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If an organization wants to improve and develop its customer relationship; then it should focus on its market research functions. And to enhance customer experience there are certain grounds for the organization’s awareness.

Customers Research Experience Is Associated with their High Expectations

Research and survey experience is not assessed along other surveys rather customers are assessing every contact they have made with your brand with the best brands in that class. So, you not only have to take account of customer’s time and attention but also simultaneously, you will be competing against big developed brands around you.

With the awareness about market research that how it judges and monitors the customer’s perception of your brand, the customer’s are now looking for highly personalized interaction on every point of their experience.

The data acquired has now become very sensitive. It means customers are aware of the fact that what value it carries to share their information with you, risks associated with it and nevertheless, they want to learn about the product of the information they have provided.

Organization Have Realized the Essentials of Market Research for the Whole Setup

The traditional approach of data utilization is evolved into the in-depth analysis-oriented function of data across organizations. Instead of single point data accumulation for different cores of an organization, a holistic view of the customer is generated by market research.

To enhance customer relations, information from across the organization can be acquired by the researcher to address the problems. Ace Research having hands-on researches of all kinds reveals that the access to relevant big data gives a thorough insight to the researcher which was unattainable before and therefore, the hawk eye’s view shall break the data barriers and silos.

‘Insight’ an essential core for developing strong customer relationships

As the sales process carries vital importance for the customer service functions, similarly market research function that is instilled with insight into customer relationship and research techniques is an integral part of customer experience assessment.

As it is an integrated part, and has a role to play and it should carry the positive impact on customer experience and this will ultimately have an impact on the perception of a customer about your brand. An insight-driven organization realizes the need to develop customer relationship and for that purpose, it uses the research process to enrich it.

Business exists for customers and the way you deal and respond to your customer will determine how productive is your business as well as its ultimate impact on customer retention. Ace Research proposes that the information you acquire from your customers, help you grow your business. The research method you will opt will depend upon the type of your business and the kind of information you need to acquire. And it can be done internally by assigning a task to some individuals or you may hire a consultant to conduct perhaps more transparent research for your organization.

Although several Customer Research methods can be combined to achieve certain customer research objectives but following are the main Customer Research methods businesses usually incorporate to assess customer’s perception and expectations.

Advertisements and Promotion Evaluation

The impact and effectiveness of your advertisement and promotions can be gauged efficiently with the information collected regarding; the response of your customers to your adopted strategy, it can be done by means of focus group discussions. Also, the analysis of your promotions i.e. the past trend and future plans with respect to sales volume in that given time period. These sorts of research are also categorized as activation evaluation and pre-post campaign evaluations.

Customer Satisfaction Surveys

You can observe the degree of customer satisfaction by informal approaches like a questionnaire that will target old and new customers and also a conversation with staff and the evaluation of product and services scorecards.

Factors influencing Consumers Decision Making Process

A market research, survey, or by means of the questionnaire you can determine that what factors are motivating your customers and influence their decision criteria also, what is the decision-making process they adopt.

Concept testing 

You can ascertain that either your customers consider your product as useful or it carries rational benefits. Also, by means of personal interviews and focus group discussions, you can also determine how they respond to your marketing strategies.

Positioning research

How your customers view your product against your competitors can be observed via this approach and also the revenue earned from each of your market segments and the attitude of your customer in that respective market segment will open various avenues of improving customer relations.

Brand Testing

The feelings of your customer about your brand and product names can be assessed in brand testing. The emotional responses of consumers via focus group and surveys can be determined and also, the brand performance can be tracked by allowing the brand researcher to evaluate your brand using existing available brand research.

Price Testing

The price change testing helps in understanding that how sensitive is your customer to fluctuation in price. You can do it simply by multiplying the number of items sold at the price of each item. And this will show either your revenues increased or decreased. Also, this will determine that what affect your pricing had on your product demand.

Customer service audit

Assessment of either you are providing adequate customer service can be done through, feedbacks, customer surveys, conducting customer panel and phone surveys.

Mystery shopping

To check quality control of your stores, you can designate a mystery shopper to carry out the assessment as an anonymous customer in your store. The mystery shopper shall report, behavior and attitude of sales staff, customer service approaches and sales techniques and strategies adopted by the team.

