The Landmark Blog

Don't Lose Your Patients: Healthcare and Patient Satisfaction Surveys

My first real career goal, the first one I really worked at, the first... "When I grow up I want to be..." was a stunt man.  I had a fascination with Evel Knievel (had his action figure and motorcycle...it's not a doll), as a teenager I loved Super Dave Osborne, and in my youth, I idolized Lee Majors in "The Fall Guy."  If a kid in elementary school could really work toward a career, it was me, I was serious about it.

I had a best friend who egged me on as frequently as he could.  He was my "Agent and PR man" (we were in grade school).  We spent many a day on his Idaho farm practicing for my stunt man career.  I'd dive headfirst off his fifteen foot high haystack to the ground and land in a small pile of loose hay.  Under his watchful eye, I learned how to gracefully "roll out" of falls from high places, backflip out of swings, fall out of trees, and ride pigs.  I even crashed his motorcycle and lived to tell the tale (it was the first time I had ever ridden one.)  Stuntmen need to be able to ride horses, motorcycles, and snowmobiles.  I learned how to do those things from my "Agent".

We often got into trouble, but along with the trouble came plenty of crashes, burns, scrapes, sprains, bruises, and at one time, a broken bone (or two).  The home I lived in while growing up was in the country and had a revolving outside laundry line.  You'd place your wet laundry on the lines, as the wind blew (the wind always blows in Idaho), the lines would spin around in circles, and your clothes would dry faster...ingenious.  My parents had a clothes dryer so the revolving laundry line was unnecessary for its original intent.  As youth looking for an adrenalin rush, my friends and I took down the long extensions (keeping the stronger short "arm" that spun) and tied a rope to the apparatus.  We also tied an old inner-tube to the rope and would sit in the contraption.  Someone would push, while the rider sat in the inner-tube and spun.  You'd swing around in circles a million miles an hour horizontal to the ground and get dizzier than you could imagine.  I'm sure you see where this is going.

One morning while waiting for the school bus, a friend and I were messing around on the "swing".  My friend was a year older than me and kind of a big guy.  He was able to really get that thing rotating very quickly.  In the corner of my yard was an old tractor tire that my mom had converted into a plant box to grow strawberries.  That morning, we swung especially fast, the rope broke, I went airborne, and when I landed my arm slammed into the tractor tire.  My arm hurt pretty badly so I went in the house to tell my mom what happened and that my arm hurt.  When she took off my coat, you could tell my arm was broken because it was shaped like the tread on the tractor tire.  We headed to the doctor's office and found it was broken in two places through both bones.

Each year, hundreds of thousands (millions) of healthcare patient satisfaction surveys are completed ranging from patients that have broken bones or been to the doctor for a cough, to long-term home health and hospital stays.  Patients with terminal illnesses are surveyed and in some cases surveys are done with the families of those that have passed.  Discovery Research Group conducts a large number of these healthcare related satisfaction surveys, health services satisfaction, or patient satisfaction surveys each year.  We work with some of the largest healthcare research organizations to conduct this work for hospitals and health plans, and work directly with some of the small or middle sized clinics and local companies who do not have the research budgets to implement the full scale healthcare research initiatives that these large healthcare research organizations provide.

I was in a conference session several months back with a number of researchers who were interested in healthcare research.  When the speaker surveyed the audience about how many were doing healthcare work on a large scale there were very few of us.  I was a little surprised that our expertise in this patient satisfaction survey arena was as unique as it was.  Along those lines, here are ten suggestions for surveying healthcare respondents (especially patients and participants) the next time your research calls for it:

