Market Research

Survey Skills
Surveys
 Can be conducted face to face
 Over the telephone
 By postal return
 Can contain, classification, qualitative and
quantitative questions.
Classification
 These questions tend to deal with
demographic issues
 Age
 Occupation
 Marital Status
 Income
 They are useful for identifying the types of
people using a product or service.
Example of classification question
on online survey
 The remaining portion of the survey requires that you complete your visit
to ibm.com before continuing the survey.

 Have you completed your visit to ibm.com?



 Yes
 No



 Back

Closed questions
 These elicit a simple yes or no response.
 E.g. Have you been on a cruise before?
Quantitative questions
 These are questions that can be measured
statistically (e.g. on a scale of 1 to 5, satisfied,
very satisfied)
 The advantage of this kind of questioning is that
is gives very precise answers (20%) of
respondents were dissatisfied or very
dissatisfied)
 The disadvantage is that quantative research
cannot explain why people were dissatisfied.
Use of scales
 Responses can be graded by measuring them
on a scale. This can be 1-5, 1-10.
 The opposite ends of the scale measure the
extremes of satisfaction and dissatisfaction
 ‘On a scale of 1-5 where 1 is extremely satisfied
and 5 is extremely dissatisfied how would you
rate your satisfaction with P and O cruises?’
 This method is often used for telephone polls
Satisfaction surveys
 Again uses a scale but based on level of
satisfaction/dissatisfaction.
 Very satisfied, satisfied, Neither satisfied
nor dissatisfied, dissatisfied, very
dissatisfied.
 Frequently used on customer satisfaction
surveys.
Qualitative questions
 These look in depth at customers opinions
and feelings. Can often be a question
such as ‘why do like cruise holidays?’
followed by a box to fill in.
 What are problems with this?-suggest
solutions
Combine question types
 An ideal survey will have a combination of
classification, qualitative and quantitative
questions.
 E.g. ‘on a scale of 1-5 where 1 is extremely
satisfied and 5 is extremely dissatisfied how
would you rate your satisfaction with your cabin?
 What did you particularly like or dislike about
your cabin?
Asking the right questions!
Questions should …
 Be unambiguous- the meaning should be clear
 Be jargon/slang free
 Only contain one element (avoid asking multiple
questions)
 Be relevant
 Be as few in number as possible (BT!)
 Remember there is information we need to know
and information it would be nice to know.
Pilot
 One way to spot errors in your
questionnaire/survey and to identify
misunderstanding is to do a pilot.
 In this you ask a small (e.g. 5) sample of
people to complete the questionnaire and
then analyse the answers.
Contact methods (problems)
 By mail- The problem with this is the response
rate (be honest would you fill in a survey and
post it!). One way to improve response is to offer
a prize and include a stamp.
 By telephone- Effective if expensive. Also many
people are now ex- directory.
 Face to Face- The staff must be trained to avoid
body language etc. influencing answers. Where
and when survey is carried out are also issues.
Other Methods
 Focus Groups
 Observation.