October 2011
5 posts
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Blog Break
Q4 has become extremely busy and even trying to produce a weekly blog post has become a huge challenge. Rather than do anything halfheartedly I anticipate taking a break from posting new anything until after the first of the year.
Thanks for your continued support and interest in my posts! Until I return I would like to leave you with this Steve Jobs quote that resonates heavily with me, and...
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What Technology Doesn't Do
I have said this many times over the years, but I say again, I love technology. Though I long-ago abandoned being on the bleeding edge of the tech frontier, I do my best to stay current with the latest developments and offerings. My interest includes hardware and software, plus social networks.
As much as I embrace all things technology, I am reminded on a regular basis how important face to...
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Do You Like Being Taken For Granted?
How many times have you felt like a business owner really doesn’t care if you ever come back to their business or not?
Powerfeedback recently conducted a general population survey in which we asked respondents whether or not they continue to patronize a business even if they are not treated with respect or if they feel that their patronage is valued. Surprisingly, 53% said that they do....
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What Would Columbus Do?
As we approach the celebration of Columbus Day I often ask where are today’s explorers and navigators.
In my world of market research and business consulting I work with companies who are seeking out new and useful information (a.k.a. “explorers”) and while also looking for direction on what to do (a.k.a. “navigators”) with the collected intelligence. The...
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What Do Women Know About Leadership?
Do women have more leadership skills than men?
This week I had the privilege of working with three different women. Though all were in different fields they all had at least these things in common.
entrepreneurs
moms
In a committed relationship
Even before I learned more about them it was very clear that they were all very smart, well-organized and highly competent professionals. They...
September 2011
7 posts
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How Do You Overcome Obstacles?
Do you train your staff on how to properly overcome barriers and how to best deal with objections?
Yesterday I received a phone call from a market research company on behalf of my bank wanting to do a customer satisfaction survey. After asking how long it would take, I then asked what the incentive was to participate. The “interviewer”, and I am being generous with the use of that...
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Why You Should Listen To Everybody →
Have you ever been stunned to meet someone who can have an immediate impact on your life?
I have long subscribed to the theory that anybody you encounter in your life can provide an educational opportunity for you. We often think of these “educators” as chief executives, politicians, celebrities or media people when in fact every one of us has knowledge that will benefit someone.
...
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The Other Jobs Problem
With over 14 million people unemployed you would assume that all of the available jobs are accounted for, right?
Unfortunately you would be wrong.
I have met a number of small business owners who are unable to fill available jobs. This is especially problematic for eateries. Why is this the case you ask? Typically these establishments pay an hourly wage of $8-10. If they were to work a 40...
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What Products Do You Sell?
Is it possible that your employees are clueless on the products and services that you offer?
If you say no way, I respectfully submit that you might be wrong. I base this on several personal experiences, the most recent came just today.
I attempted to use my Verizon telephone calling card from a pay phone, and yes, they still do exist! It turns out the access phone number listed on my card...
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Why Hospitals Should Watch Wait Times
Would you go to a hospital ER/ED with a shorter or longer wait time?
Obviously the answer the answer to this question depends heavily on the nature of your need to seek “emergency” care. However if all things are equal, the answer is not so clear.
I suspected that I fractured my foot. This morning I decided that I needed to see a doctor and most likely would have to have an X-ray...
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How clients get screwed by CATI
You gladly participate each and every time one of those nice interviewers calls your home to participate in a survey, right?
Lately I have been getting swamped with many such calls. Generally speaking many of the interviewers who call are nice, well, as long as you don’t ask them to deviate from their script!
Since I am in the market research business and well understand how difficult it is...
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Do You Value Your Labor?
What makes your employees feel valued and appreciated?
As I was pondering the roots of Labor Day and the plight of today’s union and non union workers I was taken back to a story I heard earlier this week.
Powerfeedback was interviewing healthcare workers and support staff and one particular interview really stood out for me. The woman was in charge of billing for a private physician...
August 2011
5 posts
19 tags
Are you as smart as McDonald's?
If one of the most successful companies and most accomplished CEO’s relies on customer feedback, shouldn’t you?
“Employees and analysts say he’s guided by a zeal for satisfying customers, even if it comes at the expense of his own ideas and preferences. A few years ago the company did extensive testing on new coffee-cup lids and rolled out a version that consumers liked...
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Do You Measure Your Employees?
Loyalty and productivity are not mutually exclusive to happy and productive employees.
“At the core of these failures is how leaders and entrepreneurs, and employees in turn, typically ask for accountability and are then rewarded. Money is the carrot (or some proxy for money, like vacation time, or a trip, or a bonus, that sort of thing). That works in an industrial operation where there...
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Why Westar Energy is smart, really smart!
“How do we promote the project? How do we attract and engage customers? How will customers accept it?”
Any time a company starts out asking questions like this you can be pretty certain that they are on the road to success!
This article is well worth the read no matter what industry that you are in. At Powerfeedback we focus on the business need first and then talk about methodology and...
