Earlier I wrote about Green Market Research with Online Surveys which highlights efforts the market research industry can to to green up their business. Some of these were as lame  as turning off the light when you leave the room or using only one towel when staying in a hotel on business trips.

One real thing worth considering is using online surveys. I see that Gartner have taken this tack with their customer surveys. In their email invitation they write;

We appreciate your feedback.

Please take the time to provide valuable feedback for Gartner Customer Relationship Management Summit 2008. By using the online version of our surveys, you’re helping our Green efforts to reduce paper consumption and waste.

I like it.

Saw this cycling survey on Vorb.

It has been put together by a Massey University student to survey cyclists. As a keen Hutt Valley cyclist (and ex Massey student) I am more than happy to promote this survey.

If you are over 16 and live in the Hutt Valley click here to complete the survey. And no Rock Research had nothing to do with it.

Asking someones age is generally through of  the height of rudeness, yet in surveys the age of your respondents is critical demographic data. Data accuracy around this question is pretty important and recent research shows that the way you ask this question has a strong influence on how it will be answered.

Philip Gendall and Benjamin Healey (my old market research lecturer and backwards market research guru) have done a bit of digging round to see who researchers can best pose this question to respondents without having 80% of your respondents saying they have just turned 21. Read the rest of this entry »

In a slightly confusing transaction software giant Microsoft has purchased survey and shopping company Greenfield Online. As part of the deal Microsoft will sell of the survey arm of Greenfield Online and retain the European shopping comparison component.

Greenfield’s Internet survey solutions (ISS) business collects, organizes, and sells consumer and business survey data to market research firms as well as offers real-time survey sampling. But the service does not fit in Microsoft’s game plan for its Live Search.

“It was very important to Microsoft to find the right partner to champion the continued growth of the Greenfield Online ISS business, which is not a fit within Microsoft’s strategy for our Live Search platform,” Tami Reller, chief financial officer of Windows and Online Services at Microsoft, said in a statement.

I came across an interesting paper that reports the possibility that online questionnaires might, all things being equal, produce slightly longer responses to open-ended questions than their paper-based counterparts.

Martyn Denscombe in his paper ‘The Length of Responses to Open-Ended Question – A Comparison of Online and Paper Questionnaires in Terms of a Mode Effect‘ (2007) investigates whether or not there is any difference between the responses of open ended questions to paper based surveys compared to online surveys.

Denscombe undertook an experiment survey was conducted that involved the random allocation of respondents into two groups who then completed a questionnaire either as a web-based online version or in an 2 Social Science Computer Review “optical mark recognition” (OMR) paper format. The research was designed to enable near identical groups to respond to near-identical questionnaires delivered in different modes.

Read the rest of this entry »

David Kennedy in his article Greening Market Research highlights a recent article published in Quirk’s Marketing Research Review on “How to green your research”

Recently I have just dug up my lawn and turned it into an organic garden so was quite keen to see what more we could to do to green Rock Research. It turns out that we are doing pretty good already.

Turns out the article is pretty generic really with the main thrust of the article being how you can reduce carbon emissions associated with travel and using less energy when you stay at Hotels (i.e. stay at a Hotel with an LCD panel instead of a plasma).

The one suggestion that did stand out is Increase your use of digital tools. Well it is talking to the converted, here at Rock we love online surveys and it is great to know that we are helping the planet with our efforts.

It stands to reason that when considering a research methodology thought should be given to the impact the methodology has on the planet.  When practical consideration should be given to reducing paper intensive surveys like mail surveys and face-to-face surveys which generally require significant travel.

To conclude there a lot of things that businesses can do to reduce their impact on the planet. Where Market Research companies can start to make smart decisions is when recommending and selecting research methodologies. Here at Rock Research our focus is on methodologies that utilise digital technology. Not only will these save you money, they are solution which has less impact on the planet.

Poor survey design can create a poor user experience and increase drop out rates of participation. The design of your online survey can have a large impact on the results that your survey generates so it pays to get it right. Historically online surveys have looked very much like mail surveys simply transposed onto a web page. While technically anything can go with surveys there are some basic design principles that are worth while adhering to.

Read the rest of this entry »

Peter Van Brunt writes in his article Attention Researchers: Lets Make Market Research Fun that researchers need to focus on the experience of the respondent when designing surveys and need to make an effort to make the research process more enjoyable.

The research industry has been facing public backlash for a number of years and telephone polling seems largely to blame. Talk to nearly anyone with a publicly listed telephone number and I am certain they will be able to recount a survey horror story having spoken to someone whose telephone manner suggests that there is clearly somewhere else’s they would rather be than having to ask 300 people they will never meet the same mundane questions.

No matter how much time or effort you put into designing your survey script to be a entertaining diddle, haphazard delivery by an exam stressed student on twelve dollars an hour is not going to help your cause.

Stage right, enters a short and snappy well written online survey to your rescue. As far as I see it online surveys beat telephone interviewers hands-down and have the potential to spice up any interview.

10 11 Reasons why online surveys beat telephone interviews:

1. An online survey will not interrupt your dinner time.
2. An online survey will not call interrupt you while you are on the toilet.
3. An online survey will not call you masquerading as that important call you have been waiting for all day.
4. An online survey will not sound bored or disinterested when you give your heartfelt opinion to a question it just asked.
5. An online survey will not hang up on you.
6. An online survey will not remind you of your ex-girlfriend.
7. An online survey will not interrupt you while you are on another call.
8. An online survey will not speak to you an in an accent that is impossible to understand.
9. An online survey will not ask you to speak slowly or repeat what you have just said.
10. An online survey will not have a bad attitude.
11. An online survey will not yawn.

I am sure there are more reasons why online surveys are better than phone surveys, please feel free to add some more below in the comments

Time for researchers to reinvent research itself?, Jonathan Dodd raises this questions in his article “Online surveys don’t tick all the boxes “

The key issue raised is with consumer panels and the detrimental effects that ‘professional’ respondents can have on research results. I have to agree with the arguments raised in this article and this is why Rock Research has to date stayed away from consumer panels.

One type of panel which we have implemented with success is the Rock Research Citizens Panel This is an online Panel which randomly recruits members from the community in order to provide feedback to Local Government. While a small incentive is used the main focus is to allow community members to have a say in key topical issues that are affecting the community. To date the Citizens Panels have been very successful at providing timely and accurate feedback from the community to Council decision makers.

Palmerston North City Council have recently successfully implemented a Rock Research Citizens Panel which has surveyed residents on issues from rates rises to recreation strategies.

The OSU Web Accessibility Center (WAC has put together an interesting review of online survey sites.

In their review they access the usability of some of the main web-based survey sites. This review offers an excellent opportunity to compare side by side some of the key players in the online survey industry.