Making decisions on what product and services a business should promote requires quality information.  Market research is one of the key ways to help you get a true sense of what the consumer needs and a great way to get answers to questions that can affect your business. Done properly, market research is an important tool for achieving business success and can generate significant ROI.

The two most common methods of collecting customer data are market surveys and focus groups.

Market Surveys

Market surveys are one-on-one, usually phone-based and anonymous. Each survey participant is a datapoint. With a population sample that best represents your customer base, you have greater confidence in the information as an accurate representation of client opinion.

Follow up is easier and candid responses to questions are more common. The answers gathered are better for analysis. Also, surveys allow you to track market opinion changes over time, leading to more insight into your business strategy.

Focus Groups

Focus groups tend to be a smaller sample size and act as a collective sharing of opinion with a different dynamic – information is shared in a group setting and is not anonymous.  Focus groups can be a good way to get discussion and brainstorming going and can help uncover ideas or issues that could have been missed otherwise. Other than that, it’s usually more difficult to convince people to voice an opinion when they are part of a group.

Which is Better?

If you want to get a feel for what people think of different business strategies or you want to solicit new ideas, focus groups can be useful.  When it comes to stronger information, market surveys are the better option. Your sample size is greater, participants tend to be more open with their opinions, and the data you collect is easier to analyze.

To learn more on how customer surveys can help your business, call me – Louie Pateropoulos at 416 219 0905 or email me.