Dec 17 2015 | Loyalty Today
Lose 10 pounds (15?). Finally quit smoking. Travel to exotic far-off lands. Be less stressed. Yes, these are among the most commonly-broken New Year’s Resolutions. Hey, stuff happens. We all know this. At Inquisium we’re not here to judge. But may I suggest six resolutions you should...Read More
Nov 18 2015 | Loyalty Today
The ebbs and flows of sales in the retail world, specifically during the holidays, can keep a lot of store owners up all night. What worked once in the past might be a disaster today. This goes for both large chains, and small businesses. Recently, we’ve seen many large retailers make big...Read More
Oct 30 2015 | Loyalty Today
Tell me how you really feel.Up to 95% of customers will give you a second chance if you handle their complaint successfully and quickly, but actually getting those responses is one of the biggest challenges survey planners face. Feedback is a staple of the customer experience ...Read More
Oct 27 2015 | Loyalty Today
The modern professional journey depends heavily on engagement, both for the employee and employer. Fostering success and satisfaction often falls on senior employees, which means organizational disengagement soon becomes a question of leadership.This growing responsibility is prompting many...Read More
Oct 25 2015 | Loyalty Today
Wednesday, October 21, 2015 was “Back to the Future Day.” If you’ve not seen the movies, in “Back to the Future Part II,” Marty McFly and Doc Brown travel to this date to save his future children, who weren’t born yet in the film’s present, which was 1985...Read More
Oct 23 2015 | Loyalty Today
Ahhh Halloween. The time of year when neighborhood kids dressed in costumes come in droves, knocking on your door looking to fill their little bags with sugary sweets. All for free. BUT, don’t deliver on the promise (fun size?!, apples?, granola?!) and you’re risking getting some bad,...Read More
Oct 08 2015 | Loyalty Today
As surveys from your customers or employees begin to pour in, both good and evil reviews join forces to create a bubbling stew of untapped power. Negative feedback can blind your judgement and unearth inner demons by highlighting imperfections that demand your attention. In the dreadful age...Read More
Sep 24 2015 | Loyalty Today
The new corporate buzzword everyone has been talking about is NPS or Net Promoter Score. NPS is being hailed as the new way to measure customer satisfaction--it has proven to be one of the most accurate predictors of revenue growth. As a result, companies worldwide are adopting NPS as a simple...Read More
Sep 21 2015 | Loyalty Today
Organizations are becoming smarter. More tools are available than ever before to measure your performance and the experience for your customers and employees. But why do organizations often look to their competition to see if they are on par with the market average? Why not look inside your own...Read More
Sep 19 2015 | Loyalty Today
Have you ever received a bad sales call? Surprisingly, bad surveys are one in the same.I read an article a few weeks ago on LinkedIn, and it covered a very important topic--how to better network and make connections. The article came with a huge warning though to everyone out there trying to...Read More
Sep 07 2015 | Loyalty Today
Think about rewards programs that you are enrolled in. Best Buy? CVS? The café in your building? What attracts you to the program? It is your loyalty toward the brand or is it because of the discount or free offer you might receive? For instance, if you have a CVS reward card, does that...Read More
Sep 04 2015 | Loyalty Today
Market research is all about supporting the brand. Companies with a defined brand strategy are better suited to dealing with the vagaries of the marketplace. In a recent article by HubSpot they identified seven core practices necessary for developing and maintaining a strong brand. They include...Read More
Sep 02 2015 | Loyalty Today
If we only had a machine that allowed us to effortlessly travel back and forward in time. The concept of time is as important to marketers as it is scientists. The company that is late to the market will indeed miss the sales opportunity.This brings up the question of how do we ask survey...Read More
Aug 28 2015 | Loyalty Today
One of the lessons I learned early on as a market researcher is the need to get down into the trenches. It is absolutely necessary if you want to be able to understand the journey a prospect takes to become a customer. This is especially true for quantitative researchers who see life through...Read More
Aug 25 2015 | Loyalty Today
The agile methodology has become a de facto standard in software development, but now has found its way into the market research arena. The advantage agile brings to the table is its ability to better manage the unplanned events, such as a needed change in advertising copy due to shifting market...Read More
Aug 23 2015 | Loyalty Today
I hate to do it, but I'm going to rely on a tried-and-true metaphor to drive home the importance of setting realistic benchmarks for your survey program. Here we go.I constantly see walls of magazines in grocery stores with headlines like, “20 minutes to lose five pounds!” or...Read More
Aug 22 2015 | Loyalty Today
Being in business means more than just selling your services or goods. According to a study, being in business today means selling, monitoring, engaging, social sharing, online reviewing, reputation managing, generating, and -- most importantly -- listening. Surveying your customers regularly and...Read More
Aug 21 2015 | Loyalty Today
There are numerous ways to measure attitudes and beliefs. Many have been covered in this blog previously. One of my favorites is the semantic differential. Unlike Likert scales, which measure level of agreement, the semantic differential exposes the respondent to a series of paired statements and...Read More
Aug 19 2015 | Loyalty Today
I’m sure you read the headlines last week. In an unprecedented move, Netflix announced that employees can nowtake unlimited parental leave in the first year that a child is born. Queue the Hallelujah Chorus.This is huge. This is a game-changer and I bet the strategic move came directly...Read More
Jul 29 2015 | Loyalty Today
Testing 1,2,3Online survey platforms have enabled both B2B and consumer market researchers the ability to conduct concept tests with a greater degree of ease than found in previous generations. Gone are the days of filling auditoriums to test commercials embedded between pilot TV shows.This begs...Read More
Jul 27 2015 | Loyalty Today
You’ve heard it all before: Fill out our survey and receive a gift card. Tell us about your experience and be entered to win a free iPad. Rate our product and we’ll send you a free T-shirt. The concept is simple and widely used by organizations looking to increase their survey...Read More
Jul 13 2015 | Loyalty Today
In the previous installment we discussed the basics of assessing brand reputation by deriving it using factors important to the purchase decision and a likelihood to recommend measure, although this later component could be overall satisfaction or likelihood to continue doing business. The...Read More
Jul 12 2015 | Loyalty Today
