Dealing with customer service representatives, particularly those stationed on phones in call centers, can be a frustrating experience. I always picture an episode of the television show Friends, where Phoebe takes a job as a call center operator selling toner. She's given a huge binder of scripts...read more

Money can't buy happiness, or so we've been told. Michael Norton calls the bluff in this TED Talk saying if you believe this, you're spending wrong. If you don't have time right now to watch this video, I'll give you the secret to buying happiness: Be Prosocial. Spend the money on someone else. It...read more

The workplace can seem like such a serious place, and sometimes it should be. Research from fall 2011 that was conducted for Accountemps found that nearly 60 percent of chief financial officers thought that having a sense of humor helped an employee fit in with the companies' culture. That's right,...read more

Is customer satisfaction strictly a function of the product or service the consumer purchased? The short answer is no. Is it solely dependent upon the context of the purchase situation? Again, no. From the depth of customer satisfaction research we can glean that customer satisfaction is a...read more

It is that time of year where the major annual project for my employer is about to be released to the masses. This annual study focuses on skills, training, and certification in the IT space, although this year questions were included for non-technical professionals. It is decidely a B2B marketing...read more

As a marketer I am always curious about the impact of marketing activities and purchase behavior. In short, I wonder if our activities cause people to purchase our products and services. The notion of causality goes back some time in the area of social, economic and business research. Our colleagues...read more

January is an excellent time to step back and review your talent pool for the coming year. Each year employees leave their current position for a new one. There are many reasons for this, with salary being amongst them. A recent projection by Phil Reeves, who conducts salary studies on behalf of the...read more

While searching for this week's TedTalk inspiration, this title jumped out at me: Let's Simplify Legal Jargon! I agree 100%. Let's just speak in plain English that's understood by everyone, not just those with law degrees. During this talk, Alan Siegel discusses how difficult it is to understand...read more

Questions, like people can go bad. When they do, the quality of your data will suffer significantly. What do I mean by questions gone bad? There are three primary areas, according to Professor Joseph Hair, et. al. in the book Essentials of Marketing Research. They are:   Unanswerable questions...read more

There is a bit of mad scientist in all researchers, even those of us whose primary tool is a survey. To that point, let’s chat about a common element of the scientific process known as the hypothesis. Unknowingly, we incorporate hypothesis testing in our daily lives, e.g. if I wear this new cologne,...read more