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The short tongue-in-cheek answer is: for the same reasons you don’t do your own dental work!
Poor knowledge of the market research discipline, inferior technical capabilities, and lack of the objectivity a third party provides should be enough to have you consider our services.
In case you are not convinced, see our Top DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Research Pitfalls, or better yet,
contact Reveal Research for a free consultation…
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Top 7 DIY Research Pitfalls. |
- Not knowing what you are looking for.
Doing market research in the hopes of discovering something (anything!) about your clients can be an exercise in futility if you don’t know the right questions to ask! Establishing clear objectives for a research study is essential to gathering information necessary to help solve specific issues.
- Selecting appropriate Research types, Methods, and Techniques.
Just handing out questionnaires is not good enough. Professional market researchers use a variety of techniques like telephone interviewing, conducting online surveys, focus groups or mystery shopping. How do you decide which is the most appropriate and cost effective way to get the data you need?
- Lack of segmentation, or researching the wrong group.
Who should you be asking? Your most profitable clients, or the ones that don’t give you enough business? Prospective clients or the ones who switched to your competitor?
- Not knowing how to guarantee a statistically valid response rate.
The best surveys or questionnaires are useless if you do not get customers to answer them. Should you offer an incentive for their time and effort and if so, what kind? Should you call or email to remind them that their input matters?
- Statistics and analysis of gathered data.
Get the most out of your data! There is an abundance of information stored in collected data, but it’s only available to those familiar with statistical analysis and tools. Should you use Mean, Median, or Mode? T-test or chi-squared? Correlation or regression tests?
- Inability to assure Confidentiality and Impartiality.
Having an independent third party conducting a research study dramatically increases willingness of respondents to share their true feelings and thoughts. It also guarantees that no internal agendas or preconceptions will cloud the results.
- Ignoring your market research.
The only thing worse than not doing market research at all is spending money on it and not being able to understand what the data implies. A spreadsheet and some graphs will do little good without a detailed report containing in-depth analysis and clear, actionable recommendations.
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