In both consumer and B2B marketing research there comes a time when it is critical to understand what drives the choice in a consumption scenario. We have to get down into the weeds with the consumers or business decision makers and ascertain what they feel is important when it comes developing a...Read More
Jun 22 2015 | Loyalty Today
What will you do with those results? If there was ever a question to be asked, this would be it. If there is a likelihood that the results you generate will not be acted upon, then why would you conduct the survey to begin with?During my time in the market research space, I have seen many studies...Read More
Jun 20 2015 | Loyalty Today
How long is too long?This is a question being asked more frequently in market research circles. It is certainly a topic I have devoted much time to, for the simple reason that lengthy and complex surveys make it more difficult for all researchers to collect valid and reliable data. I delve deeper...Read More
May 28 2015 | Loyalty Today
As market researchers, and survey researchers in general, it is our job to ensure the instruments we create are as free of potential bias as possible. This is accomplished through diligence in survey and sample design. Yet, as hard as we try it is often difficult to avoid all forms of potential...Read More
May 27 2015 | Loyalty Today
During your hotel guests’ stay, you want to make them feel at home. After all, they chose to spend money at your property instead of staying in the comfort of their own home. Every interaction you have with a guest during their stay is a reflection on your brand. It’s how they will...Read More
May 25 2015 | Loyalty Today
If you have crafted a subject line that is compelling and mitigates any potential trust issues, then it is up to the invitation to convert them from prospect to survey respondent. Opening the invitation is the job of the subject and from lines. Getting the prospect to move forward and click on...Read More
May 22 2015 | Loyalty Today
I heard a recent episode on NPR that referred to the importance of social media for promoting “mom and pop” businesses. It has been a long held belief of mine that smaller organizations, even solo practitioners, can benefit from the analytics practices that larger organizations. After...Read More
May 20 2015 | Loyalty Today
In a previous post we examined the nature of the dichotomous question, one with two response options. This format is certainly easier for the respondent to complete. In my many years of data analysis experience I can say that as a researcher it is my preference to collect more data than less and...Read More
May 18 2015 | Loyalty Today
Increasingly, the constant sum question format is becoming one of my go to question styles. It allows the respondent to divide their “sum” across a fixed number of categories creating metric data. To clarify the “sum” portion of constant sum does not have to be 100 (as in...Read More
May 14 2015 | Loyalty Today
Let’s face it, qualified respondents who have nothing better to do than to complete our survey accurately, truthfully and in a timely fashion are a rare breed. In today’s crowded email inbox our survey invitations are competing for attention – of course that assumes they didn...Read More
Apr 22 2015 | Loyalty Today
As a trend watcher in the IT space I have noticed a consistent drumbeat over the last few years. CIOs and their interest in analytics and business intelligence has been consistent if not increasing. This makes perfect sense as companies realize they need to leverage both internal and external...Read More
Apr 21 2015 | Loyalty Today
Not all scales in market research need be of the Likert, Semantic Differential, or Constant Sum variety. They don’t have to involve Bayesian theory like the extensions of Maximum Difference Scaling do. In fact, sometimes the simplest approach truly is the best.The multiple response format...Read More
Apr 07 2015 | Loyalty Today
When we strip away the glamor, the surveys we create and administer are nothing more than data collection platforms. Novice researchers may focus on basic question types, but as we expand our skills the more astute researcher realizes there are many ways to capture data through the questions...Read More
Apr 03 2015 | Loyalty Today
As market researchers it is our task to sort the wheat from the chaff. Whether the data is from a survey or customer transactions it is our function to extrapolate meaning and educate those who can do something with it. When we dig into the details underlying our data we are often confronted with...Read More
Apr 02 2015 | Loyalty Today
There comes a time when a direct marketing piece catches your eye. I was cleaning out some files recently and came across a white paper that covered one of my favorite topics - the use of the top box as a measure for conveying scale scores. If you are not familiar the top box score is the sum of...Read More
Apr 01 2015 | Loyalty Today
It is an alchemist’s blend of art and science when it comes to qualitative marketing research. The analysis of open-ended questions found on most surveys is indeed a qualitative endeavor. At its core this is an iterative process, even with the use of text analytics tools such as OdinText...Read More
Mar 28 2015 | Loyalty Today
If you have been around survey research for any length of time you have come across the ubiquitous Likert scale. But, do you ever wonder what the Likert scale really is? This question format and its strongly agree to strongly disagree framework is a staple for in the pantry of questions we use on...Read More
Mar 27 2015 | Loyalty Today
My interest as of late as turned to surveys that support employee loyalty, however, today’s topic applies just as well to consumer or B2B market research. As a research professional I find it useful to keep my feet on the ground and participate in surveys where feasible. This keeps me...Read More
Mar 27 2015 | Loyalty Today
Data can be analyzed in numerous ways. There are a few go to methods that every researcher needs to be proficient with. The tool of choice for diving into survey data is the crosstabulation. There are fancier multivariate techniques, and those have their place, but for everyday use the crosstab...Read More
Mar 26 2015 | Loyalty Today
Following up on a previous post regarding measuring awareness and familiarity there are other questions that need to be addressed if we are to create a funnel. Why a funnel you ask? Funnels are commonly employed in brand tracking studies. This form of research requires a structured questionnaire...Read More
Mar 24 2015 | Loyalty Today
Hey there…have you heard of me?In consumer and B2B market research circles we are often asked to assess market awareness and/or familiarity with brands, products and spokespeople or causes. These two related, but separate constructs, represent the first steps on the pathway from prospect...Read More
Mar 21 2015 | Loyalty Today
When it comes to sample selection we want to ensure that our respondents are representative of or look like the population of interest. How do we make sure this is the case? A keystone method in market research is to use Census data as a point of comparison. This is especially true in consumer...Read More
Mar 20 2015 | Loyalty Today