Social media monitoring

Social media engagement and feedback is a great tool for monitoring your customer’s feedback about your services. Customers are now using social mediums like Facebook to share their experiences and complaints, therefore it is becoming a very important element of business marketing. And if you have managed it productively it can serve as one of the very effective and meaningful research tools for your business.

Organizations that are planning to launch a new product or those who are wondering to acquire the feedback from their customers about their product and services can take benefit from customer surveys. This will lead to gain considerable insight into what your customers think about you and your brand.

Customer Survey can be conducted in different ways and with the influx of digital access, this has become more meaningful, time-saving and easy to plan, design and implement. One way can be through customized online dashboards.

Ace Research is a renowned research company of Pakistan that provides this facility of the online dashboard to its clients for easy and real-time data access to surveys with meaningful reports and analysis of data.

How to get started with Surveys, Here are some tips.

Set your Goal

You must have a very clear picture of what actually you want to derive out from your survey. Is it a customer perception of your brand? Or do you want to have the feedback about your recent product launch? So, the expected outcome needs to be defined otherwise you might not be getting what you desire.

Decide a Survey tool for your study

As you can find many online survey tools for carrying out the surveys, Ace research dashboard the most up to date and customized survey platform that can be accessed for state of the art survey results, quality assurance, instant feedback and reports, real-time access of data to client, online and offline data recording by surveyors from field, etc. The simplest yet not so customized way of carrying out the survey is through email.

Designing a template

With the rapid increase in the demand for surveys, you can find a pre-designed template for your surveys online that will save your time on designing it from scratch altogether. And with the flexibility of customization, you can modify the templates according to your needs and desire.

Questions asked should be very clear

Once you have decided upon the design and theme of your survey now it is a time to create questions that align with your goal, i.e. the need for survey. Don’t mix things together, ask one thing at a time. Your questions should be simple, specific and well understood. Too many questions annoy the respondents try to ask a few questions as possible.  Responses to questions can be based on multiple-choice scenarios, comment boxes, drop-down menus, and sliding scales. The type of scale you adopt should be consistent throughout.

Review your survey

Once the survey is prepared for the target audience to make sure you proofread it and run a trial test of it. And if certain errors arise make changes accordingly. Once reviewed; now you can float your survey to generate a response from your target audience.

Survey invitation should be effective

Your invitation should be attractive, friendly and should contain all necessary information regarding the purpose of the study, the duration of this activity and why the subject’s response is vital in this regard. It should have warm greetings, incentives attached to surveys and a quick close as lengthy descriptions are left unread.

Instructions for completing the survey

Instructions should be clearly specified and the process must be as seamless as possible.

Define the target audience

If sending by email, you should segment your list accordingly as in some cases you might want the survey to be directed only to those who have recently bought your product or avail any particular service etc. this will fetch the most relevant response from your target audience.

Review all steps and send it to respondents

Once you have executed all the steps now you may schedule the survey for your recipients. And once sent don’t forget to send a reminder after some time. So those who haven’t completed the survey yet may get the notification.

Collect data and analyze the responses

Once you started getting the responses, you have to collect the data appropriately and know you may analyze the data to get the relevant information from it and utilize it in your decision making.

In Pakistan, the researchers and surveyors carry out the process of data collection and meaningful information is derived on the basis of this data. The authenticity of data is therefore very crucial but the question here is; whether data authenticity is kept intact or not?

Data Authenticity implies that the data acquired from the real-world scenarios neither should be modified nor should be corrupted after its creation. And in any case, it should exclusively be the outcome of an acquisition process of a real-world scene. The authenticity of data also refers to the essence of what actually is being claimed against the data i.e. what it should be or what it claims to be. Although, the processing of digital data cannot be altogether eradicated it should ensure the meaning/essence is not modified.

Preserving the authenticity of data is the foremost important factor in the fair assessment of any situation, this can later influence decision making or might serve as the foundation for long-term investment. Although, data collected might encounter a number of edits during processing and analysis original script of information should not undergo any modification which might alter or create any possibility for an alteration of data throughout the data lifecycle.

