Methods of getting information from customers

Many business managers think they know what their customers think and want. This feeling is derived from their gut feel which often times is contrary to what is obtainable in the market place. Businesses can not survive and excel  if they don’t meet the needs of their customers. Thats a fact of life.  In order to be relevant and competitive in the modern day market place businesses need to continually look for information which gives them direction with regards to the ever changing consumer needs.

The advent of modern technology brought about a different type of consumer who is sophisticated with many choices at his disposal. This scenario poses a great challenge to any business, as concerted effort is required  to keep in touch with such a hyperactive consumer’s general behavior.

Many companies frown at the mention of information gathering as they think market research budget is a sheer waste of resources. There are several ways companies can use to gather information without spending so much money. Important information about your customers can be gathered from the following sources:

Employees

Your employees interface with your customer on a daily basis. Ask them about products and services that customers are asking for. Also ask them about what the customers complain about. Is it service related or product related. This information will provide a vital platform on which you can start re-engineering your service/product offering.

Customers – Comment Cards

Provide brief, half-page comment cards on which your customers can answer basic questions such as: Were you satisfied with our services? How can we improve on our service offering? Are there any services you would like to see which we are not offering at the moment? Make the comment card very SIMPLE in order to get more responses from customers. You can have maximum 10 questions on the score card, the response should be close-end with the comment are left open in order to solicit qualitative feedback

Analyze internal Records

You can mine data in your sales records to see what customers are buying most across your business. This will provide you with monthly, weekly or bi-monthly trend analysis. With this information you will be able to see where your customers are spending most of their money.

Telephone Surveys

Hire summer students or part-time people for a few days every six months to do telephone surveys with your customers. This provides you with an opportunity to get information about your business from your customers. This information will help you in mitigating service short falls before they become catastrophic.

So there you are. Before you think about spending top dollar in conducting market research, you can start by collecting information internally before engaging an external research agency. It is however, important to note that the above information gathering methods DO NOT SUBSTITUTE an independent survey which can be commission with an external market research agency. It is advisable to do a robust market survey every six months in order to keep abreast with market trends and consumer behaviour.

To your success!!!!

Market research as a black box

Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy. Market Research is not an isolated discipline – like science or biology. It is a scientific process that marketers use to understand the market place. Market research helps marketers and business leaders to understand their customers, competitors, market dynamics, and other factors that positively or negative affect the business.

Market research information is like any other information; however, market research findings on their own do not really do anything to make a difference. It is the people who use the information who make the information useable. Given this scenario, this clearly shows that market research is a shot in the arm for people who need insights that can help them make decisions that will improve their business. Research provides the roadmap for any business strategy development. It is the voice of the consumer in the board room.

The above description gives a general picture about market research practice. In order to get a full appreciation of this you need to look at market research as a Black Box. Research is about asking questions and getting answers. Questions are your input into the black box. Once you ask a question, you will definitely get an answer. The answer you get is a direct function of the question you ask and your approach in finding the answer. This scenario gives the interviewer a challenge to ensure he/she gets useful answers that will be able to address the marketing problem.

The Question

The questioning should be guided by an understanding of how the information will be used. For instance a company may be planning to expand a product line in order to consolidate their portfolio or maybe they may be planning to launch a completely new product in the market. With adequate background information, a researcher will be guided accordingly during interpretation of the data. There are various questions usually asked in any market research survey. These include questions on general awareness, usage, frequency of purchase, usage and pricing. Depending on the complexity of the survey, other questions may be added to the survey to ensure all important information areas are covered. This is the most important part of any survey as it provides the researcher the opportunity to dig and delve deeper into the target respondent’s psyche and get answers to his marketing problems.

What’s Inside the Black Box?

Experienced marketers don’t rely on the black box to give them the desired answers. They get involved with the mechanics of the Black Box, so that they can get the best out of the whole system – i.e. from question to answer. This involvement helps them to formulate better questions which will help them get valuable output. When the questioning is precise and directed, the data derived from the black box will be decoded in order to come up with useful insights which will help in the transformation of the business.

It is important to note that there are four distinct steps within the Black Box of Market Research:

• Planning and set up

• Implementation

• Field Work

• Analysis

The above steps represent the process of market research from inception to delivery of the research output. Each step has distinct processes which need to be followed religiously in order to get the desired output. Each step is interdependent on the other.