The third and final iteration of the customer funnel story involves a topic we should be both aware of and familiar with. That is how likely is the respondent to recommend us to family, friends and colleagues? If you thought this sounded a bit like net promoter score then you are correct.There...Read More
Mar 19 2015 | Loyalty Today
You’ve set up a survey program. Good. You’ve sent out your survey. Great. You’ve received an overwhelming amount of responses. Even better. But just because your responses are overflowing doesn’t mean you’re lucky and can just start thinking about your next survey...Read More
Mar 11 2015 | Loyalty Today
There comes a time when all researchers have a bad day and craft a questionnaire that misses the mark. This can come in the form of a poorly worded question or logic that skips respondents off into the universe. To help mitigate these moments place a sticky note beside your monitor that reminds...Read More
Mar 05 2015 | Loyalty Today
On a night, seemingly just like any other, the internet spun into a frenzy of discord. The culprit was a photograph of a dress, and not just any dress—#TheDress. Some people looked at the photograph and saw white and gold; others saw blue and black. The resulting confusion and disbelief...Read More
Feb 25 2015 | Loyalty Today
Data is really having a moment right now. Not only has “big data” become a regular buzzword in business circles, data scientists are in high demand, and companies are becoming more reliant on analytics to make decisions. We're expected to know our consumer, employee, and attendee...Read More
Feb 23 2015 | Loyalty Today
Today’s focus: post event meeting planner surveysAccording to Frost and Sullivan, the estimated hotel revenue associated with meetings and events totals $103 billion. Therefore, it’s critical that hotels provide meeting planners with a flawless and memorable experience that will make...Read More
Feb 22 2015 | Loyalty Today
We’ve talked before about how important it is to understand the generational gaps in the workforce because what keeps Generation X engaged, doesn’t necessarily keep Millennials (born between 1980 and 2000) engaged. And the same thing holds true when it comes to the customer experience...Read More
Feb 18 2015 | Loyalty Today
The old school for ad testing involved bringing large numbers of people of various demographics together and showing them ads embedded in pilot television show. This was coupled with two surveys, a pre-exposure survey and a post-test assessment following the programming and ad exposure.Enter the...Read More
Jan 26 2015 | Loyalty Today
The US Census is the go to source for data which allows us to compare our sample to larger populations to ensure representativeness. The Census Bureau has created a tool in Data Ferrett which will make this process significantly easier for market researchers to employ.Any discuss of...Read More
Jan 24 2015 | Loyalty Today
There is more to life than work! Marketers in the entertainment, culinary and travel industries do their job with vigilance to remind us what the good life really is all about. Surveys are ideal for measuring the importance of lifestyle elements to our customers and prospects. In order to do this...Read More
Jan 21 2015 | Loyalty Today
Usage frequency is a critical variable to marketers. Frequent users of our products and services tend to look and feel different than lower frequency users. Understanding these differences can help guide strategy that maximizes revenue and profitability. The question at hand then becomes how do...Read More
Jan 10 2015 | Loyalty Today
As you think about everything your company has planned for the year, there are probably numerous initiatives that you’ll want to collect feedback on to help gauge their success: campaigns, events, product enhancements, employee benefits program, etc. And when you think through your feedback...Read More
Jan 08 2015 | Loyalty Today
Scales in market research share a similar purpose with those devices found in bathrooms, gyms and doctors offices. They are both designed to measure. In one case it may be our physical weight, while in the other it may be the importance of an attribute or attitude. In the context of B2B and...Read More
Dec 20 2014 | Loyalty Today
We’re in the thick of the holiday season, and everyone has a wish list. While it may not resemble a handwritten letter to the North Pole, it’s safe to assume that most people are hoping they get something on their list this season.On that note, wouldn’t it be great to know what...Read More
Dec 19 2014 | Loyalty Today
With the holidays in full swing, retail stores are experiencing their biggest rush of the year with holiday shoppers looking for the perfect gifts for their family and friends. And retailers are hoping for a major uptick in their sales. But, in order for that to happen, they need to ensure they...Read More
Dec 10 2014 | Loyalty Today
What’s the last thing you should do before you send out your survey to the masses? TEST! This is the most important step so you can double check your work to ensure everything looks and is running A-okay. After you’ve been looking at the survey for days, it’s easy for you to...Read More
Dec 08 2014 | Loyalty Today
Panels represent opinions waiting to be shared. The question of the day is whom do we want to invite to the party? If your goal for 2015 is to create, manage and leverage a survey panel then careful thought needs to be given to deciding whose opinions are worth surveying. If you are involved in...Read More
Nov 28 2014 | Loyalty Today
Just 34 days make up the commerce-laden holiday season bookended by Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. It’s a short window of time representing billions of dollars in consumer spending, weeks of time off from work, countless miles on the road and a barrage of holiday functions. And in...Read More
Nov 26 2014 | Loyalty Today
Much of the change in the market research industry revolves around moving data collection online. Tools such as Cvent are excellent at collecting survey data interactively, yet they are also capable of producing easy to read print surveys. Why in this day of the Internet would you want to print...Read More
Nov 18 2014 | Loyalty Today
Employee learning (training and development) initiatives are no small piece of the pie when it comes to organization’s budgets. According to ATD’s 2013 States of the Industry report, organizations spent $164.2 billion on employee learning in 2012. Of this, 61% was spent internally...Read More
Nov 11 2014 | Loyalty Today
The number 13 is typically an unlucky number. And in the case of employee engagement, only 13% of employees are engaged worldwide, according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report. Quite astounding to think that 87% of the workforce is not engaged with their job.What defines a...Read More
Nov 06 2014 | Loyalty Today
Filthy rooms, paint peeling from the walls, inedible food in the dirty restaurant, and an overall lack of accountability from leadership and staff. These are just a few of the wonderful surprises in store for world renowned chef Gordon Ramsay on his hit series, “Hotel Hell.” In it...Read More
Nov 01 2014 | Loyalty Today