Why is Authentic Data a Challenge to Acquire in Pakistan?

Ace Research has left nearly no area untapped and in Pakistan, a particular phenomenon prevails which by enlarge is the dilemma in the context of data authenticity. As far as reporting is concerned the crisp of content is ensured but the data incorporated in the report might not be fulfilling the requirement or may not be adequate enough for partial decision making. This implies that in processing and analyses of data the original data loses its essence or sometimes it can be another way round, i.e. the data is altogether either infringed with unethical practices or not even acquired from the desired sample size.

The data collected as mentioned earlier serves as the foundation for any sort of decision making, whether it relates to corporate sector, development sector, public sector or etc. the Product and services you are planning to launch, the project you are undertaking for awareness purpose or the selection of candidate for any constituency are the direct outcome of data collection in that particular domain. Therefore, if the authenticity of data is compromised just imagine the consequence of wrong assessment of product/services launch, wrong estimation of fund allocation or nomination of an undeserving candidate.

Ethical issues associated with Data Reporting and Authenticity

• All the eligible participants are not included in data collection and reporting
• Analyses of Missing data points
• All the relevant data is not incorporated in study or report
• Negative results are withheld and often not reflected in reports
• Research sponsors influence the reporting of results
• Actual numbers are replaced with percentages
• Use of inappropriate statistical test to assess and analyses data
• Conclusions derived despite unsupported data
• Exaggeration of results for media

Best Practices recommended for Data Authenticity

Following are some of the practices adopted to ensure data authenticity

• Differences should be tracked in case of the original data version and in case of editions made into the data. Also, by restricting the unauthorized changes in data and also the loss of information, data authenticity can be kept intact.
• Term and conditions of data use should be clearly communicated to all the stakeholders of data.
• The master file should be maintained, its access and right to certain changes should be assigned with due diligence.
• Researched version and individual versions should be clearly distinguished and saved in respective order.
• How many versions of a file to keep? How long to keep and how to organize versions should be clearly chalked down.
• Each data file should be clearly and categorically named in the context of versions as well as editions.
• A well-preserved document should be maintained for any changes in any version of the data file.
• The tracking system should be maintained if files are saved in a large database or a variety of locations.

How ACE ensures Data Authenticity?

Ace Research is an Islamabad based market research and customer experience management company. Ace operates with 300 plus field workforce and provides a fully automated online system for Reports, Geo Tracking, Client Dashboard and Mobile Audits to ensure data reliability and authenticity. It has a unique competitive edge in terms of ensuring data authenticity and it is the core priority of the firm to provide the best solution to its clients with the hands-on most authentic and real-time results.

All Market surveys of ACE are conducted through the online system. Surveyors use Android devices to record data and then submit results online. ACE Admin Panel approves and Quality Checks the data and then submits to the client. The client can have one or multiple dashboards with real-time results visible in the form of pre-installed graphs and tables

ACE Mobile audits can be beneficial in numerous ways like; it Eliminates fraud, you know exactly where and when data is collected with the help of time and GPS stamping on each response. Whether you are online or offline, the surveys and data collection can still be completed irrespective of internet facility. Data validity is ensured during entry and again in the Quality assurance stage.

In Market Research there are certain key areas that need a lot of conscious efforts to keep the essence and productivity of whole activity intact. Ace Research put great stress on data collection as it is a very sensitive part of the whole research and demands a thorough understanding as well as a market assessment of numerous factors as to analyze the availability, access, confidentiality, transparency, and adherence to pre-defined norms and standards of data collection. furthermore, we have compiled some key points, that should be taken into account before formulating any research Strategy.

