Benchmarking studies are invaluable tools for businesses aiming to stay competitive and innovative in their respective industries. By comparing their performance metrics against industry standards or leading competitors, companies can identify areas where they excel and where there is room for improvement. This process not only highlights best practices but also uncovers gaps in performance that might otherwise go unnoticed. For our customers, this means gaining a clear, objective view of their market position and understanding the steps needed to enhance their operations and strategies.

Our benchmarking studies provide actionable insights that drive strategic decision-making. We utilize benchmarks from similar clientele and leverage our extensive in-house datasets to ensure the most relevant and accurate comparisons. By analyzing data from these tailored sources, businesses can make informed decisions about resource allocation, process improvements, and strategic initiatives. For instance, if a company discovers through benchmarking that its customer service response times are slower than the industry average, it can implement targeted improvements to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. This data-driven approach ensures that changes are not just reactive but are based on solid evidence, leading to more effective and sustainable improvements.

For teams, benchmarking fosters a culture of continuous improvement within organizations. It encourages businesses to regularly assess their performance and strive for excellence by setting realistic, achievable goals based on industry benchmarks. This proactive stance not only boosts internal morale and productivity but also enhances the company’s reputation in the market. For our customers, engaging in benchmarking studies means they are committed to maintaining high standards and are always looking for ways to innovate and improve, significantly enhancing their competitive edge and overall success.

Ready to take your business to the next level? Contact us today to learn how our benchmarking studies, tailored to your specific industry and clientele, can provide the insights you need to outperform the competition and achieve your strategic goals. Let’s work together to unlock your full potential!

Net Promoter Score (NPS) studies are a powerful tool for gauging consumer opinion and loyalty. These studies involve asking customers a simple question: “How likely are you to recommend our product or service to a friend or colleague?” Responses are collected on a scale from 0 to 10, with scores of 9-10 indicating “Promoters,” 7-8 as “Passives,” and 0-6 as “Detractors”

A brand’s NPS is traditionally calculated by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters, providing a score that can range from -100 to 100. This metric helps businesses understand customer loyalty and identify areas for improvement, making it a valuable indicator of overall customer satisfaction and potential for growth.

Using AI for automated data translation in NPS studies significantly enhances the efficiency and accuracy of data analysis. AI-powered tools can quickly translate open-ended responses which historically can take weeks to translate by hand, and score them in a way for us to quickly represent them in NPS scoring for brand tracking

We have partnered with an AI data analytics team to provide our clients with the best in automated open-end scoring and translation for the best dashboards for brand tracking and customer feedback tracking. With our partnership, Strategic Research collects, organizes, and loads your data into the analysis platforms, monitors the results, and ensures your dashboards are providing you with real-time results.

Digital Diaries and Online Focus Groups have become essential tools for modern market researchers. By leveraging qualitative research methods, participants engage in various online market research activities from bulletin board discussions with other participants, to self-administered surveys, video diaries, and live text discussions. Digital Diaries typically span several days, providing in-depth insights over time, while Online Focus Groups occur at a single point, offering immediate feedback to stimuli.

These studies can include as few as five to six participants, or you can develop a whole cohort of 100 or more participants, incorporating this methodology as part of a more exhaustive research effort. Our team excels in crafting comprehensive digital research plans, expertly moderating sessions, programming, and recruiting participants. We also provide thorough analysis of the results, ensuring you gain valuable insights to drive your business forward.

We are passionate about product and packaging design studies. Trust us with your customer evaluations. Our team works diligently to recruit real customers and design study programs that test your brand, product features, packaging materials, shelving solutions, and more. These studies often involve both qualitative methods (focus groups, in-depth interviews) and surveys to uncover unique insights that will help your brand stand out.

The key to successful packaging and product redesign efforts is to keep those close to the design of the product out of direct consumer discussions. Instead, our researchers can act as your proxy in uncovering what is important to them in their decision making process.

Consumers will indirectly reveal what is important to them. Through a thoughtful research plan, we can extract valuable information about what appeals to them and what clearly represents your brand. This ensures that the suggestions developed from the research are accurate, actionable, and ready to elevate your brand or product to the next level.

Using our skills and techniques as market researchers we also provide assistance with Stakeholder interviews and listening sessions. The success of either of these approaches often relies on getting people to be open, engaged, and participating in the public feedback process as you work to develop your internal business goals, and meet the needs of collecting feedback from a diverse group of individuals on a public you may be working on.

Stakeholder interviews can be a crucial part of any project, as they involve direct conversations with individuals who have a vested interest in the project’s outcome. These interviews aim to gather detailed insights, expectations, and concerns from stakeholders, which can include clients, team members, users, and other relevant parties. By engaging stakeholders early and often, project managers can ensure that the project aligns with the stakeholders’ needs and objectives, thereby increasing the likelihood of project success. The process typically involves preparing a set of questions, conducting the interviews in a structured manner (we can provide the moderator!), and then analyzing the responses to identify common themes and critical issues.

Listening sessions, on the other hand, are more informal and open-ended than stakeholder interviews. They are designed to create a space where stakeholders can freely express their thoughts, ideas, and feedback without the constraints of a structured interview format. Listening sessions are particularly useful for uncovering underlying issues, gaining a deeper understanding of stakeholder perspectives, and fostering a sense of inclusion and collaboration. These sessions often involve group discussions, brainstorming activities, and interactive dialogues, allowing for a more dynamic exchange of information. The insights gained from listening sessions can be invaluable for shaping project strategies, addressing concerns, and building stronger relationships with stakeholders. We have been particularly successful in implementing listening sessions with our education clients as they continue to navigate the needs of both students, and staff as they strive towards equity and inclusion goals in the workplace and education space.

Today’s data collection requires reaching respondents where they are—whether on their phones via SMS, on their computers via email, through a telephone call, or even in-person through face-to-face interactions. The best way to reach a wide range of people is to incorporate multiple recruiting methods into your data collection protocols.

Our team utilizes all outreach methods to collect data from our respondents. We don’t just rely on social media postings! Each method introduces its own bias into a project, and we work diligently to collect data from reliable, accurate respondents who truly represent the demographic you are targeting. Our in-house data collection tools allow for a single study or questionnaire to be fielded using a variety of data collection methods, with all responses combined into a single dataset for analysis. The era of telephone-only studies is over as we embrace fully multifaceted studies and data collection methodologies for the next quarter century.