• Be sensitive to the patient being surveyed.  But, focus on being unbiased in the process.  It's a fine line.
• Be painfully aware of HIPAA and privacy related issues.  And, monitor the entire process from front to back (interviewers, online methods, IVR, etc.) for compliance to law, rules, and training agendas.  Include the sponsor of the survey in the compliance plan.
• Find an effective way to juggle the need for good response rates with the need to be sensitive to respondent’s ailments.  It can be difficult.
• Consider multiple methods of collection. Multiple survey methods will help maximize response rates and provides the patient with different ways to vocalize their experience.
• Avoid barriers in survey programming that cause a choppy interviewing process (too many screens before "actual interview", surveys that are too long, survey process that doesn’t make sense, not enough information, too much information, etc.).
• Track your patient sample closely, down to the respondent level.  Healthcare research is very rigorous and a reporting at the patient level should be available for every sample record, without compromising the patient's personal information.
• Provide detailed instruction to technical and interviewing staff on the information that can and cannot be disclosed to the household while getting patient on the phone, while speaking with family members, while interview is completed, etc.
• Clear answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) are very important.  Provide information on how to answer the difficult questions that will inevitably come up (Where did you get my name?  How do I reach someone at the hospital?  Who should I talk to about…? Why are you interviewing me when I’m sick?  I'm feeling like...should I go to the doctor?).  There is a lot of sensitivity surrounding healthcare related issues and the probability of escalation increases when staff is unable to answer patient questions clearly and concisely.
• Help lines should be established for verifying the legitimacy of survey calls.  Also, make a decision in advance on how to approach the "feedback" you’re provided that is directed to the practitioner, the survey sponsor, the research company, etc.
• A lot of patient and healthcare survey work is done using telephone methodologies for privacy related issues.  Be careful of the dialing times.  Don't dial too late or too early in case the respondent is still recovering.  Also, try dialing at different times during the day and on weekends.  With recovering patients this is critical as they are often in appointments, home during the day, and sleeping earlier and longer.

This is NOT an inclusive list for interviewing patients.  Feel free to add additional recommendations to this post.

What Makes You Different?

My teenage years were in the 1980's.  The era of odd synthetic fashion and tight pants, extreme hair styles, hair bands, punk, new-wave, breakdancing and early hip-hop music, MTV, VCR and the cassette tape, neon and uninhibited materialism, Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the end to the Berlin Wall. 

I was actually in high school in the late 1980's when new wave and hair bands had a strangle hold on American culture.  I grew up in a rural city in the West.  My town was filled with tight pants, waffle-stompers (also called Keg Boots), tight t-shirts and feathered mullets (guys) or REALLY REALLY REALLY big feathery hair (girls).  Big trucks with even bigger lifts reigned and a European car was unheard of.  Local radio stations gave you the choice of hair bands, hair bands, more hair bands, or country western.  In my neck of the woods, big ballads ruled the airwaves and new wave was looked down upon with radical distaste and unstopped disdain.

My pack of friends (shout out to those of you who read this), from three different schools, were...well...different.  We were punks, skaters, preppies, mods, and wavers in a sea of butt-rockers and hair.  It was easy to point us out and easy to identify us.  We were the pre-generation of, and evolved into, the Grunge movement of the 1990's that was so well accepted with its long hair and flannel.  We listened to bands like U2, The Police, Depeche Mode, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Big Audio Dynamite, The Cure, The Ramones, Social Distortion, The Violent Femmes, Jane's Addiction, and saw Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam before they ever played stadiums but could only be found on the local music circuit.  We identified with bands that are very mainstream today, but were misunderstood in the 1980's.   

This identification that my friends and I had with something "different" often lead to consistent trouble for us.  I distinctly remember a moment in high school when my younger brother was surrounded by a group of butt rockers (about 15 of them), dog piled, and duct taped upside down to a pole in the middle of the school.  At the time, the group felt justified in this action, because he was different than them.  His career path has been in law enforcement.  I'm sure this experience was a turning point.  It's interesting how most of our life experiences and differences lead us down pretty specific paths.  We were chased, egged, tripped, spit on, threatened, and asked to leave public places.  In spite of this, we were a proud group, proud of ourselves and proud for standing out in a crowd.

Maybe I'm an optimist at heart, but I believe that things, and people, change for the better (most times).  History shows that things that are "different" are often frowned upon at first, but often produce long-term acceptance or a positive impact on culture.  It's an interesting evolutionary cycle as you watch "different" become mainstream, acceptable, and eventually embraced...much like the music transition from punk, new-wave, and the hair bands of the 1980's, to the 1990's grunge movement.

When is "different" ok?  When is "different" encouraged?  When is "different" necessary for your survival?

For your business to have value it must provide something that is better, cheaper, faster, more technical, simpler, easier, innovative...something...different.  What makes you or your organization different...really different?  I liked a recent blog post by ActusMR titled "Stand Out".  It focused on the reasons that you want to stand out for sales purposes, but there's more to it than just sales...right?  Businesses exist to make money...to sell...we all know that.  It's the underlying approach to our economy.  But they also do something more.  They become a part of the culture, the social landscape.  They become part of who we are.  They support families, support individuals, alter the view, change communities, change countries, and in some instances change the world.  Different...can change a lot of things.

Here are some simple tips to identify how your business is really different.