Survey Innovation Series Part 1It used to be that paper and postcard surveys were the way to go for gathering event feedback. The challenge with this approach? Receiving attendee feedback after the fact when the excitement has worn down and specific details are faded from memory.These...Read More
Oct 30 2014 | Loyalty Today
Segmentation is the process of dividing the market into homogenous groups which can then be marketed to differentially. There are numerous bases that can be used for dividing the market everything from batteries of attitudinal questions to geographic elements such as state or sales territory. One...Read More
Oct 27 2014 | Loyalty Today
How as market researchers can we help our brethren in marketing, sales and product development assess whether or not our price in the ballpark? There are numerous ways to test price including market experiments designed to measure elasticity up through several survey-based techniques. A key...Read More
Oct 24 2014 | Loyalty Today
When we present survey data we have choices in how that data is presented. As survey analysts it is our role to present the facts in an unbiased manner which facilitates decision making. When we work with scaled questions, “e.g. How likely are you to recommend Acme, Inc.?,” we have...Read More
Oct 20 2014 | Loyalty Today
Data quality is directly related to question quality. Nowhere is this truer than with open-ended questions. Qualitative research draws deeply from the well of consumer thought. The use of unstructured questions on surveys is an attempt to elicit that depth of feeling and emotion and harness it...Read More
Oct 16 2014 | Loyalty Today
For both B2B and consumer market researchers the question that lies in the back of our minds is to what degree is our sample a reasonable measure of the population(s) we are interested in? All aspects of our projects can be spot on, but if the respondents do not form a representative sample then...Read More
Oct 09 2014 | Loyalty Today
Pete Townshend once sang about goin’ mobile. Now marketers and researchers are singing the same tune. The trend toward all things mobile continues unabated. This is one of those trends I certainly agree with, but as researchers we need to approach it with respect and understanding. It is...Read More
Sep 30 2014 | Loyalty Today
With hotel guests always on the move, it’s can be challenging to know how their stay is going. However, at some point during their stay or while they’re checking out, it’s critical to survey them. This will help you know how they enjoyed the hotel, what services they used, what...Read More
Sep 29 2014 | Loyalty Today
Alright, alright, alright,. In case you missed it, there were two advertising campaigns launched around the same time that recently garnered a lot of interest in the ad world, and they both have pretty similar themes.Gap recently went through a brand overhaul. They went with a darker, sexier...Read More
Sep 24 2014 | Loyalty Today
We seem to need an incentive nowadays before we are willing to do anything. As our lives have become busier, taking even a few minutes for a survey can be perceived as time wasted. This has led to an increasing reliance on incentives to motivate survey response. In the days of old it was common...Read More
Sep 23 2014 | Loyalty Today
Tinder, the prolific online dating app that found its way onto the phones of millions of Americans searching for romance in one form or another, has revolutionized the dating scene for better or worse. And it’s really a simple concept. The app integrates with Facebook, pulling in users...Read More
Sep 22 2014 | Loyalty Today
The cost estimates for replacing an employee vary widely depending upon the nature of the role. Regardless, it is an expensive and time-consuming task to recruit and onboard a new employee. Just as we are concerned with customer acquisition and retention the same thinking can be applied to...Read More
Sep 19 2014 | Loyalty Today
How valuable is your proposition?Value propositions are a two-way street. From the company they are a promise of value to be delivered and from the customer’s perspective they are a belief that value will be experienced. These all important statements can apply to your entire organization...Read More
Sep 17 2014 | Loyalty Today
We’ve all heard that organizations who increase customer retention rates by 5% can increase profits by as much as 95%, but did you know that a 2% increase in retention is similar to a 10% increase in costs? Or a 10% increase in customer retention levels can result in a 30% increase in the...Read More
Sep 16 2014 | Loyalty Today
Employee engagement is a hot topic these days and not in a good way. A recent study by Gallup uncovered that seven out of 10 employees have “checked out” and/or are "actively disengaged." This statistic is alarming ‒ only about 30% of your workforce is engaged? Scary...Read More
Sep 13 2014 | Loyalty Today
I was listening to the radio this morning and the show hosts were talking about a comment that was left on a comment card. If you’ve ever been to an Outback Steakhouse (locations worldwide), you know it is an Australian themed restaurant, most famous for its bloomin’ onion and other...Read More
Sep 10 2014 | Loyalty Today
Yesterday Apple – Live introduced the next line of Apple products to the world from their home base in Cupertino, California. Products that seem…a little familiar. It’s not exactly outrageous to say Apple’s innovation streak has cooled in the years since Steve Jobs...Read More
Sep 08 2014 | Loyalty Today
Last night, the NFL opened its 2014 season with a matchup pitting the defending Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks against the Green Bay Packers. Millions of viewers tuned in to get their first taste of football season. While a small contingent of fans probably watched because of an allegiance...Read More
Sep 07 2014 | Loyalty Today
The louder an audience’s voice, the better. Listening to your customers is a key to success. One audience that is particularly efficient at getting their voices heard is nerds. They’re a big audience (herd of nerds?), and are the backbone of the underground community that turns &ldquo...Read More
Aug 27 2014 | Loyalty Today
In Part 1 of this two-part blog series, we discussed the importance of recruiting the support necessary for your survey programs to succeed. The first part focused on recruiting executive buy-in and a project owner. The final type of support you need is from your survey respondents...Read More
Aug 20 2014 | Loyalty Today
One of the major advances offered by online survey platforms, such as Cvent, is the ability to incorporate multi-media. In days gone by you would have had to recruit members of your target market(s), invite them to attend an event and then expose them to the proposed ads, pilot television shows...Read More
Aug 19 2014 | Loyalty Today
Inter-generational differences between Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y are especially pronounced in the workplace. It’s not hard to see why. The sheer range of communications styles, skill sets, aspirations, and values of different employees sitting side-by-side, confined...Read More
Aug 13 2014 | Loyalty Today
We’ve all been there. Whether it’s a cable company, your phone company, an airline, etc. there’s most likely been a time where you’re put on hold for what seems like forever, then when you do reach someone you’re transferred to and from departments until you reach...Read More
