Net Promoter is an approach to customer satisfaction measurement.  The new SparkScore is Satmetrix’ approach to the growing field of text analytics and sentiment analysis.

The announcement seems to have gotten significant attention so far, including a nice writeup from Mashable, which likened the SparkScore a “Klout score for brands.”

Coming soon on Research Access will be my interview with Satmetrix CEO Richard Owen, and conversations with Metavana’s CEO Michael Tupanjanin and the brains behind the SparkScore, Metavana founder and renowned physicist Dr. Minh Duong-van.

Photo Credit

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No, I’m not going to go on a rant about politics. It’s something more personal to me.

Over the past forty plus years, our culture has become increasingly infused with a wet blanket cynicism about nearly anything related to politics. That cynicism extends to the people who make politics their business.

I get it; people are frustrated. There are many politicians who have shamed not only themselves but also the causes they support and, indeed, the constituents they represent.

But let’s not paint everyone with a broad brush.

I have a unique perspective here. Many, many moons ago, before I worked in the field of market research, I had the privilege of working for and learning from two of the pre-eminent pollsters in the world – Celinda Lake and Mark Mellman.

I had just come from a very heady first job out of college, as an aide to U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Celinda and Mark not only taught me how to be a good researcher, but they also introduced me to a world of professionals – from political consultants to activists to government and association leaders – who generally share one common trait: they care passionately about their work.

I know that passion – and professionalism – are shared across the aisle, as I got to know people not only in the Democratic ranks but also on the Republican side.

The thing that really gets under my skin though is when I hear people suggest pollsters are dishonest, that they “cook the numbers,” so to speak, to support a political agenda.

Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s quite the opposite. I remember pollsters being very hard on themselves. In fact, one thing that really made an impression on me is that Mark and Celinda consulted Dr. Bob Groves about methodological issues. Dr. Groves is a legend in the field of survey methodology and is now serving as the U.S. Census Director.

So let’s take a more nuanced view – shall we?

We in the market research community should be the first to support pollsters; they’re fellow researchers, after all.

And to the general public, I say don’t bash pollsters until you get to know one.

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Customer satisfaction (or CSAT) measurement is a highly specialized, but vitally important, part of the research world.  

Yet I think there are many researchers and marketers who aren’t terribly familiar with the ins and outs of customer satisfaction and loyalty measurement.

Here is a quick ABC guide to what you need to know about CSAT.

S

Satmetrix 

Satmetrix, known as the Net Promoter Company, is the firm that administers the Net Promoter methodology.

A

ACSI

The ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index) is a methodology for measuring customer satisfaction.  It factors in the following variables:  customer expectations, perceived quality, perceived value, customer complaints and customer loyalty.

T

Tracking

Customer satisfaction and loyalty are fluid; therefore, most measurement programs involve tracking scores consistently over time.

I

Indicator

Customer satisfaction is a leading indicator of business success; that’s why it’s so important to understand it and take action based on it.

S

SCI

The Secure Customer Index is a customer satisfaction measurement methodology developed by D. Randall Brandt.  The SCI combines three elements – overall satisfaction, likelihood to continue using the service, and likelihood to recommend.

F

Future

The purpose of customer satisfaction research is to assess current attitudes toward a company in order to predict purchase behavior in the future.

A

Answering the Ultimate Question

Answering the Ultimate Question is a book by Fred Reichheld which outlines the Net Promoter methodology.

C

Calculating Your Net Promoter Score

The Net Promoter score is just what the name implies – the net of customers who are “promoters” minus those who are “detractors.”  The core Net Promoter question asks on a scale of 0 to 10 how likely a customer is to recommend the company to a colleague or friend.  The NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of customers who give a score of 0 through 6 (“Detractors”) from the percentage who give a score of 9 or 10 (“Promoters”).

T

Truth

Like all research, customer satisfaction research is a search for truth.  There are different approaches, but the search for truth must continue unabated.

I

Index

Most customer satisfaction methodologies yield an index; a single score which is easy for an organization to understand, and, importantly, can be the basis for positive action.

O

Out of Luck

Firms that ignore customer satisfaction altogether will soon find themselves out of luck.

N

Net Promoter

Net Promoter is a customer satisfaction measurement methodology, developed by  Satmetrix, Bain & Company, and Fred Reichheld.  The Net Promoter Score is obtained by asking customers about their likelihood to recommend a company to a friend or colleague.