• Survey or simply ask your employees, your team, your department, what makes your group different.  Do you believe what they say?
• Survey or simply ask your customers, your clients, your patients what makes your company different.  This is risky business, maybe they won't know.  Hopefully they do.  In either case you'll learn something.
• Conduct a litmus test.  Do the differences your staff identify align with the differences your clients identify?  How do these two things align with the goals of your organization, your mission statement?  If they don't align, work at bringing these two views together.
• When you speak to potential clients, are the characteristics you talk about unique to you, or are they industry rhetoric?  If you talk about quality, what do you do differently than your competitors to ensure that quality exists?  Rhetoric isn't the actual difference; it is an outcome.  The different steps you take to achieve the outcome are the real difference.

It's important that you know how you are different.  Now that you know how you are different, be prepared to talk about your differences and, more importantly, be prepared to show why they are a benefit to your customers, your clients, your patients, or your employees.  Your organizations success and survival, either now or in the future, will depend on your ability to characterize why you or your products and services are different and why "different" matters.

• Are the other steps you take to identify what makes you different?
• How do you get the word out on your differences?
• What makes you different?

Practices from the Field: Telephone Surveys and Mobile Phones

I'm dating myself here, but do any of you remember party lines?  And no, I'm not referring to dialing up your friend and organizing a party by calling everyone that you know...and that your friend knows...and that his friend knows...etc.?  Though social meanings change drastically in short periods of time, I'm talking about something else.  If you do an internet search on "party line," the first response actually generates an adult content web site.  Look past that to the Wikipedia posting of "party line" for the "traditional" meaning of the word. 

Party lines date back to the days when underground lines (Local Loops) weren't available to everyone, and households had to share telephone lines rather than being directly connected to digital lines in a million different possible ways.  A party line was when two or more households shared one telephone line.  In a party line, different houses had unique rings (now that's an old-school ringtone) that identified which household was being dialed.  For instance household #1 would have two short rings, while household #2 would have a long and a short ring, household #3 would have two long rings, etc.  Though almost obsolete now, party lines held out in the "country" much longer than they did in urban areas and may still exist in some very rural areas that aren't easily connected directly to the "local loop."

The real disadvantage to a party line is the ability to eavesdrop on your neighbor (some would call that an advantage).  If you were quiet enough about it, you could listen in on any conversation you wanted (take that all you folks whose entire jobs are aimed at protecting PII).  Remember when your younger brother or sister, or your parents would listen in on your phone conversation (before you had a cell phone), party lines took "listening in" to a whole new level. 

Aside from the eavesdropping aspect there were other disadvantages.  For instance, in the early days of internet...could you imagine what your dial-up would have done to the party line?  For that matter, a long conversation (a simple phone interview) could tie up the other household's line for what would seem like years.  In the heydays of party lines, early market research interviewing was mostly conducted door-to-door (face-to-face) and the market research sampling was address based.  As telephone technology evolved, better digital capabilities emerged, and households were able to connect directly to a line without sharing it with their neighbors, RDD Sampling was a more feasible option and telephone interviewing took off.

As a market research industry, we're back to a tipping point for survey interviewing and collection.  Online interview growth has started to level off (an exciting development for those of us that have huge banks of phones for telephone interviewing).  But, wireless households are growing very quickly.  The last CDC measurement of wireless only households fell out at 25%, while wireless "mostly" households add another 16%, totaling 41% of households who are wireless dominant.  Contrary to the last few years that they tracked this, the Pew Research Center has started to see some coverage response bias related to the data they collect, though still relatively minor depending on the demographic characteristics of those being interviewed.  For phone interviewing to stay relevant to the future of our industry, we must deal with cell phone interviewing and representation NOW.  It's our responsibility as providers of these services to provide solutions and best practices for cell phone interviewing.

Under that assumption, here are a few sampling solutions that are gaining traction in this arena:

• A return to the address-based sampling methods of old.  With the ability to port numbers, eliminate landlines, etc. address based sampling is emerging as a very good option for telephone interviewing and is obtainable through many sample providers.
• Supplementing RDD samples with Cell Phone samples is a good idea to consider.  Although, it's worth mentioning that just because a number is a cell phone, it doesn't necessarily mean that it comes from a cell-only or cell-phone dominant household.
• Client lists that include cell phone sample, seem to be more prevalent than in previous years and a much larger part of the industry.  This solution though used more and more, doesn't address market research projects whose methodologies rely on RDD based sampling frames.