Watch out for my next post ‘ Basics of getting information from customers’.

To your Success!!!!

How to design an effective Research questionnaire

Designing a survey instrument commonly known as questionnaire is a process which needs a lot of attention to detail. A questionnaire is a medium of communication between the researcher and the respondent, which is administered on the researcher’s behalf by an interviewer.

In the questionnaire, the researcher defines the questions to which he or she wants to know the answers and, through the questionnaire, the respondents’ answers are conveyed back to the researcher. The questionnaire therefore, can be described as the medium of conversation between two people, which in this case is the researcher and therespondent.

A structured interview is one in which each subject or respondent is asked a series of questions according to a prepared and fixed interviewing schedule – the questionnaire.

In all cases the role of the questionnaire is to provide a standardized interview across all respondents. This is so that all respondents are asked the questions that are appropriate to them, and so that, when those questions are asked, they are always asked in exactly the same manner to maintain uniformity.

Having defined what a questionnaire is and its resultant role in the survey process. We can now safely look at the key issues that need to be addressed before a questionnaire can be designed. It is important that you understand the reason why the survey is being commissioned in the first place. You need to understand the research and business objectives of the survey, and how the data for the survey is going to be collected.

Once you understand the definition of the research universe, the data collection medium and the survey design, the questions can now be drafted. It is important to follow these steps in planning:

©     Define the principal information that is required.

©     Determine what else is required for analysis purposes.

©     Map the flow of the subject areas or sub-sections within the questionnaire.

Defining the information required

It should be clear from the research objectives and the business objectives what information areas the questionnaire needs to cover. This is the principal information such as product and brand awareness and usage, behavioral patterns, attitudes, satisfaction with service, response to concept or test product, etc. The level of detail to which it is required should also be apparent from the research and business Objectives.

Other information required

It may not always be obvious from the research objectives what additional information is required for analysis purposes. This may include demographic or classification data, but could be far broader than that. In an attitudinal study, for example, it could include brand and product usage and brand loyalty so that attitudes can be cross analyzed by products used and weight of usage. It is important to know how the data are to be analysed at the initiation stage. If the appropriate data are not collected, the analysis cannot be carried out.

Sequencing of the questionnaire sections

The questionnaire can be properly planned once the main objectives and analysis information requirements have been decided. It is most commonly divided into three sections:

Exclusion

A common, although not universal, practice is to exclude respondents from research surveys who work     in market research, marketing or the client’s industry.

Screening questions

Following the exclusion question, the next part of the questionnaire will be to screen the respondents for eligibility for the survey, depending on whether or not they belong to the research population.

Main questionnaire

As a rule, it is better to work from the most general topics through to the most specific. Thus, the interview might start with questions about the respondent’s behaviour in the market in general, before proceeding through to specific questions about the client’s product and then to reaction to a new proposition for the client’s product.

There are two reasons for this. First, if the questions regarding the specific product or brand of interest were asked first, then the respondents would be aware of the question writer’s interest and this would bias their answers to the more general market questions that come later.

I will complete this article in my next post. Please feel free to make contributions in the form of comments or questions.

To your success!!!

What does your employees think about your business?

Employees are an integral part of an organization. They are the life blood of a company; its fortunes are entirely dependent upon their input. For any organization to excel, its employees must be motivated and feel appreciated for their contribution in the company.

There is a school of thought which says when employees feel appreciated, they tend to work harder and become loyal to the company. When your staff are happy, they will also transfer their appreciative mood when they are serving your customers. So it’s a win-win situation and the business will benefit immensely through repeat business from happy customers/clients who will continue to patronize its services/products.

Often times management decides on what they think will make their staff happy without consulting them. Some companies have employee of the month appreciation programs while others give different incentives to excelling employee as a sign of acknowledgement.

However, market research has found a disconnect between the type of appreciation employees want and what their managers think they want. A recent market research survey conducted by the International Association of Administrative Professionals found out that Managers ranked promotions and cash bonuses as the two most effective ways of recognizing employee accomplishments. On the contrary employees said they preferred an in-person thank-you or having a job well done reported to senior management.

In other words, though a decent bonus will always be a highly coveted form of recognition, employers often underestimate the degree to which workers value kind words delivered face to face. This sounds like an inexpensive way of showing appreciation to your staff, but the important aspect of this is thanking your employees regularly.

