Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5 of this series discussed the first six criteria for selecting a quantitative market research firm. This part introduces the seventh and eighth.
Seventh, how clear is their pricing? What is included in their services and what is extra?
Pricing clarity is critical. You may or may not want to always seek the lowest price. In evaluating market research services, pricing is driven by the confluence of complexity of the project, the sampling costs, the timeframes, and most critically, length and quantities of the survey or interview, analytic requirements, and quality control.
That said, you do want pricing clarity.
I have worked with suppliers who would low-ball the initial project costs and then nickel-and-dime me to death on the back end. Oh, you want a frequency? Well, that’s extra. You want SPSS output? That’s extra. You want a daily status report? That’s extra.
Insist on knowing exactly what the deliverables are and how much they will cost.
Eighth, do their references check out?
It continually surprises me that otherwise rational, hard-headed business people, let alone market researchers, do not ask for or check references. I surmise that the rationale for not doing so is that if a potential supplier can give references, they must check out okay. What company would provide references that would not give the supplier a good review?
Checking out references is a matter of tone. When you check references you listen for what is said, how it is said and what is not said. Unless a supplier was truly abysmal, I would not give a negative review to any supplier if you called me for a reference on the ones I use, for example. But I would certainly choose my words very carefully and use intonation to convey my lack of enthusiasm. If a supplier is truly superior, I would let you know and I would let you know what they do that makes them superior.
More to follow.
Comments welcome.
Dr. Bob