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Why market research matters in a downgrade
“The key to a successful start-up is finding out what people want. Where is the demand? What do people really need?”
This quote is tied to a story related to a start-up business. Nonetheless, the exact same principles apply to all businesses!
Even before the United States saw its credit rating downgraded on Friday, the recession and lack of demand presented more than enough...
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Why they need to resign
Standard and Poor’s (S&P) downgraded the United States of America’s credit rating from AAA to AA+. While there is some controversy surrounding the calculations that they used to reach this decision, nonetheless our credit rating has been hurt and we need to respond.
As I write this President Obama is at Camp David for R&R and Congress is home on summer vacation and is not scheduled to...
July 2011
7 posts
16 tags
“To correct the problem, the racing league hired five different research...”
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This quote came from an article in Ad Age and highlights how once again market research saves the day for a business!
When the most recent recession started in 2008 it was all too common to see companies cut back on market research efforts and spending. As Nascar shows us, market research done...
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Why Powerfeedback continues to soar →
“If you’re looking for information that will help you run your business more effectively, the information itself isn’t important. What really matters is what you do with the information once you have it.”
Thanks to Keystone Edge for the interview and coverage!
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What Netflix did wrong
I have to wonder if any heads rolled at Netflix. I mean, okay, you announce a significant price increase and boom, the company gets 4,000+ negative comments on its blog and 79,000+ responses on its Facebook page. I can only image how many tweets were generated over this.
No customer like price increases, especially in a depression like economy such as we continue to experience. That said,...
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Push don't pull if you want a happy ending
In any aspect of your life do you generally have more success if you wait for people to approach you, or if you approach them?
Of course the true answer is when you take the initiative to interact with people you are far more likely to be successful.
So with this in mind why did the Sam’s Club I shopped at today believe that people would take time out of their busy schedule to sit in...
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“Effective market research is one of those...
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Apple users are smart, really smart
”Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
This quote comes from Leonardo da Vinci and pretty much sums up my feelings towards business, life, and technology.
With speculation of an iPhone-5 coming to the market soon, the debate of Android Vs iPhone is heating up again. The Android fans claim that those devices have greater capabilities including customization and power. iPhone devotees cite...
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Do you argue with your vendors?
The best vendors you can have are those that are willing to risk losing your business by challenging you.
Most of the time we like when people agree with us. There are times though when a respectful debate can be very beneficial. This is very true in the area of market research.
Powerfeedback has seen a lot of competitors market research findings over the last decades and sadly, all too...
June 2011
5 posts
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Misdiagnosis By Many Doctors
“Doctors used to pride themselves on their willingness and ability to stand solo. They owned their practices, worked brutal hours and called the shots. But now they’re running for the shelter of health systems, where they draw salaries, work scheduled shifts and accept decisions from above.”
While this article does highlight some of the reasons that private practice physicians are...
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Its good to be old!
Powerfeedback recently concluded an independent poll of employers throughout the United States to better understand their attitude towards older workers.
Of the 741 employers we talked to, 64.6% were working diligently to retain older workers and 53.2% said that they were designing programs to attract older workers to their ranks.
The top reasons offered for this strategy included-
Older...
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Heat & Maverick fans say.... →
Here are results from a quick survey that Powerfeedback did last night in conjunction with our friends and partners at SurveySwipe.
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FAQ's Kill New York Times
Do you rely so heavily on FAQ’s that you are turning off current and potential customers? Based on research that Powerfeedback has done, as well as my own personal experiences, I say yes!
I will share with you just one personal experience, though I could easily convey many more.
About a week ago I signed up for the digital version of the New York Times. I was able to use a discount...
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Political Polls Embracing SmartPhones
If the primary political pollsters were completely candid with the public they would clearly convey that election polling has become far more of an art than a science.
While most of these polling firms prefer phone banks to collect voter input, many do use the web as an adjunct to their phone efforts. Their resistance to the web is vast and ranges from concerns over the sample integrity to...
May 2011
3 posts
28 tags
Rewards With No ROI
What is the return on investment (ROI) for rewarding customer complaints?
As the owner/operator/manager of a consumer based business (eatery, retail store, service business, etc.) you are accustomed to hearing patron complaints. It is very likely that you offer those expressing their opinions some sort of compensation (i.e. gift card) for their feedback, especially if their experience was less...
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Pride at work is slipping
Do you take pride in your work at your workplace?
Given the still high unemployment rate and the number of people looking for work you might expect that employees are setting forth with a personal initiative to take extra pride in their work. Sadly you would be wrong!
In a nationwide poll we ask one simple question; “how much pride to you take in your work at your job?” The chart...
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Be a survey maven like Martha Stewart
Are you so successful that you believe that you don’t need scientific feedback on a regular basis?
Whether you like or dislike Martha Stewart no one can deny her business success. Ms. Stewart has become a regular user of Twitter and a huge advocate of the importance of regularly conducting market research studies.
