More surveys or more balance!

Having just been phoned up by yet another research company that seems to get around the telephone preference list, I would like to ask the question are we reaching a saturation point in customer research?  At the end of the day if all you get from your responses is a fatigued ‘yeah it was OK’ or responses from consumers who have the biggest gripe, how much can you trust their representativeness or even their veracity! 

Flashier or shorter surveys don’t quite do it for me.  Instead, perhaps what we need is not to replace existing surveys but look for balance in the qualitative, immersion approach or the customer depth interview: note I only raise this as a provocation, but still I am unconvinced that the law of big numbers is a panacea against all sins by itself.

For me then what we should be doing is not typecasting people into ‘Quals’ and ‘Quants’ but ensuring a greater balance between the two. But perhaps due to the unnatural division of research into silos, I don’t see this balance being brought to the fore. Yet I would much rather hear from ‘Quali-Quants’ or even better ‘people who can interpret the data’; the last point is of course a particularly ‘old chestnut’ and essentially says how can we become more consultancy orientated?

Nonetheless in a world increasingly awash with data this is becoming even more valid which is why I believe consultancy and research should become closer.

So by all means measure, but also seek to understand. Ask yourself the question not only what is our satisfaction score but what is the experience of our company, would I be a customer of my own firm?’