Survey research can be used to assess the attitudes and opinions of virtually any group or sub-group. Most of my work has been in the areas of consumer and B2B market research, but from time to time my focus has shifted toward surveying employees. This makes perfect sense as our employees are the...read more

When is two not better than one? In survey design two is certainly not better than one. In this case it refers to the use of double-barreled questions. Those with little research training often do not realize they are combining two distinct elements into one question. The best practice is to...read more

On occasion a survey comes my way that illustrates, either with excellence or lack of vision, good online survey design. The illustration below comes from a customer satisfaction survey provided by a regional grocery store to their online community. The table speaks to one dimension of the...read more

Gretchen Rubin, author of the bestselling book The Happiness Project, recently sat down with OPEN Forum contributor Barry Moltz to talk about her experience learning to make her own happiness. While Rubin's book explores many methods of achieving personal happiness, her findings can also be applied...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

I recently came across a post that was too good not to share. The Service Witch, aka Kimberly Nasief, posted an excellent post on the good, bad and the ugly of customer satisfaction surveys. Let’s face it; everyone uses some form of CSat survey in their process. Are they all timely, well-designed...read more

The Internet has made it easier to create and distribute surveys of all types: employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, new products, media, etc. The power and flexibility inherent in online survey tools, such as Cvent, has given researchers access to an unparalleled data collection and...read more

Marketing and branding are no longer exclusively about massive media buys, marketing campaigns and logo standards. In these days of Google Places, Twitter, Facebook and other social media, your brand has also become a synergy of customer and employee voices. The more successful and the larger...read more

There’s a great sense of satisfaction when survey responses are in and tabulated, and you can start analyzing the survey results. Standard reports and secure web pages help you crunch the data and send out real-time reports. As you cross-tabulate results to really delve into what they mean, keep in...read more

When you’re measuring customer retention, there is no problem more profound than the wheel that didn't squeak.  After all, when it comes to applying scarce resources to customer service problems, a wheel that doesn’t squeak surely does not need attention. At least not until it falls off the wagon.A...read more