Crain Associates Research>, LLC
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How Small Research Firms Can Outperform for Clients (but most don't)
The basis for this statement is that Crain Associates Research LLC has completed a modest business-to-business customer satisfaction program in which we achieved a response rate (completed inteviews/qualified respondents) of 83%. That's a solid accomplishment, leaving little room for speculation about the impact of response bias on results.
The best sales pitch is based on truth. Larger firms work on volume -- how to do as many projects as possible simultaneously, and complete them as quickly as possible to free up resources for the next assignment. That's reality. Unless a client is willing to work on a retainer relationship (most aren't), that's the way the system works.
Boutique companies, especially those not driven by greed, can be different.
We are willing to invest the sweat equity to send emails is small groups to avoid spam filters, truly personalize email for respondents, call respondents by phone and build a personal relationship with each. Personalization is not "mail merge."
When a respondent makes a superficial "don't bother me" response to a survey invitation, they don't expect a personal reply. The shock of finding that they are dealing with a real person and not a computer is fun to see -- you can imagine the shocked expression when they open the reply, particularly if their message had included something not politically correct.
The authentic personal touch makes a difference.
Posted: St. Patrick's Day, 2013.
The boss in the bedroom
No, this is not some sort of cliche about who's the boss at home. Rather, imagine being in bed, snuggling with your significant other, and having your boss jump out of your cellphone and start yelling instructions about some crisis at work. Or your mother? Or your ex?
If this sounds like a nightmare, it isn't. In fact, it may be your future.
Engineers have developed holographic images for handheld devices. Today, that means
that instead of a keyboard on a screen as we have now, the keyboard is projected into the air or onto a table top, and you type on it as you would on a real keyboard or screen. For a lot of us, trying to fit fingers into tight spaces, that's a good thing. Errors like thay for that would disappear. http://www.virtual-laser-devices.com/
However, as with all technology, once an engineer knows how to do something, he then tries to apply what he knows to everything else in his world. Take video calling as an example. Today, we see people on a screen. Tomorrow, we may have holograms sitting in the room with us (think Obi Wan). It may also be the case that someone calling you could emerge from your device. If that's a rockstar or supermodel, that might not be a bad thing. How many of us get those kinds of calls?
If it's your boss, mother or ex?? Are you working in your home office in your skivvies? Cleaning a mess the pup left on the floor? Or doing anything else you hadn't planned on putting on display on the Web?
Somewhere, I bet Groucho Marx and Charlie Chaplin are laughing hysterically at the possibilities.
16 Nov 2012
Please feel free to republish what is posted here, as long as Crain Associates Research LLC is noted as the source.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please click on Consumer Trends link above for these older posts
Latest News: St. Louis research proves that demand for abortions can be reduced dramatically by making birth control readily available
Commentary: Declining life expectancy among poorer, white Americans
Commentary: Henry Ford and the US economy
Commentary: How do retailers justify spending on mobile payments?
Commentary: Pew Research on the US middle class
Commentary: John Bogle on the US economy
Commentary: Jobs v. Deficits
Commentary: Misusing America's wealth [on patent law]
Consumer Trends #7: Another milestone in the evolution of the US [social progress]
Commentary: Misinterpreting data 101
COMMENTARY: New Federal Reserve report on the hammering of the middle class
COMMENTARY: Is Best Buy following Borders into history?
#4 (revisited): Limited disposable income risks keeping the US economy in doldrums for many years to come.
Commentary: "Technology addiction" is perhaps the newest category of psychological disorder.
Commentary: What is Facebook Really Worth?
#6: Birth Rate Trends
#5: Poverty and Teen Pregnancy
#4: Limited disposable income for most consumers risks keeping the US economy in doldrums for many years to come.