“She also stresses that Twitter is an excellent source of research....
April 2011
4 posts
15 tags
Customer Satisfaction Gone Wrong
You secured great customer feedback, congratulations! Oops, according to our research 67% of you will not follow up with those who took the time to participate in your study.
The point of conducting a customer satisfaction survey is to learn what your customers are thinking. The disconnect comes in though when you don’t report back to those participants what you learned (even in general...
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Are Your Customers Satisfied?
How many cars have you bought without asking the salesperson a single question or done any type of investigation on the vehicle? If you are like 9 out of 10 people, the answer is zero.
With this in mind we were shocked to learn that a growing number of businesses are shying away from customer satisfaction studies. In a nationwide poll conducted by Powerfeedback of 811 businesses we...
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You can ask 1 question
Based on the great feedback and commentary that we received on our last blog post (“What Matters Most in 2012”) regarding the upcoming Presidential elections, we decided to stay on that genre for this post.
We asked 1304 people if they had an opportunity to pose their own Senators and Congressman just one question, what would they ask? While we received a plethora of diverse...
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What matters most in 2012?
Will the 2012 Presidential election be about “change” or do no harm?
Today President Obama announced his intention to seek re-election in 2012. Though this comes as no surprise, market research firms will probably get the polling wrong. Pundits and pollsters alike have been saying that the Republicans lack any clear front-runners or decisive credible challengers to Mr. Obama. This may indeed...
March 2011
5 posts
15 tags
Are Surveys Valid Market Validation Tools for... →
I appreciate Candice Arnold including my comments in her article.
As for market research being conducted prior to starting a business, to those who may disagree on the merits of it, ask yourself if you would buy a car or select a physician without solid background information.
Market research as well as market sizing and viability testing is one of the keys to success among many other tools...
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Communicating the results
Company conducts survey to learn what customers and/or the employees are thinking. Company gets good feedback and results. Company makes changes yet business and profits remains unchanged. What went wrong?
Sadly we witness this situation on nearly every new client assignment that we accept where we have replaced the incumbent market research firm.
You can solicit feedback but if you...
16 tags
Buzzwords Kill Market Research
Perhaps it is due to a lack of confidence in their own products and services but I am seeing more and more market research firms attempting to rely on buzzwords to secure business. Whatever happened to explaining benefits and detriments of the supposed solutions that they offer?
Recently a potential client came to us and said that among other things that they wanted a heat map presentation of...
30 tags
Why the Dollar is so weak
I had a less than satisfactory experience with Dollar Rent A Car this week. Rather than bore you with all of the tedious details that led me to be dissatisfied, I will instead share with you what Dollar should have done to better handle my disaster in the hopes that your business will benefit from this advice.
If you are going to provide a method of contact for people to share their concerns...
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$4 Gas, No Problem!
Over the last 10 days we have conducted field interviews with drivers at gas stations in five states. Despite the daily rising pump prices, interestingly, there seems to be little fallout from the price spike.
In other words, most of the drivers said that they had not altered their driving habits in a noticeable way, nor were they planning to. Most of the respondents indicated that they would...
February 2011
9 posts
20 tags
Do you text or tweet after sex?
Do you grab your Blackberry, iPhone or Android device immediately following sex? If you say “no”, you may be in the minority!
We just concluded a wide ranging qualitative and quantitative research study that focused on everything from personal relationships to career objectives. Due to client confidentiality we are not able to release the results publicly, but, with client...
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Technology Makes Me More Productive
Eleven years ago or so I started using my first “wireless device”. Back then it wasn’t a “smartphone” as we tend to refer to them today. It was a very simple device that sent and received email. It was the size of a pager (also very popular back then) and was incredibly reliable. The service was provided by Mobitex and not cellular providers as we experience today....
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Eric Marder Associates Ceasing Operations →
While we are all competitors in market research, always tough to see yet another firm close its doors. Best wishes to all of those impacted at Eric Marder Associates.
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Deliver the truth or don't bother
Most market researchers, whether qualitative or quantitative based do a decent job of providing answers to clients. Some even try to be like Powerfeedback and also offer counsel based on the data and findings. Unfortunately though, all too many firms don’t provide the whole truth.
When we are engaged on a new client project we typically ask to see examples of prior completed research...
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Brands Won't Follow You
While some people debate whether or not Twitter is a social media tool, in my opinion, it is a vehicle for Brands and others to express their opinion, and to push their products and services.
Okay, so I have stated, or perhaps over-stated the obvious, right? Not necessarily! A huge challenge for Brands is to actively engage their audience on a regular basis. This builds Brand loyalty and...
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Should we spend more on education?
With all the talk coming from Washington these days about the need to spend more money on education, we wanted to know what the folks throughout the fruited plain think about this, so we asked them!
Question:Should we spend more money on education?
61% said no
34% said yes
5% were unsure
The most common comments we received included-
The current system of tenure must be examined and...