Aug 08 2014 | Loyalty Today
All right team, name a popular game show in which surveys are central to its premise. Survey says… Family Feud! That’s right, the game show that dominates most of the Game Show Network’s programing has been collecting and sharing the opinions of thousands of Americans per...Read More
Aug 08 2014 | Loyalty Today
Building community is an integral component of a successful life. Such is definitely the case when considering ways to capture and leverage input from customers, prospects, donors or just about any other group of interest. Online survey platforms, at least the lower end of the market, were great...Read More
Dec 17 2015
Lose 10 pounds (15?). Finally quit smoking. Travel to exotic far-off lands. Be less stressed. Yes, these are among the most commonly-broken New Year’s Resolutions. Hey, stuff happens. We all know this. At Inquisium we’re not here to judge. But may I suggest six resolutions you should...Read More
Nov 18 2015
The ebbs and flows of sales in the retail world, specifically during the holidays, can keep a lot of store owners up all night. What worked once in the past might be a disaster today. This goes for both large chains, and small businesses. Recently, we’ve seen many large retailers make big...Read More
Oct 30 2015
Tell me how you really feel.Up to 95% of customers will give you a second chance if you handle their complaint successfully and quickly, but actually getting those responses is one of the biggest challenges survey planners face. Feedback is a staple of the customer experience ...Read More
Oct 27 2015
The modern professional journey depends heavily on engagement, both for the employee and employer. Fostering success and satisfaction often falls on senior employees, which means organizational disengagement soon becomes a question of leadership.This growing responsibility is prompting many...Read More
Oct 25 2015
Wednesday, October 21, 2015 was “Back to the Future Day.” If you’ve not seen the movies, in “Back to the Future Part II,” Marty McFly and Doc Brown travel to this date to save his future children, who weren’t born yet in the film’s present, which was 1985...Read More
Oct 23 2015
Ahhh Halloween. The time of year when neighborhood kids dressed in costumes come in droves, knocking on your door looking to fill their little bags with sugary sweets. All for free. BUT, don’t deliver on the promise (fun size?!, apples?, granola?!) and you’re risking getting some bad,...Read More
Oct 08 2015
As surveys from your customers or employees begin to pour in, both good and evil reviews join forces to create a bubbling stew of untapped power. Negative feedback can blind your judgement and unearth inner demons by highlighting imperfections that demand your attention. In the dreadful age...Read More
Sep 24 2015
The new corporate buzzword everyone has been talking about is NPS or Net Promoter Score. NPS is being hailed as the new way to measure customer satisfaction--it has proven to be one of the most accurate predictors of revenue growth. As a result, companies worldwide are adopting NPS as a simple...Read More
Sep 21 2015
Organizations are becoming smarter. More tools are available than ever before to measure your performance and the experience for your customers and employees. But why do organizations often look to their competition to see if they are on par with the market average? Why not look inside your own...Read More
Sep 19 2015
Have you ever received a bad sales call? Surprisingly, bad surveys are one in the same.I read an article a few weeks ago on LinkedIn, and it covered a very important topic--how to better network and make connections. The article came with a huge warning though to everyone out there trying to...Read More
Sep 07 2015
Think about rewards programs that you are enrolled in. Best Buy? CVS? The café in your building? What attracts you to the program? It is your loyalty toward the brand or is it because of the discount or free offer you might receive? For instance, if you have a CVS reward card, does that...Read More
Sep 04 2015
Market research is all about supporting the brand. Companies with a defined brand strategy are better suited to dealing with the vagaries of the marketplace. In a recent article by HubSpot they identified seven core practices necessary for developing and maintaining a strong brand. They include...Read More
Sep 02 2015
If we only had a machine that allowed us to effortlessly travel back and forward in time. The concept of time is as important to marketers as it is scientists. The company that is late to the market will indeed miss the sales opportunity.This brings up the question of how do we ask survey...Read More
Aug 28 2015
One of the lessons I learned early on as a market researcher is the need to get down into the trenches. It is absolutely necessary if you want to be able to understand the journey a prospect takes to become a customer. This is especially true for quantitative researchers who see life through...Read More
Aug 25 2015
The agile methodology has become a de facto standard in software development, but now has found its way into the market research arena. The advantage agile brings to the table is its ability to better manage the unplanned events, such as a needed change in advertising copy due to shifting market...Read More
Aug 23 2015
I hate to do it, but I'm going to rely on a tried-and-true metaphor to drive home the importance of setting realistic benchmarks for your survey program. Here we go.I constantly see walls of magazines in grocery stores with headlines like, “20 minutes to lose five pounds!” or...Read More
Aug 22 2015
Being in business means more than just selling your services or goods. According to a study, being in business today means selling, monitoring, engaging, social sharing, online reviewing, reputation managing, generating, and -- most importantly -- listening. Surveying your customers regularly and...Read More
Aug 21 2015
There are numerous ways to measure attitudes and beliefs. Many have been covered in this blog previously. One of my favorites is the semantic differential. Unlike Likert scales, which measure level of agreement, the semantic differential exposes the respondent to a series of paired statements and...Read More
Aug 19 2015
I’m sure you read the headlines last week. In an unprecedented move, Netflix announced that employees can nowtake unlimited parental leave in the first year that a child is born. Queue the Hallelujah Chorus.This is huge. This is a game-changer and I bet the strategic move came directly...Read More
Jul 29 2015
Testing 1,2,3Online survey platforms have enabled both B2B and consumer market researchers the ability to conduct concept tests with a greater degree of ease than found in previous generations. Gone are the days of filling auditoriums to test commercials embedded between pilot TV shows.This begs...Read More
Jul 27 2015
You’ve heard it all before: Fill out our survey and receive a gift card. Tell us about your experience and be entered to win a free iPad. Rate our product and we’ll send you a free T-shirt. The concept is simple and widely used by organizations looking to increase their survey...Read More
Jul 13 2015
