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

Creating reports from your online survey platform can be both a blessing and a curse. There are numerous pre-designed report options available which can easily shave hours of time off a project. Reports follow several themes including: Answer Summaries and Details – individual frequency counts for...read more

Marketing as we know it is comprised of two primary functions – customer acquisition and customer retention. Much of the effort skews toward acquisition and its numerous strategies for lead generation, nurturing and eventual hand-off of qualified leads to sales. The volume of companies selling CRM...read more

The key to success in market research is to ask the right questions. This sounds easy, however in reality it is not. There are numerous examples where projects have gone wrong because we sought answers to the wrong questions. In full disclosure this has happened to me on more than one occasion in my...read more

The end of 2012 is quickly approaching, so it’s time to think about your New Year’s resolutions! Increasing operational efficiency is the number one 2013 priority among decisions makers, followed most closely by improving customer satisfaction, according to a recent study by Customer Management IQ. ...read more

When we ask for customer feedback on a survey our focus is almost entirely on a specific product or service in question. Quite often it involves measuring customer satisfaction, brand awareness or some other variable directly impacting the 4Ps. However there seems to be a trend toward concluding...read more

As market researchers, we are frequently asked to assess the opinions of our constituents. In the process of questionnaire creation, this can take the place of asking one group directly about their sentiment, but there are other options. It is equally common to ask one group about their perceptions...read more

As someone involved in B2B market research, I am often asked by my internal and external clients a very simple question “Why do customers buy from us?” As simple as this question may seem it is not always the easiest to answer. Most clients, especially those in the C-Suite, expect this to be...read more

Can the responses to a single item on a questionnaire really provide the detail needed to create and execute effective marketing programs? Can we really understand the drivers of customer satisfaction, brand awareness, profitability or customer retention by focusing on a sole measure? As researchers...read more

When we have passed through survey data collection phase and have moved onto survey data analysis the questions really begin to pop up. I have had the pleasure of completing several projects recently both in the consumer and B2B market research and have spent a great deal of time writing. I believe...read more