A guest post by Andrew Reid of Vision Critical.
When market researchers want to find out what customers think, they do everything---except ask them directly. Face to face. Or even Facebook to Facebook.
For decades, market researchers have surveyed customers anonymously by using methods that haven’t been cutting-edge since telephones and paper surveys were the last word in marketing technology. The results may or may not be accurate because response rates are so weak that many surveys aren’t statistically significant. These efforts don’t do much, if anything, to expand our brands.
Enough of that.
We in marketing research can strive for better results. We don’t have to bore customers with “do you agree, strongly agree, strongly disagree …” surveys that go on longer than the last Harry Potter book. By combining social media, business intelligence and customer interaction technology, we can initiate ongoing conversations with our customers that yield instant, bankable market intelligence.
Using business intelligence and customer relationship management systems to identify highly engaged customers, market researchers can invite them into ongoing discussions about products, services, branding, pricing---everything we study by blind surveys now. Social media is the glue that holds these panels together. It’s the conduit for quick, visual surveys that replace the time consuming paper-based questionnaires. Market researchers can send customers interactive images, full-motion video, even links to virtual worlds where the respondents “act” their replies. Companies distribute the questions to the panels as e-mail attachments, or through Facebook groups, or by tweeting links to Web portals. More engaging content increases response rates and accuracy while keeping customers from dropping out from boredom or overload.
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