A lot can change over the course of ten years and that’s certainly the case with the technologies that are driving today’s researchers. The growing role and use of mobile technology, the spectacular rise of social media and the increasing need to leverage multiple channels to reach audiences have driven real change in the way researchers connect with the public for marketing, customer and employee experience programmes.
Most see these as the positive drivers for modernising market research as we know it. But the last decade has also presented many challenges for the research industry that have caused organisations to work differently or in a smarter way. These challenges include the disruptive elements of ‘quick fix’ DIY surveys, which marketers can understand, create and deploy within a few hours, not to mention the increasingly complex data privacy laws we’re all faced with.
The Annual Confirmit Market Research Technology and Innovation Survey, produced by meaning ltd, analyses the technologies and developments that shape the market research landscape. The 10th edition of the survey, published this year, provides clear evidence of these trends, both positive and disruptive, and marks a sea-change in the way that researchers have had to approach their activities in the past decade.
One of the key changes it notes is that there has been a significant blurring between traditional ‘market research’ and the ‘newer’ practices of Voice of the Customer (VoC) and Customer Experience Management (CEM). This approach to understanding market and customer sentiment still encompasses the key objectives of market research, but looks at the way customers interact with businesses in a much more customer-centric way.
In fact, the survey shows that 70% of research firms are now undertaking some VoC or CEM work and a majority are using NPS ®(Net Promoter Score) in some way. However, ‘traditional’ customer satisfaction studies are by far the most prevalent way of exploring the Voice of the Customer – showing that there is considerable scope for marketers to bring the traditionally separate functions of customer service and research together to provide a much more relevant, holistic view of their markets.
“The research industry clearly is adapting to the new data-rich, ‘always on’ landscape that we find ourselves in today,” explains Tim Macer, managing director at meaning. “VoC is a natural place for research companies to be, but it won’t be sustainable if the industry doesn't innovate further to deliver a more integrated product. At present, there are noticeable gaps in provision when it comes to integrating research data with other streams of data, and in dealing with the explosion of comment and other unstructured data from customers.”
At the same time, the survey also made it crystal clear that the mobile channel remains a key area of development potential for research firms, in exactly the same way that mobile has transformed the digital marketing experience of many organisations.
“The last ten years have been dubbed the ‘decade of the mobile device’ and mobile has certainly been a key technology for MR organisations,” said Ole Andresen, director of product management at Confirmit. “The growth in this area shows no sign of slowing down, with 42% of MR organisations now able to deliver surveys via mobile app, and 70% able to run them via mobile browser.”
The survey findings reflect the experiences of many organisations who are now seeking to embrace the mobile channel, using either mobile app, browser or even SMS, across the different programmes they run. Other key findings of the survey include:
• Data privacy issues are a major disrupter for organisations collecting large amounts of data
• The use of the web as a data collection tool remains strong, with telephone research moving away from the mainstream to provide a niche offering.
• There is a measurable move towards integrated MR software platforms, and away from separate tools
• PowerPoint remains the most popular method of delivering research results, although the use of dashboards is expected to grow
• 10% of firms use word clouds as the main tool for presenting text analytics results – but their usefulness as a standalone tool is questioned.
To access the full Confirmit Market Research Technology and Innovation Survey, based on the responses of 240 MR firms globally, please Click here.
By Karine Del Moro, VP Marketing at Confirmit.
PrivSec Conferences will bring together leading speakers and experts from privacy and security to deliver compelling content via solo presentations, panel discussions, debates, roundtables and workshops.
For more information on upcoming events, visit the website.
comments powered by Disqus