Know-How Exchange : Research/Metrics

well, weight ages are very subjective. The best you can do is understand and start with the objective of the research. understand what the problem and why are you doing the researching

See the competition scenario and draw from there too after a SWOT analysis

Dependent on what exactly is required and what type of reasearch group you are meeting

also every category has it own parameters / criterias of importance you can check on your category too

I don't agree with any of the responses!

First, there are two problems with asking people what's important. One is that they will classify as "important" the last thing that irritated them. The other has to do with the difference between "qualifiers" (sometimes called "table stakes") and "determiners" - what determines who wins the business. Is airline safety important? Do people (generally) choose an airline based on its safety record?

Second, simple correlations can prove very misleading - again, for several reasons. What are you going to correlate with - an overall satisfaction question? Why would you base such judgments on "satisfaction" when customer satisfaction is demonstrably UNrelated to business performance? Moreover, basing judgments of importance upon simple correlations can be misleading due to a statistical situation known as multicolinearity. To avoid these problems, you might consider multiple regression or path analysis, using the metrics of customer value rather than the metrics of customer satisfaction.

Finally, determinations of importance will vary from one market to another, and from one product or service to another. Definitions of value differ on precisely those bases.

For an excellent discussion of these issues, you might want to buy Reidenback's books, "Strategic Six Sigma for Champions." Chapters 4 - 9 address these research issues in considerable detail. You might also visit his web site, www.MarketValueSolutions.com.

Good luck

My question was that i am doing a research on the topic of "Comparative study of customer satisfaction in indian context - A case study of Delhi and NCR" and to find out customer satisfaction i have determined various parameter but i just want to calculate customer satisfaction with the help of customer satisfaction index which is to be calculated on the basis of weights to various parameters. Mu query was that how should I determine weights to those parameters?
I have decided that i would just ask from the customers about the importance of those parameters for them. IS this will be a correct approach?

The Reidenbach book I mentioned has just recently been released in India. Apparently associated with ASQ Quality Press, the book is available through Pearson Education.

A second book by Reidenbach and Goeke, "Competing for Customers and winning with Value," Is also available from the same source. Both have been best sellers in North America and are gaining tremendous interest in India

Reg,

I'd agree with you about the problems of both the unreliability of importance questions (though it doesn't stop Procter & Gamble from using it), or the problem of regression/correlation based approaches - though you can look at what it is that your independent variable is - satisfaction is just the most common example and is widely used. Given the absence of other data both are ways of approaching the problem.

Ideally you would carry out some form of choice-based research (starting with qualitative research to build a decision making model and leading on to stated preference, revealed preference or conjoint) to relate decision making back to the weights but I don't think that's so relevant here.

You may also consider techniques like Kano. Remember, the important part is the weighted gap, not just the weighted importance.

Saul