Responsibilities of Data Collectors

• Before initiating a new survey, determine whether data already available from your organization or publicly available data can be used to meet an emerging information need.
• One who has assigned with the task of data collection or team at large should be familiar with relevant laws, regulations, or administrative procedures that may affect the data collection activity. Also, Make respondents aware of these laws if they might affect participation, responses, or uses of the data.
• Take steps to minimize the time, cost, and effort required of data providers. Schedule the data collection, to the extent possible, at the convenience of the data providers and with adequate time to respond.
• Learn the work cycles of the respondents. Make sure the respondent can provide accurate data for the requested item.
• Keep the survey as short as possible. Ensure that the response burden does not exceed a reasonable length and is justified by the use of the data.  Examine each item in the data collection instrument to make sure that the information is needed and will be used.
• Avoid requesting information that is of marginal use. Avoid requesting data that can be obtained from another available survey or database.
• Whenever possible, test the survey for “understandability” and respondent effort through focus groups, cognitive laboratory sessions, or pilot testing. The purpose of these activities is to ensure that: Each item is understandable to the respondent and technical terms used are appropriate to the respondent. The questions are clear and unambiguous to the respondent, items elicit a single response and survey is not too much of a burden for the respondent.
• Seek periodic review of the survey instrument from experienced, knowledgeable individuals.

Designing the Data Collection Instrument

• Provide clear and detailed instructions for completing the data collection instrument.
• Provide definitions and clarifying information for individual items and terms. Make definitions of data elements consistent with standard definitions and analytic conventions (i.e., calculations or methodologies) when appropriate and feasible.
• Determine whether another organization is already collecting data related to the items you plan to collect; if so, obtain a copy of that survey and consider using the same definitions and analytic conventions as a starting point for your survey. Any deviations from accepted usage should be explained.
• Indicate subpopulations to include and/or exclude in the reporting. Be clear about the date or time period the survey should reflect.
• Use standard language. Avoid jargon and abbreviations.  Keep questions short and simple, make categories as concrete as possible.  Use simple and exact terms. If response categories are supposed to be mutually exclusive and exhaustive, make sure all possible categories are included on the survey.  If in doubt about whether categories are exhaustive, include a response option of “other, please specify.”
• If data may be unknown or missing, be sure to include an “unknown/missing” option. Provide a “not applicable” response for questions that may not be applicable to all respondents. Do not combine two separate ideas inappropriately and request a single response.
• Design the item sequence of the survey such that it increases the respondent’s ability to complete the survey. Keep topic-related questions together and provide transitions between topics. Be sure that return address, fax number, and contact information are included on the form itself as well as in accompanying the letter.  Consider including an addressed, postage-paid envelope to return the survey.

Distributing the Data Collection Instrument

• Provide multiple options for respondents to submit data, including electronically, Alert respondents to any changes in long-standing survey items.
• Include a section on the survey for respondents to suggest changes or point out problems. If respondents are asked to submit multiple documents or other materials, provide a checklist for each of the items to be submitted.

Explanatory information that should accompany the Survey

• Purposes of the data collection activities and how data will be used Also, Importance of respondents’ participation and Confidentiality of response, if appropriate.
• The methodology used for data collection. Describe how missing data will be treated.
• If the database or survey response is to be supplemented with information from other sources, describe those data and their sources.
• If survey instruments vary for different types of institutions, describe the significant differences. Indicate how many years of data will be publicly available or archived.

Survey Follow-up ‘Perform edit checks on the data’

• Identify and correct or delete strange or discrepant data, missing data, or, if appropriate, unusually high or low data values. Reconcile any data inconsistencies with the respondent and rectify, if necessary, in the database.
• If appropriate, provide the respondent with a verification copy of the information or draft report before publication; make any requested changes before publication.
• Provide the respondent with a summary of results or final copy of the report, or if feasible, the database itself.
• Consider sending thank you notes to respondents.

Reporting and Publication

• Describe the sampling methodology and sampling universe used in the study.
• Indicate when the data were collected and/or the date of publication (month and year at a minimum), so that readers can tell how current the information is.
• Report response rates for the survey as a whole as well as for individual items.
• If data are imputed for non-responses, indicate the methodology used and the percent of cases that were imputed.

Market Research Usefulness?

Organizations are in a run these days to acquire a competitive and valuable position among their competitors in the market. To earn a good place, one must ensure that their services and products cater to the needs of customers. Existing customers should be retained and prospective ones should be attracted by first assessing their needs and thereupon providing them the goods they need.

Markets have become very dynamic and with rapid technological advancement, new features are being introduced and outputs are customized to meet the varying demand. The customer is more aware than ever and switches frequently between alternatives with the intention to get better output and value.