Assuming that we will see an increase in cell phones in our market research samples, here are some suggestions for telephone interviewing cell phones moving forward:

• Ensure TCPA compliance by running samples up against cell-phone lists like Neustar (ported numbers from home to cell) and Telcordia (provides information on cell phones and allows you to identify cell phones against your sample list).
• Hand dial records that are identified as cell phones through these sources.
• Provide multiple methods for completing surveys (telephone, online, IVR, inbound, etc.).  This will help you reduce costs associated with telephone interviewer-only methods.
• Consider incentives for samples that are heavily aimed at cell phones.

And, here are some evolving suggestions for telephone interviewing as a result of this trend toward increasing cell-phone representation:

• Limit the length of the interview.  You've heard it before, you'll hear it again.  The shorter the interview, the less it will cost to complete for you, your supplier, and the respondent.  
• Screen for respondent safety.  Ask a quick question about whether the respondent is in a safe place where they are free to talk.  If they are driving or are operating heavy machinery, terminate the interview.
• Be sensitive to subject matter.  Respondents who are participating in surveys over cell phones are more likely to be in public places than when using landlines.  Be considerate of their location when doing surveys where PII (personal identifiable information) is a concern.
• Screen for age.  Many cell phones are owned or dominated by under-age users.  Consider the ethical issues associated with interviewing respondents who are under 18 years of age.  Ask the respondent before you consider the interview.  
• Consider interviewing during "free-periods"...nights and weekends.
• Provide local numbers.  Many forward thinking telephone long distance providers are now supplying the option to provide a local number on caller id.  It's worth considering a local number as opposed to a toll-free 800 based number.  They're both free to the respondent if called back and the local one is more likely to be answered.

Surprisingly, in the study linked to above, Pew is finding that response rates for cell samples are very similar to the response rates for landline samples.  In addition, they are finding that in some cases, cell samples are more cooperative than are their landline counterparts.  Cell phone interviewing can be done as effectively as "standard" historical land-line interviewing.  It will take some thought, some evolution, and some commitment to doing it right.  What's new?

I'm sure I've missed many suggestions.  Please provide them if you'd like to add to this list.

Business Practices - Do You Poop in the Pool?

My family didn't really have a lot of money growing up so we didn't often vacation to exotic destinations (OK - never).  Typical summer vacations included visits to cousin's houses in rural Idaho and Wyoming (is there anything but RURAL in Idaho and Wyoming), camping in Yellowstone National Park located a few hours away, family reunions in Las Vegas, and the occasional trip to a Salt Lake amusement park called Lagoon.

On the rare occasion that we did leave the area on vacation, my family visited Disneyland.  For this reason, the theme park holds a dear place in my heart and might just actually be the "Happiest Place on Earth".  On one visit to Disneyland, my family packed up the van (we'd graduated from the original wood sided, green, station wagon with the rear facing seat to a yellow van with a seat that folded out into a bed...I don't think it had seatbelts), and headed to Southern California.  The trip looked to be an exciting and unique vacation.  Instead of camping as we typically did, we were going to stay in a cheap motel near Disneyland and I was allowed to invite a friend along.  

I was probably sixteen at the time and my mom let me drive much of the trip (growing up, I had my driver's license at fourteen years old).  The thirteen hour drive from Idaho to Southern California was largely uneventful (although I was pulled over by an Arizona State Trooper for speeding up and slowing down as I drove the highway through the canyons between Utah and Nevada...he thought I was driving drunk...I wasn't drunk...just inexperienced).  By the time we reached our motel, we were hot (no AC), tired, and ready for some relaxation.

Every cheap motel near Disneyland has an outdoor pool.  The sheer number of people that stay in these hotels is mind-numbing.  There are always a million kids in the pool, kids in the halls, and families in every nook and cranny imaginable.  The morning after arriving at the motel, my friend, my two brothers, and I decided to take a swim.  We spent quite a while in the pool and eventually started diving for things at the bottom.  We'd throw change into the pool and then dive down and retrieve it.  At some point during this thrilling event, my friend dove to the bottom of the pool to retrieve something brown (he must have thought it was a penny).  He came to the top of the water, looked at what was in his hand, and realized that it was poop.  Yep - POOP.  Surprised by what he found, my friend screamed at the top of his lungs..."SOMEONE POOED IN THE POOL...GET OUT...SOMEONE POOED IN THE POOL!"  And, an interesting phenomenon occurred...my two brothers, my friend and I all jumped out of the pool and started running to our room...as did several others.  The interesting part was that many of the other swimmers just stayed right there and kept on swimming...IN THE POOP.

