’s right.
- Receiving bulk shipments
- Comprehensive stock checks & inventory logging
- Secure storage for excess product
- Blinding, coding, batch rotations & randomisation
- Temperature-sensitive and perishable handling
- Safety labelling (ingredients, allergens, safety protocols)
Collateral & Reworks
Sometimes products need more than just packaging before they’re ready for testers. We handle that too — so nothing holds up the trial.
- Professional printing of product collateral
- Completion of unit reworks (non-technical components)
- Accommodation of client-approved technicians for advanced reworks
Tailored Product Packaging
The wrong packaging can compromise a trial before it’s even begun. We select, prepare, and test packaging appropriate to every product and every study.
– Preparation of appropriate packaging per project
- Child-safe packaging
- Temperature-sensitive and perishable packaging
- Leak proofing and stress testing of shipping materials
Dispatch, Delivery & Logistics
Getting the right product to the right person at the right time is where too many trials fall apart. Our logistics operation is built to make sure that never happens.
- UK-wide or international courier services
- Courier selection & coordination (next day before 10am, tracked, signed-for, photo evidence, priority, 18+)
- Address verification to reduce failed deliveries
- Alternative delivery solutions (parcel shops, safe place)
- Staggered or mass dispatch scheduling
- Rapid replacements for lost or damaged items
- Delivery monitoring and troubleshooting
Fieldwork Support
Once products are in homes, the trial needs active management. We stay close to every tester, so issues get resolved before they become problems, and drop-out never becomes a crisis.
- A responsive helpdesk for all tester queries
- Troubleshooting for installation and setup
- Reminders, nudges, and task guidance
- Ongoing problem-solving before issues reach your desk
- Retention & dropout management
- Coordination of respondent follow-ups during and post trial
Post-Trial Wrap-Up
A clean close is as important as a clean start. We handle everything that happens after the last tester completes — returns, destruction, excess units, and incentives.
- Product collections
- Troubleshooting returns and non-collections
- Shipment of excess units back to client
- Certified destruction or recycling of prototypes
- Incentive management tied to participation
Zest Spotlight: In Home User Testing
Seven panels. Multiple product variants. A brief that changed repeatedly between kick-off and first dispatch. Kantar needed a fieldwork partner that could receive, blind, code and dispatch products across a complex concurrent IHUT and rebuild the timing plan every time the design shifted. Zest did exactly that, without a missed send.
Two trial waves. Three markets. One shifting production deadline. A global appliance manufacturer needed real households to put a new product through its paces, and a partner who’d catch every faulty unit and moved deadline before it became their problem. That’s exactly what they got.
Five London households. A prototype cordless vacuum trialled in real homes for two weeks. Zest recruited precisely against a demanding ownership and geography brief, ran a full day of in-home interviews, and kept the trial on track through a mid-trial technical fault, delivering a complete set of results, on time, for a leading consumer electronics brand.
52 studies in year one. 149 in year four. A fifth year already taking shape. Zest has become embedded in one of the world’s leading consumer brands’ research operations, running IHUTs, focus groups, in-home interviews and salon days across their full product portfolio. This is what a long-term fieldwork partnership looks like when it’s built on consistently doing the work properly.
