Wingman Marketing Communications Blog
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Questionable Questionnaires?
I recently received an online survey from an organization that I'm affiliated with. It was a pretty standard survey about customer experience, intent, and expectations. So as I got into the survey, it was 9 questions - I hit submit - and I get 12 more questions - submit - 7 more questions... submit - 11 more questions ... and it went on, with no end in sight. Additionally, the questions were redundant, asking essentially the same question in four slightly different ways. Here's a snippet of questions 11-14:- I possess the necessary skills to attain my goals
- I have what it takes to reach my goals
- I have the necessary knowledge to reach my goals
- I have the ability to reach my goals
This survey ultimately went on for 101 questions, and with every 'Submit' I clicked, I prayed it was the last. Normally I would've bailed at about 35 or 40 questions, but since I was affiliated with this group, I felt an obligation to fill the survey out in its entirety.
Which brings me to a guideline for conducting a questionnaire:
- If you don't ask, you can't get an answer
- If there is something wrong in the questionnaire, the survey is a waste - Test your survey with a smaller audience first to make sure they're written to elicit the type of response you're looking for.
- Think about multiple answers
- Avoid leading questions - You want unbiased true answers, not leading the respondent to the answer you desire.
- Minimize open-ended questions - While they offer a wealth of insight, they are much harder to analyze.
- Use simple, direct, and familiar vocabulary - The folks at Google did a survey in NYC and asked people on the street "What is a Browser?" - less than 8% got it right.
- Avoid unique or ambiguous meanings.
- Start with easy questions, then move onto specific questions later.
- Create an expectation of time and progress - Most web-based survey sites have a progress bar, or you can be up front about how many questions there are before they start.
- KEEP IT SHORT - Don't ask for anything you won't actually use.
Labels: Market Research
# posted by Ray Huang @ 4:43 PM
0 Comments
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Market Research - Quantitative (Part 3/3)
Dear Wingman,
I’d like to learn more about how I can find or conduct any research to get a better understanding of my customers and my competitors (I own a computer and electronics shop).
-Terry S.
So previously we discussed market research, informal research techniques, and qualitative market research. Now we get to the meat of market research, quantitative market research – hard data that can be numerically calculated.
While you can ask the same questions in both qualitative and quantitative studies, quantitative research requires you to survey a larger number of people in order to obtain statistically reliable information. The larger your sample size, the greater your accuracy, but be sure to get at least 30 randomly selected respondents, preferably 100 or more.
A well designed study involves developing the right pool of respondents, asking proper and well-stated questions in the right order, utilizing the right communication vehicles. Of course a professional marketing or market research firm may be able to help you along with setting up and executing the research study, though you can still conduct quantitative studies on your own. Small budgets, small sample sizes, and non-random samples mean a less accurate, though still reliable set of results.
If you maintain a large mailing list, you can send surveys to customers’ homes or businesses. Direct mail campaigns typically have a low one to two percent response rate, though it may be higher depending on the relationship you have with your customers. To maximize your response rates, keep your surveys focused and simple, and offer your customers something in exchange for their participation, such as a valuable coupon for those that complete the survey. If you have a web-based business or a strong online presence, you can more inexpensively collect data from web-savvy customers. Many affordable web applications offer basic marketing research surveys that you can use at a relatively low cost.
In closing, understand that customer habits shift over time, making it important for you to continually be in touch with them. Don’t view your results as the end of the process; it should be an ongoing component of marketing strategy. By staying on top of what customers think of your product or service, you can fine tune your marketing strategy to keep up with your customers’ changing needs.
# posted by Ray Huang @ 1:00 PM
0 Comments Links to this post
I’d like to learn more about how I can find or conduct any research to get a better understanding of my customers and my competitors (I own a computer and electronics shop).
-Terry S.
So previously we discussed market research, informal research techniques, and qualitative market research. Now we get to the meat of market research, quantitative market research – hard data that can be numerically calculated.
While you can ask the same questions in both qualitative and quantitative studies, quantitative research requires you to survey a larger number of people in order to obtain statistically reliable information. The larger your sample size, the greater your accuracy, but be sure to get at least 30 randomly selected respondents, preferably 100 or more.
A well designed study involves developing the right pool of respondents, asking proper and well-stated questions in the right order, utilizing the right communication vehicles. Of course a professional marketing or market research firm may be able to help you along with setting up and executing the research study, though you can still conduct quantitative studies on your own. Small budgets, small sample sizes, and non-random samples mean a less accurate, though still reliable set of results.
If you maintain a large mailing list, you can send surveys to customers’ homes or businesses. Direct mail campaigns typically have a low one to two percent response rate, though it may be higher depending on the relationship you have with your customers. To maximize your response rates, keep your surveys focused and simple, and offer your customers something in exchange for their participation, such as a valuable coupon for those that complete the survey. If you have a web-based business or a strong online presence, you can more inexpensively collect data from web-savvy customers. Many affordable web applications offer basic marketing research surveys that you can use at a relatively low cost.
In closing, understand that customer habits shift over time, making it important for you to continually be in touch with them. Don’t view your results as the end of the process; it should be an ongoing component of marketing strategy. By staying on top of what customers think of your product or service, you can fine tune your marketing strategy to keep up with your customers’ changing needs.
Labels: Market Research
# posted by Ray Huang @ 1:00 PM
0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, May 12, 2008
Market Research - Qualitative (Part 2/3)
Dear Wingman,
I’d like to learn more about how I can find or conduct any research to get a better understanding of my customers and my competitors (I own a computer and electronics shop).
-Terry S.
