Customer Insights

There was a time when random digit dialing was the means, and phone surveys were king. During these early days it was not unheard of for ‘market research’ to be used as an entry-point for a sales call. Selling under the guise of research, also known as sugging, has since been deemed as unethical and frowned upon by the major marketing research trade groups including CASRO, MRA and the MRS in the United Kingdom. The question of the day then becomes:

Is there a difference then between sugging and using a survey to gather information that can be used to better tailor a direct marketing appeal?

I would argue yes there is a legitimate difference, and here’s why. First, if you are reaching out to your house files, either customers or prospects that have expressed interest in your offerings and you invite them to take a survey then it is reasonable to expect that information to be used for marketing decisions. Second, you are not using the survey to make a direct sales pitch. There is a real time difference between when the data is collected and when it is appended to the customer record.

In a sugging scenario, the respondent would be approached under the pre-tense of a marketing research project, and after giving permission to continue they would subsequently be exposed to the sales pitch. This is not the case when surveys are used to append data to customer relationship management (CRM) systems, a common practice in B2B marketing.

There may be research purists out there who would disagree with me. I welcome the debate, but as a marketer who also happens to be a researcher, I see the need and legitimate application of survey data to increase one’s knowledge of their customers.