In the previous installment we discussed the basics of assessing brand reputation by deriving it using factors important to the purchase decision and a likelihood to recommend measure, although this later component could be overall satisfaction or likelihood to continue doing business. The...Read More
Jul 12 2015
In both consumer and B2B marketing research there comes a time when it is critical to understand what drives the choice in a consumption scenario. We have to get down into the weeds with the consumers or business decision makers and ascertain what they feel is important when it comes developing a...Read More
Jun 22 2015
What will you do with those results? If there was ever a question to be asked, this would be it. If there is a likelihood that the results you generate will not be acted upon, then why would you conduct the survey to begin with?During my time in the market research space, I have seen many studies...Read More
Jun 20 2015
How long is too long?This is a question being asked more frequently in market research circles. It is certainly a topic I have devoted much time to, for the simple reason that lengthy and complex surveys make it more difficult for all researchers to collect valid and reliable data. I delve deeper...Read More
May 28 2015
As market researchers, and survey researchers in general, it is our job to ensure the instruments we create are as free of potential bias as possible. This is accomplished through diligence in survey and sample design. Yet, as hard as we try it is often difficult to avoid all forms of potential...Read More
May 27 2015
During your hotel guests’ stay, you want to make them feel at home. After all, they chose to spend money at your property instead of staying in the comfort of their own home. Every interaction you have with a guest during their stay is a reflection on your brand. It’s how they will...Read More
May 25 2015
If you have crafted a subject line that is compelling and mitigates any potential trust issues, then it is up to the invitation to convert them from prospect to survey respondent. Opening the invitation is the job of the subject and from lines. Getting the prospect to move forward and click on...Read More
May 22 2015
I heard a recent episode on NPR that referred to the importance of social media for promoting “mom and pop” businesses. It has been a long held belief of mine that smaller organizations, even solo practitioners, can benefit from the analytics practices that larger organizations. After...Read More
May 20 2015
In a previous post we examined the nature of the dichotomous question, one with two response options. This format is certainly easier for the respondent to complete. In my many years of data analysis experience I can say that as a researcher it is my preference to collect more data than less and...Read More
May 18 2015
Increasingly, the constant sum question format is becoming one of my go to question styles. It allows the respondent to divide their “sum” across a fixed number of categories creating metric data. To clarify the “sum” portion of constant sum does not have to be 100 (as in...Read More
May 14 2015
Let’s face it, qualified respondents who have nothing better to do than to complete our survey accurately, truthfully and in a timely fashion are a rare breed. In today’s crowded email inbox our survey invitations are competing for attention – of course that assumes they didn...Read More
Apr 22 2015
As a trend watcher in the IT space I have noticed a consistent drumbeat over the last few years. CIOs and their interest in analytics and business intelligence has been consistent if not increasing. This makes perfect sense as companies realize they need to leverage both internal and external...Read More
Apr 21 2015
Not all scales in market research need be of the Likert, Semantic Differential, or Constant Sum variety. They don’t have to involve Bayesian theory like the extensions of Maximum Difference Scaling do. In fact, sometimes the simplest approach truly is the best.The multiple response format...Read More
Apr 07 2015
When we strip away the glamor, the surveys we create and administer are nothing more than data collection platforms. Novice researchers may focus on basic question types, but as we expand our skills the more astute researcher realizes there are many ways to capture data through the questions...Read More
Apr 03 2015
As market researchers it is our task to sort the wheat from the chaff. Whether the data is from a survey or customer transactions it is our function to extrapolate meaning and educate those who can do something with it. When we dig into the details underlying our data we are often confronted with...Read More
Apr 02 2015
There comes a time when a direct marketing piece catches your eye. I was cleaning out some files recently and came across a white paper that covered one of my favorite topics - the use of the top box as a measure for conveying scale scores. If you are not familiar the top box score is the sum of...Read More
Apr 01 2015
It is an alchemist’s blend of art and science when it comes to qualitative marketing research. The analysis of open-ended questions found on most surveys is indeed a qualitative endeavor. At its core this is an iterative process, even with the use of text analytics tools such as OdinText...Read More
Mar 28 2015
If you have been around survey research for any length of time you have come across the ubiquitous Likert scale. But, do you ever wonder what the Likert scale really is? This question format and its strongly agree to strongly disagree framework is a staple for in the pantry of questions we use on...Read More
Mar 27 2015
My interest as of late as turned to surveys that support employee loyalty, however, today’s topic applies just as well to consumer or B2B market research. As a research professional I find it useful to keep my feet on the ground and participate in surveys where feasible. This keeps me...Read More
Mar 27 2015
Data can be analyzed in numerous ways. There are a few go to methods that every researcher needs to be proficient with. The tool of choice for diving into survey data is the crosstabulation. There are fancier multivariate techniques, and those have their place, but for everyday use the crosstab...Read More
Mar 26 2015
Following up on a previous post regarding measuring awareness and familiarity there are other questions that need to be addressed if we are to create a funnel. Why a funnel you ask? Funnels are commonly employed in brand tracking studies. This form of research requires a structured questionnaire...Read More
Mar 24 2015
Hey there…have you heard of me?In consumer and B2B market research circles we are often asked to assess market awareness and/or familiarity with brands, products and spokespeople or causes. These two related, but separate constructs, represent the first steps on the pathway from prospect...Read More
Mar 21 2015
When it comes to sample selection we want to ensure that our respondents are representative of or look like the population of interest. How do we make sure this is the case? A keystone method in market research is to use Census data as a point of comparison. This is especially true in consumer...Read More
Mar 20 2015