You can use this link to get a discount if you’d like to join me at the Net Promoter Conference in San Francisco, February 1-3, 2012.

I hope to see you there!

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It is by far the biggest sporting event in the U.S.  Perhaps more significantly, it is annually the highest rated television program.

The contest is preceded by two weeks of sheer, unadulterated hype.  It’s not just the sports networks and websites making hay.  Other media outlets capitalize on Super Bowl hype in the weeks before the game.  Every commercial is dissected six ways to Sunday.  Even the halftime musical performance gets a huge amount of attention (this year it’s by Madonna).

This hype may excite you or disgust you, but you can’t ignore it.

As a researcher and a marketer, I find the hype surrounding the Super Bowl endlessly fascinating.

This has been true even in years where my team is not in the game.  My beloved New England Patriots are going up against a very worthy opponent, the New York Giants.

This year’s contest, as a rematch of a hotly contested (and wildly disappointing to Patriots fans) game from four years ago, looks to be bigger and badder than ever.  Add in the growth of social media, and you have the makings of a true marketing spectacle.

Awesome!

As a market researcher, I’ve heard endless talk over the past few years about how the poor economy has had a negative effect on our industry.

Well, I say we should be thankful as market researchers that the Super Bowl gives us so many things to measure, analyze and interpret.

The Super Bowl is a great thing for anyone involved in marketing.  Market researchers should be thankful for this bonanza.

Here are some of the many places I can only imagine extensive research has occurred connected to the Super Bowl.

-       Of course, at the National Football League, by widely respected Director of Research Alicia Rankin.
-       At ESPN and other sports media entities
-       At NBC, the television network broadcasting the event
-       By the city of Indianapolis, hosting the event for the first time
-       By the dozens of television advertisers for this year’s game

This list just scratches the surface.  Literally thousands of businesses run Super Bowl related promotions, creating numerous business opportunities for the market research industry.

Yes, it’s a hype-filled marketing event, a spectacle of capitalism that gives a major boost to our economy.

Only in America!

Please share your thoughts on Super Bowl market research in the comments section below.

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Now we’ve taken it a step further.  Presenting the Research Access QR Code Gallery.

Because we write about QRs so often, we get a little excited when we spot those little guys in the field.  So we’ve started snapping photos of them.

We thought it would be fun to start a gallery of all the QR codes we find.

But to build a truly great QR Code Gallery, we need your help.

When you spot QR codes in the wild, take a picture of them and email them to us at info@researchaccess.com.  We especially like custom QR codes, which can incorporate color and other design elements.

Happy hunting, and we look forward to posting your QR codes!

Here’s a link to Research Access’ QR Code Gallery.

Research Access QR Code Posts

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According to the center’s director, Lee Rainie, “the share of adults in the United States who own tablet computers nearly doubled from 10% to 19% between mid-December and early January”.  E-reader growth was similarly dramatic.

Rainie pointed out that this sharp growth came after a period where there was “not much change” in the growth of tablet computer ownership.  ”As the holiday gift-giving season approached,” Rainie added, “the marketplace for both devices dramatically shifted.  In the tablet world, Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes and Noble’s Nook Table were introduced at considerably cheaper prices than other tablets.  In the e-book reader world, some versions of the Kindle and Nook and other readers fell below $100.”

This is a shocking level of growth for any new technology.

Remember, when the iPad first came out, the doubters were numerous and vociferous.  There were many, and there are many still, who feel tablets don’t serve a useful purpose that can’t be served by either a smartphone or a laptop.  To these doubters, a tablet is something of a novelty, with dubious staying power.

This new data leaves no doubt:  Game Over.

People want tablets, and they want them very badly.  And as Rainie pointed out, the introduction of cheaper iPad alternatives – the Nook and the Kindle Fire – is making tablet computing much more accessible. The tablet is here to stay in a big way.

So what should we make of this phenomenon in the context of market research?

Should we drag our feet, like so many of us did when it came to the adoption of online research a mere decade ago?

Obviously not.

The advent of the tablet is a major opportunity for many people in many industries.