According to a survey in employee motivation spearheaded by Dr. Kenneth Kovach at George Mason University, the second biggest motivator for employees is recognition. Number one is interesting work- which requires an investment in staff training.

Having an open door policy where you discuss with your staff when they are doing well and when they need to up their game, provides a conducive channel through which various issues affecting the employee on a personal or business level will be discussed. Doing this will help them accept criticism better, when they are at fault as long as the feedback is specific.

What are the causes of employee dissatisfaction?

According to a survey conducted in 2008, by Probe Market research in Zimbabwe, found some key issues that cause employee disengagement. Some key nuggets are highlighted below:

• “My efforts are not valued. No-one tells me how I’m doing.”
• “I am criticized for mistakes, but never praised for doing a good job.”
• “I’m not making progress (learning anything) here.”
• “I never know what the rules are. They seem to change all the time.”
• “There’s no challenge any more.”
• “The boss is mean about little things but does not recognize my extra effort.”
• “ I’m not paid enough for what I do.”

It seems obvious, looking at this list, that all these things are easily remedied, and above all they come pretty much free of charge.

“How do you find out what your staff think?

The best form of getting information on what your staff thinks about your business is to do an independent Employee satisfaction survey. This is the best way to collect unbiased views. Professional market research agencies will advise on the best way of conducting this kind of survey. In my next post I will look at critical market research areas where organizations can leverage to get the best out of their employees.

Step by Step Guide to setting up a Survey

One of the best ways to clarify your study goals is to decide how you intend to use the information. Do this before you begin designing the study. This sounds obvious, but many researchers neglect this task.

Rule 1: Follow your Study Objectives

Always write down your survey objectives. You can always refer to your study objectives whenever you are unsure of a question. Ask only questions that directly address the study objectives. Avoid the temptation to ask questions because it would be “interesting to know”. These questions are not necessary.

Rule: 2 Include questions that address your survey objectives only

As a general rule, with only a few exceptions, long questionnaires get less response than short questionnaires. Keep your questionnaire short. In fact, the shorter the better. Response rate is the single most important indicator of how much confidence you can place in the results. A low response rate can be devastating to a survey. Therefore, you must do everything possible to maximize the response rate. One of the most effective methods of maximizing response is to shorten the questionnaire.

Also use less open end questions as these take more time to administer. If your survey is over a few pages, try to eliminate questions. Many people have difficulty knowing which questions could be eliminated. For the elimination round, read each question and ask, “How am I going to use this information?” If the information will be used in a decision-making process, then keep the question… it’s important. If not, throw it out. Give your questionnaire a title that is short and meaningful to the respondent.

A questionnaire with a title is generally perceived to be more credible than one without. Use simple and direct language. The questions must be clearly understood by the respondent. The wording of a question should be simple and to the point. Do not use uncommon words or long sentences. Make items as brief as possible. This will reduce misunderstandings and make the questionnaire appear easier to administer. One way to eliminate misunderstandings is to emphasize crucial words in each item by using bold, italics or underlining. Leave adequate space for respondents to make comments.

One criticism of questionnaires is their inability to retain the “flavor” of a response. Leaving space for comments will provide valuable information not captured by the response categories. Leaving white space also makes the questionnaire look easier and this increases response. Place the most important items in the first half of the questionnaire. Hold the respondent’s interest. We want the respondent to complete our questionnaire. One way to keep a questionnaire interesting is to provide variety in the type of items used.

Varying the questioning format will also prevent respondents from falling into “response sets”. At the same time, it is important to group items into coherent categories. All items should flow smoothly from one to the next. The wording of a question is extremely important.

Researchers strive for objectivity in surveys and, therefore, must be careful not to lead the respondent into giving a desired answer. Unfortunately, the effects of question wording are one of the least understood areas of questionnaire research. Many researchers have confirmed that slight changes in the way questions are worded can have a significant impact on how people respond.

Several authors have reported that minor changes in question wording can produce more than a 25%t difference in people’s opinions. Several researchers have looked at the effects of modifying adjectives and adverbs. Words like usually, often, sometimes, occasionally, seldom, and rarely are “commonly” used in questionnaires, although it is clear that they do not mean the same thing to all people. Some adjectives have high variability and others have low variability.