The third and final iteration of the customer funnel story involves a topic we should be both aware of and familiar with. That is how likely is the respondent to recommend us to family, friends and colleagues? If you thought this sounded a bit like net promoter score then you are correct.There...Read More
Mar 19 2015
You’ve set up a survey program. Good. You’ve sent out your survey. Great. You’ve received an overwhelming amount of responses. Even better. But just because your responses are overflowing doesn’t mean you’re lucky and can just start thinking about your next survey...Read More
Mar 11 2015
There comes a time when all researchers have a bad day and craft a questionnaire that misses the mark. This can come in the form of a poorly worded question or logic that skips respondents off into the universe. To help mitigate these moments place a sticky note beside your monitor that reminds...Read More
Mar 05 2015
On a night, seemingly just like any other, the internet spun into a frenzy of discord. The culprit was a photograph of a dress, and not just any dress—#TheDress. Some people looked at the photograph and saw white and gold; others saw blue and black. The resulting confusion and disbelief...Read More
Feb 25 2015
Data is really having a moment right now. Not only has “big data” become a regular buzzword in business circles, data scientists are in high demand, and companies are becoming more reliant on analytics to make decisions. We're expected to know our consumer, employee, and attendee...Read More
Feb 23 2015
Today’s focus: post event meeting planner surveysAccording to Frost and Sullivan, the estimated hotel revenue associated with meetings and events totals $103 billion. Therefore, it’s critical that hotels provide meeting planners with a flawless and memorable experience that will make...Read More
Feb 22 2015
We’ve talked before about how important it is to understand the generational gaps in the workforce because what keeps Generation X engaged, doesn’t necessarily keep Millennials (born between 1980 and 2000) engaged. And the same thing holds true when it comes to the customer experience...Read More
Feb 18 2015
The old school for ad testing involved bringing large numbers of people of various demographics together and showing them ads embedded in pilot television show. This was coupled with two surveys, a pre-exposure survey and a post-test assessment following the programming and ad exposure.Enter the...Read More
Jan 26 2015
The US Census is the go to source for data which allows us to compare our sample to larger populations to ensure representativeness. The Census Bureau has created a tool in Data Ferrett which will make this process significantly easier for market researchers to employ.Any discuss of...Read More
Jan 24 2015
There is more to life than work! Marketers in the entertainment, culinary and travel industries do their job with vigilance to remind us what the good life really is all about. Surveys are ideal for measuring the importance of lifestyle elements to our customers and prospects. In order to do this...Read More
Jan 21 2015
Usage frequency is a critical variable to marketers. Frequent users of our products and services tend to look and feel different than lower frequency users. Understanding these differences can help guide strategy that maximizes revenue and profitability. The question at hand then becomes how do...Read More
Jan 10 2015
As you think about everything your company has planned for the year, there are probably numerous initiatives that you’ll want to collect feedback on to help gauge their success: campaigns, events, product enhancements, employee benefits program, etc. And when you think through your feedback...Read More
Jan 08 2015
Scales in market research share a similar purpose with those devices found in bathrooms, gyms and doctors offices. They are both designed to measure. In one case it may be our physical weight, while in the other it may be the importance of an attribute or attitude. In the context of B2B and...Read More
Dec 20 2014
We’re in the thick of the holiday season, and everyone has a wish list. While it may not resemble a handwritten letter to the North Pole, it’s safe to assume that most people are hoping they get something on their list this season.On that note, wouldn’t it be great to know what...Read More
Dec 19 2014
With the holidays in full swing, retail stores are experiencing their biggest rush of the year with holiday shoppers looking for the perfect gifts for their family and friends. And retailers are hoping for a major uptick in their sales. But, in order for that to happen, they need to ensure they...Read More
Dec 10 2014
What’s the last thing you should do before you send out your survey to the masses? TEST! This is the most important step so you can double check your work to ensure everything looks and is running A-okay. After you’ve been looking at the survey for days, it’s easy for you to...Read More
Dec 08 2014
Panels represent opinions waiting to be shared. The question of the day is whom do we want to invite to the party? If your goal for 2015 is to create, manage and leverage a survey panel then careful thought needs to be given to deciding whose opinions are worth surveying. If you are involved in...Read More
Nov 28 2014
Just 34 days make up the commerce-laden holiday season bookended by Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. It’s a short window of time representing billions of dollars in consumer spending, weeks of time off from work, countless miles on the road and a barrage of holiday functions. And in...Read More
Nov 26 2014
Much of the change in the market research industry revolves around moving data collection online. Tools such as Cvent are excellent at collecting survey data interactively, yet they are also capable of producing easy to read print surveys. Why in this day of the Internet would you want to print...Read More
Nov 18 2014
Employee learning (training and development) initiatives are no small piece of the pie when it comes to organization’s budgets. According to ATD’s 2013 States of the Industry report, organizations spent $164.2 billion on employee learning in 2012. Of this, 61% was spent internally...Read More
Nov 11 2014
The number 13 is typically an unlucky number. And in the case of employee engagement, only 13% of employees are engaged worldwide, according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report. Quite astounding to think that 87% of the workforce is not engaged with their job.What defines a...Read More
Nov 06 2014
Filthy rooms, paint peeling from the walls, inedible food in the dirty restaurant, and an overall lack of accountability from leadership and staff. These are just a few of the wonderful surprises in store for world renowned chef Gordon Ramsay on his hit series, “Hotel Hell.” In it...Read More
Nov 01 2014
Survey Innovation Series Part 1It used to be that paper and postcard surveys were the way to go for gathering event feedback. The challenge with this approach? Receiving attendee feedback after the fact when the excitement has worn down and specific details are faded from memory.These...Read More
Oct 30 2014
Segmentation is the process of dividing the market into homogenous groups which can then be marketed to differentially. There are numerous bases that can be used for dividing the market everything from batteries of attitudinal questions to geographic elements such as state or sales territory. One...Read More