We sprinted back to our motel room.  I'm happy to say that I was the oldest and fastest so I was able to shower first.  We never did go back to the pool for the rest of the time we were there.  It was a memorable and funny experience (after we'd showered).

So, what's the point?  In your business, your department, your team, do you have employees and coworkers that poop in the office pool?  What about you, do you poop in the pool? 

Most days you go to work.  Many of us spend as much time with our work associates as we do with our own families.  The million dollar question is, "How do you approach your co-workers, your vendors, your clients and your customers?"  Do you try to AVOID...

• Participating in office Rumors, Gossip, Political Maneuvering, and Back-biting?
• Having No Filter - Do you avoid saying everything that comes to mind, especially the negative.  Do you consider the emotional impact of your words on those around you?
• Beating Up On Others...simply because you can...because you're in charge...because you have a leadership role...or because you are in a vendor/customer relationship?  Do you avoid fiscally, verbally, or managerially beating up on those around you?
• Smack Talking Clients (and vendors)

These things are like pooing in the pool.  Regardless of how far away from the poop you are when it enters the pool, poop travels and still gets on you (maybe even in your mouth - yuck).  Don't allow yourself, your employees, and your co-workers, to participate in these activities...Don't poop in your office pool.

As a company, a team, a department, you're all in this together.  Do what it takes to build cohesive associations that watch out for the best interest of your team, your vendors, and especially your clients and customers.  Live by the simple mantra "Relationships Rule".  Build positive relationships and good things will happen.  You'll respect your employees, your clients, your vendors, and they'll have greater respect for you.  Good things will result, you'll have more success, and you'll be happier for it.

 

• What are some other ways to "Poop in the Office Pool"?
• More importantly, how do you avoid them? 

 

Robots and the Uses for IVR in Market Research Surveys

Did you ever used to watch the TV show "Mystery Science Theater 3000"?  The show was extremely funny and very creative.  The basic premise was to take a bunch of old, corny, black and white science fiction and horror movies, play them in the background on a large screen while a couple of "robots" and a human make fun of them.  Sounds like a strange premise, but it works.  If you've never seen it, make the jump (after you read this blog) to their website and check it out.  Very funny stuff.  

The thing that every person knows about robots is that, like Mystery Science Theater 3000, all good robots should have the ability to speak.  Market Research has speaking robots of their own.  If you're involved in doing telephone market research, you've heard of "robo-dialing" or "auto-dialing" and "interactive voice response - IVR".  Take a look at this picture...now you know who's making these automated research calls.

It's been a while since I really geeked out and posted an article that was extremely focused on methods of collecting market research data.  This one has been rolling around in my brain for some time.  For awhile now, I've wondered why more people don't use IVR with more regularity as a method for data collection.  I've come to the conclusion that researchers may be less familiar with the process, probably don't completely understand how it operates, and don't really make the connection to its benefits.

IVR or Interactive Voice Response has been around for quite some time.  About once a week, I receive a phone call from one of my children's schools telling me that they were absent from a class (most times we knew about it).  Candidates in the political arena often use the technology for "Get out the Vote" campaigns. Though it can't be used for research purposes, basic IVR phone technology is built into the structure of most company's telephone systems (ex. when the "phone tree" asks for the extension, your voicemail, etc.)  

The 2009 version of Rockhopper's "Research Industry Trends" report shows us that only 11% of companies actually use this market research data collection method.  I really wonder why the technology is used so infrequently, especially given that it has many of the same advantages as online research, and overcomes some of the barriers.  Here are some advantages to using IVR as a method of collection: 

• IVR deals very effectively with the self selected sampling methods comparable to what you see online (inbound calls from "current customers").  This is the IVR use that most people are familiar with. 
• Most IVR systems have the ability to make outbound calls.  IVR is a capable method for Random Digit Dialed (RDD) or client listed outbound studies.
• Because IVR is automated, the labor associated with the job is minimized.  The net result is a cost per interview that is much less expensive than "typical" phone studies and similar to online costs.
• Similar to online research, the turnaround time on IVR studies can be much faster for outbound dialed projects, with many of the same benefits of phone dialing and fewer of the "risks" associated with online research.
• IVR is particularly capable of generating qualified responses on low incidence studies.  Most systems can be set up to dial through the records and giving the respondent the choice between being transferred to a telephone interviewer (called a Warm Transfer) or completing the interview with the automated system.
• Many IVR systems store data in databases which are easily plugged in to data or research dashboards.