The following adjectives have highly variable meanings and should be avoided in surveys: a clear mandate, most, numerous, a substantial majority, a minority of, a large proportion of, a significant number of, many, a considerable number of, and several. Other adjectives produce less variability and generally have more shared meaning. These are: lots, almost all, virtually all, nearly all, a majority of, a consensus of, a small number of, not very many of, almost none, hardly any, a couple, and a few. If a questionnaire is more than a few pages and is held together by a staple, include some identifying data on each page (such as a respondent ID number).Pages often accidentally separate.

Rule 3: Consult Experts

If you are not a professional market researcher, one important way to assure a successful survey is to consult experts and relevant decision-makers in the questionnaire design process. Their suggestions will improve the questionnaire and they will subsequently have more confidence in the results.

Rule 4: Think about the Data Analysis

Formulate a plan for doing the statistical analysis during the design stage of the project. Know how every question will be analyzed and be prepared to handle missing data. If you cannot specify how you intend to analyze a question or use the information, do not use it in the survey.

Rule: 5 Always Pilot a Questionnaire

The final test of a questionnaire is to try it on representatives of the target audience. If there are problems with the questionnaire, they almost always show up here. If possible, be present while a respondent is being interviewed. of the best ways to clarify your study goals is to decide how you intend to use the information. Do this before you begin designing the study. This sounds obvious, but many researchers neglect this task.

To your Success!!!

Simple steps to launching a market research Survey

Today I will be sharing with you simple steps you can follow to commission or start a market research project .These simple steps will ensure you get credible results from the survey if you follow them step by step.

State the objectives of the survey

It is important you fully understand and know what you intend to achieve with the from the survey. In other words, If you cannot spell out the objectives of the survey you are unlikely to generate useable results. Clarifying the aims of the survey is critical to it’s ultimate success.

Define the target population

Defining the target population can be relatively simple, especially for finite populations (for example, ‘all female students enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine). For some finite populations, however, it may be more difficult to define what constitutes ‘natural’ membership of the population; in that case, arbitrary decisions have to be made. Thus we might define the population for a survey of voter attitudes in a particular town as ‘all men or women currently on the electoral roll’ or ‘all people old enough to vote, whether they are enrolled or not’ or ‘all current voters (on the electoral roll) and those who will be old enough to vote at the next election’. Each of these definitions might be acceptable but, depending on the aims of the survey, one might be preferable.

Define the data to be collected

If we are studying, for example, the effect of forest clearance on the breeding process of a particular animal species, we obviously want to collect information about the actual changes in population size, but we will also want to know other things about the survey sample: how is the male/female ratio affected, is the breeding period changed, how are litter sizes affected, and so on.

Define the required precision and accuracy

The most subjective stage is defining the precision with which the data should be collected. Strictly speaking, the precision can only be correctly estimated if we conduct a census. The precision provided by a sample survey is an estimate the ‘tightness’ of the range of estimates of the population characteristics provided by various samples.

Define the measurement `instrument’

The measurement instrument is the method – interview, observation, questionnaire – by which the survey data is generated. Define the sample frame, sample size and sampling method. The sample frame is the list of people (‘objects’ for inanimate populations) that make up the target population; it is a list of the individuals who meet the ‘requirements’ to be a member of that population. The sample is selected from the sample frame by specifying the sample size (either as a finite number, or as a proportion of the population) and the sampling method (the process by which we choose the members of the sample).

After all these steps, it is important to make sure the interviewing process is also foolproof, that is all interviewers follow set guidelines for collecting the data. Strict quality control measures must be adhered to inorder to ensure sampling procedures are followed to the book. If all these measures are followed, there is guarantee useable data will be gathered from the field. With good data analysis and interpretation, set objectives will be clearly answered.

Useful market research Resources

As a researcher I spend so many hours on the internet every day. This i do religiously whenever my table is less busy. What I have found out is that, the internet is a very rich source of information. There is a huge amount of information available on the internet for just about every subject known to man, ranging from government law and services, trade fairs and conferences, market information, new ideas and technical support.

According to the latest numbers, there are more than 162 million websites on the internet today. This is a phenomenal growth from December 1990 when a single website called info.cern.ch, the first-ever website and web server, created by Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the www.) was hosted.

I am a regular visitor to the following websites which have useful market research information:

www.marketresearchworld.net

www.esomar.org

www.mrs.org.uk

www.mra-net.org

 To your Success!!!!!