Knowing what your customers think of you, how they have acted in the past and how they are likely to act in the future is essential to how you plan strategies, design your organisation, deliver your products/services and measure culture/performance.
The importance of research is often ignored by many organisations and it can come at a heavy cost. Our research team has conducted many surveys to establish customer and community trends and in almost all cases the results have been a revelation to the client.
Methodology
Our best-practice methodology covers four phases, as follows:
1. Evaluation of past methods and data
2. Design of new research approach and content
3. Engaging with customers and collecting data
4. Analysis of data and delivery of results
However, the above methodology is customised to meet specific client needs.
Research Categories
Our customer research broadly falls into two categories:
1. Quantitative – where customer activity is measured purely by numbers. This is generally conducted by capturing data on questionnaires and tabulating the results.
2. Qualitative – where information on customer attitudes to various aspects is gathered so that decisions can be made on future strategies. This is generally (but not always) carried out through focus groups or in ‘hall’ tests.
Channels
The kinds of channels that customers use to engage with your organisation vary considerably and we need to be aware of these channels in order to properly contribute to your customer strategy.
We ensure that we use a variety of data collection channels to mirror your customer engagement:
- Web-based questionnaires
- Telephone surveys
- Face to face interviews
- On-street questionnaires
- Group workshops
- Postal questionnaires / reply-paid cards
- Suggestion boxes
- Other technology (e.g. ‘ask the audience’ buttons, online polls, etc)
Reporting
At the end of the research activity, we can simply provide you with the raw data or we can provide analysis and commentary to give the data more meaning as part of a final report. We can also attend a meeting on your premises to present the results of the research and leave you with a comprehensive hard copy report.
If you would like to discuss your market research needs further please contact us to find out more
