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

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 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

Building on a previous entry about exceeding market expectations, this post will look at a particular type of survey, the planning survey. If you are in B2B market research you are likely familiar with the requests of internal clients who need to budget and schedule for the coming year. The timing...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

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

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

If you believe the pundits then the slew of bad economic news points back to a recession. Regardless of your thoughts on whether or not we will limp along or fall back, we must take the time to rethink our approach to how we market our products and services. This is the case for B2B marketers as...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