Online Surveys Prove Their Worth

Want to know what consumers think? Go online. Internet-based questionnaires this year will account for nearly one-third of U.S. spending on market-research surveys, according to the newsletter Inside Research.

Faster, cheaper

"Faster. Cheaper. It boils down to that," said Laurence Gold, the newsletter's editor and publisher. The shift from older methods – phone and mail surveys, for example – isn't surprising given growth on the net. About two-thirds of Americans age 15 and older now use the internet, and rapid adoption of broadband makes it easier for consumers to participate in surveys. U.S. spending on online market research has rocketed to $1.35 billion this year.

Domination in three years

"The migration from mail and face-to-face to phone research as a mainstream data-capture platform took more than 10 years. The move to online from phone is taking half that," said Jonathan Jephcott, exec VP of Synovate ViewsNet. It is inevitable that online panels will be a basis for the majority of ad-hoc quantitative research around the developed world within the next two to three years."

Marketers historically have been able to cut costs 15%-20% by moving from mail surveys to online and about 30% by shifting from phone surveys to online, said Kevin Waters, exec VP of TNS Custom Research, part of market-research powerhouse Taylor Nelson Sofres.

(Excerpted from Article by Bradley Johnson, Ad Age.)

The Net Promoter Score

The Net Promoter Score is an incredibly simple yet potentially powerful measure of customer loyalty. Credited with its invention is Fred Reichheld, consultant with Bain & Co., who recognized the need to unravel the knots we usually get ourselves into with lengthy and complex satisfaction surveys. Remarkably, he boiled it all down to a single question, once answered, that lets a company know how it is performing, how it compares to competitors, and even how it stacks up to companies in other industries.

The Question

On a scale of 1-10 (10=Extremely likely, 1=Not at all likely) how likely is it that you would recommend our company to a friend or colleague?

The Calculation

The Net Promoter Score is determined by subtracting detractors (those who gave a 0 to 6) from promoters (those who gave a 9 or 10).

The Net Promoter Score is easy to capture, easy to understand, and easy to share with your organization. But don’t expect or demand that your company score be a 10. Few score this high and some of the companies know for great service score in the 50s. Harley Davidson is a standout at 81%, while FedEx, which thrives on good service, scores 56%.

We expect many companies to benchmark their service using the net promoter score in the years ahead.

Top Technologies

Which of the following technologies is the greatest thing since sliced bread?

How are you using it to serve your clients better than ever before possible?

1. email
2. Digital camera
3. Cell phone
4. Internet
5. DVD
6. Laptop computer
7. Other, please specify

Please click on comments below to vote and describe your use.

Agencies Thrive on Technology

You won’t stand tall in a flat world doing things that everyone else can. Instead, you’ll stand out by finding your area of expertise and honing your skills to perfection. But, as Thomas Friedman explains in his best-selling book “The World is Flat,” digital communications have led to a world awash in vanilla, me-too marketing. Universal access to computers has made true expertise a seemingly rare commodity, or at least harder to find.

Equipped with amazing computing tools, individuals can accomplish tasks that once took the effort of entire specialized companies, and in a fraction of the time. The truth is, however, that not every individual with a computer is a creative giant or groundbreaking innovator. Though your PC or iMac enables you to do research, create new images, and much more, it alone cannot make the quality of your work remarkable or innovative.

Friedman explains that companies can cope with change if they embrace it, not build walls. Advertising agencies in particular have ridden the crest of a wave of technology, but at the same time found themselves threatened by “kids with computers.” The answer for many agencies has to simply get better at what they do best, ramping up their strategic insight, creative instinct, and artistic flair.

At Persuadable Research we too have found that the very technology that makes our company possible also threatens to flatten us. That’s why we choose to make an art of online surveys. Perfecting this approach comes with a combination of hard work, industry experience, and marketing savvy…all earned the old fashioned way.

On the surface, online surveys might look like something anyone with time and a PC might be able to do, but this just is not the case. During the past decade we have developed the skills that make it look easy. We’ve earned how to best structure questionnaires and write questions that drill down to the right information. The magic is due to hard work and experience, not off-the-shelf software.

Yes, we believe that in a flattened world, experts of all kinds can still stand tall and proud. The key to standing out is not to settle for doing commodity work. Instead, it’s developing true expertise.

Agencies that use every available channel to engage consumers and gather intelligence for their clients will continue to be the leaders.