If your team has built a relationship and trust with a market research company, it’s hard to say goodbye. However, if you clicked on this article this thought is probably already lingering in your head.
At the end of the day, your organization is choosing to allocate budget to conducting market research. It’s important that you are receiving high quality, reliable data to drive business forward – otherwise, you will never earn a return on your investment.
Here are 4 signs it’s time to break up with your market research partner.
1. One-Trick Pony
One of the best parts of market research is that you are never short of options. Regardless of your industry, audience, or objectives, there is a methodology that is most closely aligned with your needs.
- Are you a bank that wants to understand why customers are leaving? Conduct an exit survey.
- Are you a manufacturing company that wants to measure the success of your marketing efforts? Conduct a campaign evaluation survey.
- Are you a grocery store that wants to gather insights on why customers choose name-brand products over store-brand? Conduct a shop-along.
Alright, we could be here all day if I don’t stop. I think you get my point.
What is the value of all these different types of studies, if your market research partner can only execute one or two of them?
It is important for a third-party market research company to be your one-stop shop so you don’t have to juggle multiple vendors.
Look for a partner who cannot online provide both quantitative and qualitative studies, but one that can help you through every step of the process.
For example, if you are conducting a focus group – make sure the market research company can help with programming a screener survey, recruitment, hosting, moderating, and reporting.
You will save yourself a lot of time, resources, and money!
2. Provides Little Interpretation of Data
There are many companies in the United States that give market research a bad rep. I would formally like to apologize to any business that has worked with a market research company that charged you $10,000 to conduct an online survey to only receive a PDF export of the findings.
While it is important your research partner is able to seamlessly execute a study, it is even more valuable for that same partner to provide a thorough interpretation of the data and feedback.
It can be challenging to read through charts and graphs and try to understand what it all means, or how you can use the data to improve business and marketing strategies.
Our market research company always adds a level of interpretation for our reports. This includes a break down of question by question results and recommendations for how to use the data to drive important decisions.
3. Lack of Communication
The only times you hear from your market research vendor shouldn’t be when you sign the project proposal and when they deliver the research report.
Depending on the length or timeline of the project it is important that the market research firm is checking in and providing progress updates at least once a week.
Not only does this give your team peace of mind, but it also assures that if any mistake is made, it is resolved almost immediately before it’s too late.
For example, you are conducting an in-home usage test with a third-party. During the recruitment process, they have not provided any status updates or sent examples of types of participants they have signed up.
Fast forward to the end of fieldwork and you receive the report. Here is where you realize that the people who participated in the study do not at all align with your target customers. At this point, it’s too late to re-recruit because the study is over.
More specifically with quantitative studies such as online surveys, the first time you are seeing the data shouldn’t be the report readout for some of the same reasons.
If your current market research provider doesn’t offer a client portal where you can see the data as soon as a survey question is answered, then you are not receiving the value you should be.
Our market research company offers a live client portal that offers both a full sample view and a cross-tabulation view.
Click the links below to see for yourself!
4. Constant Change in Point of Contact
A tell-tale sign if there are internal problems with a market research company is when there is a constant change in your main point of contact. It can be frustrating to reintroduce your company, products, and services repeatedly.
When you are constantly being passed along onto different project managers, it is easy for things to fall through the cracks.
Find a market research agency that offers a dedicated project team and can promise there will be one main point of contact from project start to project end.
Again, communication is key for any third-party vendor your hire. This starts with having a consistent account or project manager.
Work with a Market Research Company You Can Depend On
Drive Research is a full-service market research company located in New York. We help companies of all sizes and industries across the United States.
Our team takes pride in helping organizations become more successful by extracting insights from the data and feedback. We are not satisfied unless your team is able to accelerate business strategy – both internal and external – with the data we provide.
Contact us to learn how we can help! We are happy to be your rebound after breaking up with your current market research company 😉.
- Message us on our website
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 888-725-DATA
- Text us at 315-303-2040
Emily Carroll
A SUNY Cortland graduate, Emily has taken her passion for social and content marketing to Drive Research as the Marketing Coordinator. She has earned certificates for both Google Analytics and Google AdWords.
Learn more about Emily, here.
