Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 of this series discussed the first four criteria for selecting a quantitative market research firm. This part discusses the fifth and sixth criteria.
Fifth, are they willing to take a small project as a test or do they only want the bigger pricier ones?
Market research suppliers often specialize in the types of projects they conduct. Before you contact suppliers, it is wise to determine if they have an industry specialty and then to get a sense of the types of customers they serve. Select those that fit your market research needs.
I may be headed into a sensitive area, but so be it.
Some firms position themselves as all things to all potential clients, at least in my experience as a client. In actuality, some firms specialize in what the industry calls “field and tab,” that is, relatively simple studies of attitudes and perceptions, basic customer satisfaction, direct mail tests, concept evaluation and the like. Such a study basically involves developing a questionnaire, locating an appropriate sample, fielding data collection, analyzing the data, generally with frequencies and/or cross-tabulations and report-writing.
Other firms specialize in (or are definitely prepared to handle) more sophisticated studies using conjoint analysis (which requires specific types of questions) or discrete modeling. Such projects require significantly more statistical analysis and therefore expertise and the requisite staff to handle this level of analysis.
Narrow your field of potential market research suppliers beforehand, based on the types of projects they tend to do.
Having done so, you will probably want to test your chosen supplier with a relatively small project to get a sense of how well you work together.
Is the supplier open to, and appreciative of, such an arrangement? Or do they push to either up-sell your project or want to hold off for a larger opportunity? If so, this supplier might not be a good fit for you.
Sixth, how responsive are they? How soon are my messages answered? Do I have to pull teeth to get answers? Are they proactive in keeping me informed about the status of the project or do I have to pester them for this information?
This aspect of a client-supplier relationship is difficult to ascertain short of conducting a project with them. In my experience, almost all suppliers are very responsive during the initial sales cycle.
One way to get a peek at potential communication issues is your conversations with both the person who will be your primary contact at the firm and the other significant team members (the data collection manager, the analyst to name two).
This is also a main reason to test new suppliers with a small project. If they don’t meet this test, I would decline to do business with them.
More to follow.
Comments welcome.
Dr. Bob
{ 1 trackback }