Oct 27 2014
How as market researchers can we help our brethren in marketing, sales and product development assess whether or not our price in the ballpark? There are numerous ways to test price including market experiments designed to measure elasticity up through several survey-based techniques. A key...Read More
Oct 24 2014
When we present survey data we have choices in how that data is presented. As survey analysts it is our role to present the facts in an unbiased manner which facilitates decision making. When we work with scaled questions, “e.g. How likely are you to recommend Acme, Inc.?,” we have...Read More
Oct 20 2014
Data quality is directly related to question quality. Nowhere is this truer than with open-ended questions. Qualitative research draws deeply from the well of consumer thought. The use of unstructured questions on surveys is an attempt to elicit that depth of feeling and emotion and harness it...Read More
Oct 16 2014
For both B2B and consumer market researchers the question that lies in the back of our minds is to what degree is our sample a reasonable measure of the population(s) we are interested in? All aspects of our projects can be spot on, but if the respondents do not form a representative sample then...Read More
Oct 09 2014
Pete Townshend once sang about goin’ mobile. Now marketers and researchers are singing the same tune. The trend toward all things mobile continues unabated. This is one of those trends I certainly agree with, but as researchers we need to approach it with respect and understanding. It is...Read More
Sep 30 2014
With hotel guests always on the move, it’s can be challenging to know how their stay is going. However, at some point during their stay or while they’re checking out, it’s critical to survey them. This will help you know how they enjoyed the hotel, what services they used, what...Read More
Sep 29 2014
Alright, alright, alright,. In case you missed it, there were two advertising campaigns launched around the same time that recently garnered a lot of interest in the ad world, and they both have pretty similar themes.Gap recently went through a brand overhaul. They went with a darker, sexier...Read More
Sep 24 2014
We seem to need an incentive nowadays before we are willing to do anything. As our lives have become busier, taking even a few minutes for a survey can be perceived as time wasted. This has led to an increasing reliance on incentives to motivate survey response. In the days of old it was common...Read More
Sep 23 2014
Tinder, the prolific online dating app that found its way onto the phones of millions of Americans searching for romance in one form or another, has revolutionized the dating scene for better or worse. And it’s really a simple concept. The app integrates with Facebook, pulling in users...Read More
Sep 22 2014
The cost estimates for replacing an employee vary widely depending upon the nature of the role. Regardless, it is an expensive and time-consuming task to recruit and onboard a new employee. Just as we are concerned with customer acquisition and retention the same thinking can be applied to...Read More
Sep 19 2014
How valuable is your proposition?Value propositions are a two-way street. From the company they are a promise of value to be delivered and from the customer’s perspective they are a belief that value will be experienced. These all important statements can apply to your entire organization...Read More
Sep 17 2014
We’ve all heard that organizations who increase customer retention rates by 5% can increase profits by as much as 95%, but did you know that a 2% increase in retention is similar to a 10% increase in costs? Or a 10% increase in customer retention levels can result in a 30% increase in the...Read More
Sep 16 2014
Employee engagement is a hot topic these days and not in a good way. A recent study by Gallup uncovered that seven out of 10 employees have “checked out” and/or are "actively disengaged." This statistic is alarming ‒ only about 30% of your workforce is engaged? Scary...Read More
Sep 13 2014
I was listening to the radio this morning and the show hosts were talking about a comment that was left on a comment card. If you’ve ever been to an Outback Steakhouse (locations worldwide), you know it is an Australian themed restaurant, most famous for its bloomin’ onion and other...Read More
Sep 10 2014
Yesterday Apple – Live introduced the next line of Apple products to the world from their home base in Cupertino, California. Products that seem…a little familiar. It’s not exactly outrageous to say Apple’s innovation streak has cooled in the years since Steve Jobs...Read More
Sep 08 2014
Last night, the NFL opened its 2014 season with a matchup pitting the defending Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks against the Green Bay Packers. Millions of viewers tuned in to get their first taste of football season. While a small contingent of fans probably watched because of an allegiance...Read More
Sep 07 2014
The louder an audience’s voice, the better. Listening to your customers is a key to success. One audience that is particularly efficient at getting their voices heard is nerds. They’re a big audience (herd of nerds?), and are the backbone of the underground community that turns &ldquo...Read More
Aug 27 2014
In Part 1 of this two-part blog series, we discussed the importance of recruiting the support necessary for your survey programs to succeed. The first part focused on recruiting executive buy-in and a project owner. The final type of support you need is from your survey respondents...Read More
Aug 20 2014
One of the major advances offered by online survey platforms, such as Cvent, is the ability to incorporate multi-media. In days gone by you would have had to recruit members of your target market(s), invite them to attend an event and then expose them to the proposed ads, pilot television shows...Read More
Aug 19 2014
Inter-generational differences between Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y are especially pronounced in the workplace. It’s not hard to see why. The sheer range of communications styles, skill sets, aspirations, and values of different employees sitting side-by-side, confined...Read More
Aug 13 2014
We’ve all been there. Whether it’s a cable company, your phone company, an airline, etc. there’s most likely been a time where you’re put on hold for what seems like forever, then when you do reach someone you’re transferred to and from departments until you reach...Read More
Aug 08 2014
All right team, name a popular game show in which surveys are central to its premise. Survey says… Family Feud! That’s right, the game show that dominates most of the Game Show Network’s programing has been collecting and sharing the opinions of thousands of Americans per...Read More
Aug 08 2014
Building community is an integral component of a successful life. Such is definitely the case when considering ways to capture and leverage input from customers, prospects, donors or just about any other group of interest. Online survey platforms, at least the lower end of the market, were great...Read More