What is statistical significance anyway? The core of our survey data analysis should be directed toward generating consumer insights that are both meaningful and actionable. In order to achieve this joint goal we have to keep our eye on significance, both statistical and managerial.Previously we...read more

Should we step to the right or step to the left? There are times when questionnaire design seems a bit like a dance step. Every researcher during his or her career has asked themselves if they should start a series of scaled questions with the high number (or most positive response) closest to the...read more

A recent study Chadwick Martin Bailey on branch banking raises some interesting thoughts on how to maximize bank customer satisfaction. As those of us who have had more than a few years under our market research belts can attest customers will say they value one thing yet their behavior indicates...read more

Incentives are common place in the market research industry. This is true for consumer and B2B marketing research. Often we, as survey providers, offer tokens of our appreciation ranging from branded items to gift cards (can we say Starbucks, please!) to charitable donations. Yet, incentives are not...read more

I had the pleasure of recently sitting in on a webinar hosted by the AMA and presented by Keith Chrzan, the Chief Research Officer at Maritz Research. Keith took a deep dive into the sometimes murky realm of customer satisfaction measurement. Improving customer satisfaction is a critical path to...read more

The backlash that Netflix suffered when executives decided to increase prices without giving their customers advance notice, let them know how important customer satisfaction is, even to the nation's largest and most popular businesses. To show that he was not only listening to what his customers...read more

Presenting our findings, be it from a bank customer satisfaction study or an employee assessment, brings a sense of closure for most researchers. There are few things worse than to have your work side-lined. With this in mind, if our presentation is the big opportunity for closure then what needs to...read more

Your survey invitation is the key to action. In a previous post I spoke about pre-notifications as part of the communication stream. In this post, I would like to emphasize the invitation as being your primary call to action. If your target group is an existing panel, or members of your customer...read more

In a previous post, entrepreneurs and marketers agreed that startups could benefit from surveying present and potential customers. The next logical question is:  What is the best way to go about conducting these surveys? Again, entrepreneurs and marketers graciously shared their insights via email...read more

Most recently, I have had to deal with banking and travel corporations for personal and business reasons.  In both cases, I was informed I might have wait times on the phone that were abnormally long. And, in both cases, I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome.  Since customer wait times...read more