Commentary: Unemployment and the economy: we can't manage what we don't know
#3: The changing American family
#2: "The Post-Cash Society"
#1: Food -- new challenges for national and regional grocer chains
How Small Research Firms Can Outperform for Clients (but most don't)
The basis for this statement is that Crain Associates Research LLC has completed a modest business-to-business customer satisfaction program in which we achieved a response rate (completed inteviews/qualified respondents) of 83%. That's a solid accomplishment, leaving little room for speculation about the impact of response bias on results.
The best sales pitch is based on truth. Larger firms work on volume -- how to do as many projects as possible simultaneously, and complete them as quickly as possible to free up resources for the next assignment. That's reality. Unless a client is willing to work on a retainer relationship (most aren't), that's the way the system works.
Boutique companies, especially those not driven by greed, can be different.
We are willing to invest the sweat equity to send emails is small groups to avoid spam filters, truly personalize email for respondents, call respondents by phone and build a personal relationship with each. Personalization is not "mail merge."
When a respondent makes a superficial "don't bother me" response to a survey invitation, they don't expect a personal reply. The shock of finding that they are dealing with a real person and not a computer is fun to see -- you can imagine the shocked expression when they open the reply, particularly if their message had included something not politically correct.
The authentic personal touch makes a difference.
Posted: St. Patrick's Day, 2013.
The boss in the bedroom
No, this is not some sort of cliche about who's the boss at home. Rather, imagine being in bed, snuggling with your significant other, and having your boss jump out of your cellphone and start yelling instructions about some crisis at work. Or your mother? Or your ex?
If this sounds like a nightmare, it isn't. In fact, it may be your future.
Engineers have developed holographic images for handheld devices. Today, that means
that instead of a keyboard on a screen as we have now, the keyboard is projected into the air or onto a table top, and you type on it as you would on a real keyboard or screen. For a lot of us, trying to fit fingers into tight spaces, that's a good thing. Errors like thay for that would disappear. http://www.virtual-laser-devices.com/
However, as with all technology, once an engineer knows how to do something, he then tries to apply what he knows to everything else in his world. Take video calling as an example. Today, we see people on a screen. Tomorrow, we may have holograms sitting in the room with us (think Obi Wan). It may also be the case that someone calling you could emerge from your device. If that's a rockstar or supermodel, that might not be a bad thing. How many of us get those kinds of calls?
If it's your boss, mother or ex?? Are you working in your home office in your skivvies? Cleaning a mess the pup left on the floor? Or doing anything else you hadn't planned on putting on display on the Web?
Somewhere, I bet Groucho Marx and Charlie Chaplin are laughing hysterically at the possibilities.
16 Nov 2012
Please feel free to republish what is posted here, as long as Crain Associates Research LLC is noted as the source.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please click on Consumer Trends link above for these older posts
Latest News: St. Louis research proves that demand for abortions can be reduced dramatically by making birth control readily available
Commentary: Declining life expectancy among poorer, white Americans
Commentary: Henry Ford and the US economy
Commentary: How do retailers justify spending on mobile payments?
Commentary: Pew Research on the US middle class
Commentary: John Bogle on the US economy
Commentary: Jobs v. Deficits
Commentary: Misusing America's wealth [on patent law]
Consumer Trends #7: Another milestone in the evolution of the US [social progress]
Commentary: Misinterpreting data 101
COMMENTARY: New Federal Reserve report on the hammering of the middle class
COMMENTARY: Is Best Buy following Borders into history?
#4 (revisited): Limited disposable income risks keeping the US economy in doldrums for many years to come.
Commentary: "Technology addiction" is perhaps the newest category of psychological disorder.
Commentary: What is Facebook Really Worth?
#6: Birth Rate Trends
#5: Poverty and Teen Pregnancy
#4: Limited disposable income for most consumers risks keeping the US economy in doldrums for many years to come.
Commentary: Unemployment and the economy: we can't manage what we don't know
#3: The changing American family
#2: "The Post-Cash Society"
#1: Food -- new challenges for national and regional grocer chains
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