Voices: the CMB Blog

The recent NY Times’ article about people's exhaustion with customer satisfaction surveys made the CMB email rounds in record time. The gist of the article is that people are tired of being asked to fill out customer satisfaction surveys before, after, and during every minor transaction they have with a company. They especially don’t like being pressured by a pleading cashier to “please help me out” and take a survey.

As a company with specialties in customer experience and loyalty—analysis that is dependent on customer feedback—the piece hit a nerve. And the takeaways from the article are worth discussing in a bit more detail:

On the surface there’s not much news here, asking screen upon screen of questions is going to negatively impact more than just response rates, it makes people cranky. The article mentions an excellently titled blog post Infant Who Begins Babies “R” Us Customer Satisfaction Survey Dies of Old Age from a woman who wrote about her displeasure at being asked to complete a questionnaire of more than 45 questions. And it certainly matches up with our findings that ideal survey length is 3 to 6 minutes—any shorter and you may not be giving the respondent enough time to answer, too much longer and you risk making them feel like you don’t value their time.

To incent or not to incent...

that is the question. The answer is a bit more complicated than the Times article suggests. The article quotes Vanderbilt University Management Professor Robert Oliver: “The frequent requests to fill out these surveys, especially with no incentives, have been so annoying that people just stop doing it.” And while it’s true that a subset of survey takers are motivated primarily by monetary incentives or free gifts, the top motivation for more people is a desire to improve the company, its products or services. Saying thank you and letting people know that the collected information will improve service is an effective incentive in itself.

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should

As the article says, the availability of online surveys, free apps, and mobile platforms, means anyone can administer a survey pretty much anywhere. This is problematic, not only because good questionnaire design and data analysis requires specialized skills, but because a constant barrage of questions can feel like harassment.

I love surveys and I will take one anytime I can, but even I don’t like the feeling of being pressured by cashiers, or forced to answer questions before I complete a transaction. There is a difference between asking people for their time to help improve the company and browbeating them into providing data.  A moratorium on forcing customers to answer questions before their card goes through at the register would be an excellent start.

Make a plan before you survey

One of the problems we see, that the Times article doesn’t cover, is the distressing fact that two-thirds of companies report problems with managers not knowing what to do with the data.  Many companies are collecting data with no idea how to apply it or improve the customer experience. Without a focused plan for addressing and applying customer feedback, companies are just going through the motions, and that's a loss for customers and companies alike.

Learn more about our strategic approach to customer satisfaction surveys and best practices in our free download: Putting the Customer First in Customer Satisfaction Surveys

Posted by Megan McManaman. Megan is CMB's Content Marketing Manager. She is having a lot of fun with the 1940 Census data and recently realized her dream of taking the American Community Survey.

Last year we partnered with Constant Contact to learn how consumers use Facebook to connect with brands. Take a look at this cool infographic from Intuit and Column Five featuring some of our findings and how small businesses are using social media:

Download the full report here.

A career in market research can make you pretty sensitive to advertising. An ineffective commercial can make me throw up my hands wondering how it got on air; a great one makes me appreciate all the work that went into making it. Recently, I got to see a behind the scenes example of what goes into a memorable ad campaign in CMB’s work with Aflac.

I expect you’re familiar with Aflac’s Duck, the be-feathered icon has appeared in the brand’s commercials since 1999 and his signature quack is instantly recognizable.  But Aflac faced a challenge, people knew The Duck, but they weren’t sure what he wanted them to do, or much about the company he represented.  To address this branding challenge Aflac needed to educate the market about their products, differentiate themselves from the competition, all while keeping The Duck in the picture.

CMB worked with Aflac, to conduct an innovative brand positioning study using discrete choice. The study allowed the team to:

• Identify the unique needs of  three target audiences: consumers, employers, and brokers

• Identify how specific changes to elements of brand positioning affected each group’s desire to learn more about Aflac, leading to the development of  a user friendly simulator for the brand and their agency

• Deliver optimized brand positioning specifying value statements, how to address audience goals, emotional and functional benefits, and the most compelling proof points.

The results helped guide Aflac and their agency to create ads that let customers get to know the company behind The Duck. Take a look at one of the ads that has gotten nearly 350,000 views on YouTube.

Want to learn more? Join us for a Webinar on March 7^th to hear CMB’s Rich Schreuer and Aflac’s Missy Wood share how CMB helped Aflac use the power of discrete choice to reposition their brand. Register here

Posted by Megan McManaman, Megan is the Content Marketing Manager at CMB. She enjoys watching and  parsing ads but draws the line at the ones with talking babies. Follow her on Twitter at @Megz79.

Join us for CMB's first webinars of 2012!

Tools and Techniques:  Mixing the Science of Quant with the Art of Conversation to Gain Richer Insights

February 2^nd from 12 to 12:30 pm

CMB’s Jeff McKenna and Christine Tchoumba from iModerate Research Technologies share their tips and tricks for taking advantage of one-on-one online conversations to gain more insight from traditional research projects. Jeff and Christine will cover: the benefits of using online conversations to add color to quantitative, how the Consumer Pulse Program case study uses conversation to deepen insight into the most interesting consumer trends, and the challenges and considerations you need to be successful.

Click here to register

Turning Customers into Advocates:  GE CareCredit Increases Customer Loyalty with their Advisory Panel

February 16^th from 12 to 12:45 pm

Learn how CMB helped GE CareCredit redesign their online customer panel, and create a community with high engagement and even higher returns. CMB’s Vice President of Financial Services Jim Garrity and GE CareCredit’s Consumer VOC Leader Sheila Dreyer share how GE CareCredit’s online community of Cardholders has become a group of not only trusted advisors, but strong advocates for the brand.

Click here to register

For more of our upcoming webinars, and to download the ones you've missed, click here.

Posted by Megan McManaman, CMB's Content Marketing Manager.

One of the great things about managing the Voices of CMB Blog is getting to hear perspectives on market research (and more) from CMBers at every level and across our company. The expertise, insightfulness, and creativity of our employees makes editing and reading this blog a real pleasure. And before we gear up to meet 2012, we thought we’d take a look back at just a few of our favorites:

Brant Cruz makes the connection between the Denver Broncos quarterback and segmentation: The Striking Similarities Between Tim Tebow and Strategic Segmentation

Sean Kearney ponders the impact of event sponsorship:
A Slam Dunk for Kia: Social Media Extends the ROI of Event Sponsorship

Judy Melanson looks at taking customer loyalty to the next level:
Customer Loyalty: Are you ready to tattoo your customer's name on YOUR arm?

Marty Murk discusses what happens when customer satisfaction surveys go terribly wrong: Tying Compensation to Customer Satisfaction – A Slippery Slope

Have a market research topic you’d like us to tackle in 2012? Tell us in the comments!

Posted by Megan McManaman, Megan is CMB's Content Marketing Manager. She gets most of her (non skiing and hockey) sporting insights from this blog.

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