For researchers, the appealing features of tablets are as obvious as they are many:

• Bigger screens = better user experience
• Multi-touch technology = ease of use
• Portability = data collection flexibility
• Advanced computing power = sophisticated presentation of stimuli and interaction with respondents

Services like Survey Analytics’ SurveyPocket have already begun to break methodological ground with innovative tablet-based research applications.  I look forward to seeing the many creative ways researchers think to take advantage of the charms of the tablet computer in 2012 and beyond.

Let the tablet surveys begin.

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When Apple founder Steve Jobs died a few months ago, there was an unprecedented reaction to the death of a business leader.

In the week or so after his death, there was a huge amount of online conversation about Jobs, much of it in the form of tributes and an outpouring of sentiment.

I personally felt sadness at his passing, and I discussed his life and legacy with a number of friends and family members.

I was interested to learn more about the man and his accomplishments, so I just read Walter Isaacson’s fascinating Jobs biography.

One thing that really hit home for me when reading the biography was Jobs’ attitude about market research.  It can be described as nothing short of disdain.

From page 170 of the Isaacson biography:

“On the day he unveiled the Macintosh, a reporter from Popular Science asked Jobs what type of market research he had done.  Jobs responded by scoffing, “Did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research before he invented the telephone?”

Here are a few other Jobs quotes from over the years about market research:

“Mr. Jobs’s own research and intuition, not focus groups, were his guide. When asked what market research went into the iPad, Mr. Jobs replied: ‘None. It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they want.’”

“It’s hard for [consumers] to tell you what they want when they’ve never seen anything remotely like it. Take desktop video editing. I never got one request from someone who wanted to edit movies on his computer. Yet now that people see it, they say, ‘Oh my God, that’s great!’”

I find this all a bit baffling.  The last time I checked, Apple had a market research department.

Don’t get me wrong; I read Blink.  I can appreciate the power of intuition.

But something tells me there’s been a ton of good market research done over the years at Apple. Maybe people just didn’t bring it to Jobs’ attention.

As much as I admire Jobs’ abilities as a business leader, I have to say he was wrong about market research. He was prone to making extreme statements, and this is probably just one of many examples.

It sounds to me like Jobs was referring to market research in its worst, poorly constructed and uncreative form. Bad market research is definitely a waste and a distraction.

But market research done well – and creatively – is invaluable.

What do you think about Steve Jobs’ statements about market research?  Was he right? Was there a grain of truth to what he said? Or was he totally wrong.  Share your point of view in the comments section.

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I’ve wanted to attend a Net Promoter event for some time now, but this is my first time doing so, and I’m really looking forward to it.

You can expect continuing coverage of the conference on Research Access.

Even better, join me at the conference!  Use this link to get a discount, and I’ll see you there!

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The webinar title is “Mobile Market Research Trends and SurveySwipe Demo.”

Part One – Mobile Market Research Trends

In the first part of this webinar, marketing expert Romi Mahajan and SurveySwipe co-founder Chandika “Chad” Bhandari will discuss the hottest trends in mobile surveys today.

- Mobile ethnography
- Passive data collection
- Gamification
- Hyperlocal surveys
- Panel communities
- The effect of HTML5 on mobile surveys

Part Two – SurveySwipe Demonstration

In the second part of the webinar, John Nelson will demonstrate SurveySwipe mobile survey technology. John will show how SurveySwipe leverages the trends discussed by Romi and Chad, and much more.

Here is the link to register for the webinar:  https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/401831910

See you there!

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Come to find out, flashcards as a study tool may soon go the way of the Sony Walkman.

Enter Quizlet.

My son had a huge list of vocabulary words to learn.  He logged on to Quizlet, and one of his Facebook friends had already created a quiz where the vocabulary words fly across the screen, inviting the user to race to type the definition as quickly as possible.  With each round, the words got faster and faster.

I was convinced right away that this was a great way to learn – at least the type of learning that involves memorization.

Quizlet incorporates two elements into studying which make it more fun, and ultimately more effective.

These same two elements are on the cutting edge of market research as well.

Gamification:  Students can create a variety of games where the objective is to answer questions relating to their class material.

Social:  They can share the games they created with classmates and compete against them, and they can search for relevant games throughout the Quizlet site.

See for yourself.  Check out this demonstration video to see Quizlet in action.  As you watch the video, think about how some of these elements can enhance your next research project.

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