by May 22, 2013
In the voice of the customer world it is our role as market
researchers to listen and follow through on what the customers are
saying. Quite often this puts us in the position of ‘middle men’
between the customers and internal groups (e.g. sales, marketing,
finance, customer service, etc.)...read more
by April 25, 2013
A study recently conducted by the CMO Council and SAS brought up an
interesting question…Who owns the customer? The overall thrust of
the study was to highlight the gaps and opportunities for CMOs to
partner with their colleague in arms the CIO. In this day of ever
increasing data it is critical for...read more
by April 9, 2013
Collecting feedback from employees and asking the right questions
can be difficult. And, let's be honest, sometimes it's downright
awkward! But it's critical if you want to improve employee
satisfaction, loyalty and retention. Couple those goals with the
fact that employee engagement is the next...read more
by February 26, 2013
There is another side to the ‘one percent’ debate. This presented
itself in fine fashion recently thanks to two emails from LinkedIn.
In the past year the business networking site surpassed 200 million
profiles. In 2012, I received an initial email stating that I was
one of the first one percent of...read more
by February 22, 2013
There is a new C-level position taking shape. According to work
published in the Harvard Business Review blog the next generation
of C-level executive is likely to be the Chief Customer Officer
(CCO). This is a good thing for those of us in marketing research
and consumer insight positions as it...read more
by February 21, 2013
The season of Valentine’s brings out the best in some and the worst
in others. Many of us find ourselves reminiscing about first dates
and whether or not the date led to a meaningful relationship. The
same romantic wonderings can be applied to the customer – company
relationship. When cast in this...read more
by February 15, 2013
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
by February 1, 2013
One the primary purposes of marketing research (both for consumer
and B2B market research) is to mitigate risk. Often I am asked what
I do for a living and invariably my response is I quantify
executives gut feelings. This is exactly where market research as a
function needs to be. When we bring our...read more
by January 25, 2013
Well the good news is that I am back on the podium instructing
another session of Market Research 101. Teaching brings many joys
for me, one in particular is that it challenges me to go back over
my practices and check to see if they are indeed ‘best practices.’
In a recent class session we began a...read more
by January 24, 2013
When it comes to predictions everyone has their own crystal ball.
Consumer and B2B market researchers are no different. In fact we
are often asked to divine the future more frequently than other
colleagues because of our closer connection to customer insight. I
recently came across an article in...read more
