Timely Response is Critical

In the voice of the customer world it is our role as market researchers to listen and follow through on what the customers are saying. Quite often this puts us in the position of ‘middle men’ between the customers and internal groups (e.g. sales, marketing, finance, customer service, etc.)...read more

Do We Agree?

Ok so just what is a Likert scale anyway? If you have been in market research, or any form of survey research, for any length of time you have no doubt come across the ubiquitous Likert scale and its strongly agree to strongly disagree framework. In the years I have been involved in constructing...read more

Getting Back to the Trenches: Getting too Far Removed from the Customer Experience

Some days as a B2B market researcher, and in my previous lives in consumer research, I find myself becoming more intimate with SPSS files and questionnaires than with our customers. Ah, you might say, such is the life of a quant junkie. Well that may be true, as I do love working with the data that...read more

Know Thy Competition!

The number of true monopolies in the global economy is not that large. What this means to the rest of us is that we have to compete to sell our products and services. Competition can come from both global competitors and those homegrown in your back yard.To grow in a soft economy companies must be...read more

Customer Satisfaction + Importance

Customer satisfaction measurement can be best described as part art, part science, and part intuition. Regardless of how you view it there are several moving parts to this equation. Satisfaction, as a measure itself, is part of a larger equation centered on profitability. When designing a...read more

Where the Wild Things Are

Seldom is there a customer experience that doesn’t have an underlying emotional dimension. Harnessing this fact is an issue that Big Data has yet to fully resolve. However, for decades those in the consumer behavior camp have understood this. The emotional component to a decision or experience is...read more

A new twist on the one percent concept

There is another side to the ‘one percent’ debate. This presented itself in fine fashion recently thanks to two emails from LinkedIn. In the past year the business networking site surpassed 200 million profiles. In 2012, I received an initial email stating that I was one of the first one percent of...read more

Time is an Element Worth Considering

Measuring customer loyalty and satisfaction is a primary task for both consumer and B2B market research professionals. Today’s question is a matter of time as in a snapshot (one period in time) or a trend (measurements over a period of time.) Should satisfaction, awareness or other measures be...read more

Fast Follow Up Matters (Best in Class Secret is Instant Alerts)

Think about your own experiences, when you are unhappy with a product or service and tell the company, what do you expect to happen? If you're thinking, "Nothing. Companies don't listen to customer feedback" I wouldn't blame you. But I hope you're more like me: I expect a response. But not a generic...read more

The Power of Segmenting the Market by Usage

In a recent post, I covered segmentation basics and briefly examined the debate around which variables are best used for the project. The point to remember is that marketing organizations can often benefit from multiple segmentations depending upon the end user (e.g. direct marketing, sales,...read more
The Rise of the Smart Phone: Are you Leverging Mobile? 10 Tips for Mobile-Friendly Survey Creation