To continue our conversation (this is part 2 of 3, read part 1 here), I previously wrote about the need for market research along with some informal information gathering, which is a start, but may not provide the insight you might need. Formal marketing research makes the process more orderly and more concrete. Marketing research falls into two categories: qualitative and quantitative.
Qualitative research is best when you want to get a subjective feel for something. It can help evaluate how key customers think about your product and what motivates them to make a purchase.
An easy way to conduct qualitative research on customers is through a feedback form. You can gain valuable insight by asking your customers how you are doing, asking for suggestions, and asking for their opinions. You can provide the form in your store, attached to the receipt, or on your website.
Another qualitative method is through conducting focus groups – essentially a moderated discussion with groups of target customers. If you are planning to start carrying a new product group in your store for example, your focus groups may be composed of local adults or computer enthusiasts, whatever your primary target is. Small business owners and manager have an advantage of being much closer to the customers than bigger companies that usually hire agencies to recruit and conduct the group. Offer your best customers special offers or free products or services in exchange for an hour or so of their time. For a small investment, the information you receive can be priceless.
Some limitations of qualitative research, is that you may gather some soft data on your customers, and give you a direction or trend to follow. However they are not statistically reliable, meaning that you can’t make quality inferences to a larger population.
Next time I’ll elaborate more on the quantitative side of market research.
# posted by Ray Huang @ 11:32 AM
0 Comments Links to this post
I’d like to learn more about how I can find or conduct any research to get a better understanding of my customers and my competitors (I own a computer and electronics shop).
-Terry S.
To continue our conversation (this is part 2 of 3, read part 1 here), I previously wrote about the need for market research along with some informal information gathering, which is a start, but may not provide the insight you might need. Formal marketing research makes the process more orderly and more concrete. Marketing research falls into two categories: qualitative and quantitative.
Qualitative research is best when you want to get a subjective feel for something. It can help evaluate how key customers think about your product and what motivates them to make a purchase.
An easy way to conduct qualitative research on customers is through a feedback form. You can gain valuable insight by asking your customers how you are doing, asking for suggestions, and asking for their opinions. You can provide the form in your store, attached to the receipt, or on your website.
Another qualitative method is through conducting focus groups – essentially a moderated discussion with groups of target customers. If you are planning to start carrying a new product group in your store for example, your focus groups may be composed of local adults or computer enthusiasts, whatever your primary target is. Small business owners and manager have an advantage of being much closer to the customers than bigger companies that usually hire agencies to recruit and conduct the group. Offer your best customers special offers or free products or services in exchange for an hour or so of their time. For a small investment, the information you receive can be priceless.
Some limitations of qualitative research, is that you may gather some soft data on your customers, and give you a direction or trend to follow. However they are not statistically reliable, meaning that you can’t make quality inferences to a larger population.
Next time I’ll elaborate more on the quantitative side of market research.
Labels: Market Research
# posted by Ray Huang @ 11:32 AM
0 Comments Links to this post
Friday, May 9, 2008
Market Research (Part 1/3)
Dear Wingman,
I’d like to learn more about how I can find or conduct any research to get a better understanding of my customers and my competitors (I own a computer and electronics shop).
-Terry S.
Regardless of the size of your company, successful business owners must know their industry, competitors, and customer needs in order to stay competitive. Marketing research can be one of the more important functions in getting key information about your potential customers’ preferences so as to market your products or services more effectively.
Do you know what U.S. company spends the most money on research and development? You’re probably thinking its Boeing, G.E., or one of the pharmaceutical companies. Well these guys certainly spend a lot. But the company that regularly spends the most on R&D is McDonalds.
I’m not saying its necessary to spend 13 billion dollars on market research, in fact, a separate marketing research department is usually beyond the budget of most small businesses, but you can still gather facts and opinions about your customers in an objective way. Knowledge is power, and having objective information can help focus your business on what people want to buy, not simply what you have to sell to them.
A good place to start your research is to look at the information you already have. Sales records can give you insight to buying trends or cycles if you’ve been in business for a few years. Receipts or other records that can show where customers live or work can give you insight where to focus your advertising and on what products. Employees also can be a good source of information about customer preferences and trends. Be sure to keep open lines of communications with your employees so they can report back to you on customer complaints and attitudes about the business, product, or service.
I’ll touch a bit more on qualitative and quantitative methods of market research next time.
# posted by Ray Huang @ 11:07 AM
0 Comments Links to this post
I’d like to learn more about how I can find or conduct any research to get a better understanding of my customers and my competitors (I own a computer and electronics shop).
-Terry S.
Regardless of the size of your company, successful business owners must know their industry, competitors, and customer needs in order to stay competitive. Marketing research can be one of the more important functions in getting key information about your potential customers’ preferences so as to market your products or services more effectively.
Do you know what U.S. company spends the most money on research and development? You’re probably thinking its Boeing, G.E., or one of the pharmaceutical companies. Well these guys certainly spend a lot. But the company that regularly spends the most on R&D is McDonalds.
I’m not saying its necessary to spend 13 billion dollars on market research, in fact, a separate marketing research department is usually beyond the budget of most small businesses, but you can still gather facts and opinions about your customers in an objective way. Knowledge is power, and having objective information can help focus your business on what people want to buy, not simply what you have to sell to them.
A good place to start your research is to look at the information you already have. Sales records can give you insight to buying trends or cycles if you’ve been in business for a few years. Receipts or other records that can show where customers live or work can give you insight where to focus your advertising and on what products. Employees also can be a good source of information about customer preferences and trends. Be sure to keep open lines of communications with your employees so they can report back to you on customer complaints and attitudes about the business, product, or service.
I’ll touch a bit more on qualitative and quantitative methods of market research next time.
Labels: Market Research
# posted by Ray Huang @ 11:07 AM
0 Comments Links to this post
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