These changes in market dynamics and customers buying patterns have urged the marketers to investigate the paradigm shift and simultaneously, comprehend what factors are leading to change in buying habits.

What is Market Research?

Market Research is the Systematic analysis of market segments along with the prime focus on customer’s perception, habits, and interests. Ace Research has ascertained long before the need for transparent and quality research, that captures the pattern in terms of demographic segregation, psychographic segregation and nevertheless, the perception and overall environmental impacts on the decision making of the customer.

Data Authenticity Issues in Market Research

In Pakistan, we have numerous Market Research companies, providing services to a large number of clients. Several modules offered include Mystery Shopping, Retail Audits, Brand Health Tracking, Activation Evaluation, Pre and Post Product or Service evaluations, Consumer Researches, Monitoring, and Evaluation etc.  The primary goal of conducting all these researches is to identify the customer’s point of view and based on these assessment strategies are being designed and formulated to improve brand perception and add value to existing services.

Recently a Political Survey has been carried out to observe the public mandate enjoyed by representatives contesting General Elections 2018. This study was limited to very few constituencies but proved to be a whistleblower and a Question mark on the findings.  The data revealed by a survey by no means matched the public perception and ultimately lead to the inappropriate or undesirable outcome.

Data authenticity! This term has put so many in stressful situations.

“Without fair and transparent assessment, it is invalid to devise strategies and base your decision making on it. Without accuracy and authenticity, you are moving in the wrong direction and might lose in the long run if the impact remained insignificant in the short run.”

It is, therefore, very crucial as well as of utmost importance for organizations to understand Unethical Practices being carried out by Research companies to put together data for your assessment.

Organizations usually have customer services and customer insights department to keep a check on quality compliances as set by the company along with customer retention and to ensure the valuable relationship with customers. But unfortunately, in Pakistan to satisfy the compliance requirements, quality assurance departments infringe the data acquired from research companies just to exhibit a good picture of their performance which is not the case actually. Market Research companies are third-party companies that run an assessment to identify the loopholes in customer satisfaction and quality compliances but owing to the flaw in the organizational setup in particularly the delegation of command that in essence should be between senior management in decision-making capacity and Market Research Firms.

Data acquired by Research companies are initially acquired by the customer services departments i.e. point of contact between the company and research firm and after completion of an assessment, this is presented to other stakeholders.  This problem can be catered if the data acquired in the first place not only reach customer services department but also senior management, decision makers and stakeholders.

Fieldwork force are the key assets of any Market Research Company and to acquire a large volume of data, the workforce is being trained accordingly and mobilized across the country for fair representation of all areas, as per research requirement. It can be confined to one province or town or maybe a single sector in Islamabad.  But most of the well-reputed Research companies have no policy statements implemented in true to spirit to ensure accurate and authentic data collection. Data collected is often fabricated and manipulated. In most cases, the data entry is done without efforts being made to mobilize the workforce and this is a market dilemma and this should be addressed. The question arises, how data authenticity should be ensured?

Client companies should have close liaison-ship with their respective market research companies and Data authenticity should be checked at every stage of data collection. For this very purpose GPS coordinates, videos and audios of interviews, pictures of location etc. are several means of ensuring data authenticity.

Similarly, if you are running an assessment to check the quality compliance of your franchises, the shoppers who are being assigned the assessment often negotiate with franchise owners and managers in exchange for monetary benefits and the whole data collection is jeopardized.

Also, it is common in cases like surveys and form fillings, where data is being filled by few individuals irrespective of the importance of such assessments for clients in decision making. In such cases, companies should designate a person or two to cross-check the data against references being mentioned and a certain sample of data should always be cross-checked.

“Market Research companies dodge their clients by presenting very glossy, attractive and appealing presentation and reports, backed by manipulated and unauthentic data.”

It is, therefore, a responsibility of an Organization if they truly care for their Quality compliances and customer satisfaction to thoroughly assess the Research reports and in case of any ambiguity, the whole process should be scrutinized. Although it will cost you time but remember Research is often done less frequently but all your future decision, budgeting, and strategies are based on it. So be wise and be Alert.