What are your thoughts.  Why don't more people use IVR in their arsenal of market research methods of collecting market research data?  Are there uses for IVR that I've missed?  What about barriers I've overlooked?  I look forward to your responses.

Mountains, Trail Markers, and Feedback

A few years back my brothers and I climbed the Grand Teton, a mountain peak in the Grand Teton National Park.  The Grand Teton is one of the highest points in Wyoming and reaches a daunting 13,770 feet in elevation.  The approach to the peak and back is about a 14 mile roundtrip hike that spans two days.  The first day is spent hiking to the base of the Teton and resting for the second day's activities.  The second day is spent scaling the Grand, and hiking all the way back to your car.  Scaling the peak itself requires climbing gear and a 2,700 foot elevation gain.  

At one point along the climb, the trail requires you scale a cliff where you are suspended by climbing gear, butt facing out on about 12,000 feet of air.  For me, this entire trip was a grueling, but once in a lifetime experience with many adventures, excitement, and tense moments.

Among the many interesting experiences we had on this trip, there's one that I'll never forget.  As we reached the summit of the Grand, it began to rain...and lightening.  I'm not sure if you've ever stood on a peak that high in the air but you quickly realize how miniscule you are.  When lightening begins to drop, it becomes extremely scary and beautiful all at once.  You can feel the electricity in the air, the hair on your arms stand on end, but you are taken aback by the setting.  As the rain and lightening began to drop around us, it became quickly apparent that we were at significant risk of being hit.  As much as we wanted to stay and enjoy the scenery, it was imperative that get off the mountain very quickly.  

Cairns, as they relate to back-country hiking, are trail markers made from piled-together rocks that mark the trail when the trail itself isn't obvious, for instance through rock beds, rivers, etc.  They help hikers avoid getting lost, are extremely important for navigation, and are sometimes very difficult to find.  An Epic, in the climbing world, is a very dangerous experience...one that should happen infrequently...but that you live to tell about.  

Our start on the second day was a little later than we would have liked and we moved more slowly than we'd have expected.  As we sped down the Grand Teton, with rain and lightening falling all around us and the sky darkening, we realized that this Epic was nowhere close to being over.  When the series of long repels were completed and we were able to get to a safer area, we had a seven mile hike in the rain ahead of us...in the dark.  The Cairns that seemed so obvious in the daylight, were much more difficult to find with only a headlamp to guide the way.  The trail was eerily difficult to follow and we were exhausted by the days epic events.

I learned something about human nature...and myself...on that trip.  We, as humans, are capable of doing difficult things.  We're capable of overcoming obstacles that we'd never imagine in our way.  I believe these traits apply to not only our personal lives, but our businesses, employment, and work lives.

What are the Epics that you face in your business or your employment.  Is the recent recession one?  What about other events?  What are the Cairns that you use to help you guide the way to business success?  Here are some suggestions for guiding you through epic events...some business Cairns:

• Constantly collect feedback from your customers, your patients, your constituents, or your employees on what you are doing well and what you can improve on.  Feedback surveys are a good way of collecting information to ensure you have a trail to follow.
• Provide yourself with immediate access to this feedback information so that you are aware of issues quickly.  This access could be in a data or business intelligence dashboard format, or something as simple as dropping all feedback responses into your e-mail.  Your customers, patients, constituents, employees, etc. will appreciate you for gathering this information and they'll be more likely to stick with the trail as a result.  
• Make sure you act on the feedback information as quickly as you can.  There's no reason to gather feedback if you have no intention to do anything with it.  Waiting for months or years to address issues are as problematic as not knowing the issues to begin with.  If the trail doesn't have a clear path with constant improvements, it becomes much harder to follow.

Questions, Bands, Musicians and Market Research

I love questions, especially the unique ones.  It's probably one of the reasons I enjoy market research so much.  When I was young and working myself through college and graduate school I worked a series of menial jobs that ranged from fast food worker, pizza delivery guy, big box store associate (that was quite the promotion from fast food worker), and wound up with a job chasing a developmentally disabled individual around a learning facility, primarily to "discourage" him from touching people.  My "college enlightened" brain was BORED.  To entertain myself, I'd ask questions that not only entertained me but made the folks I worked with think...and passed the time more quickly.  I loved to ask questions like: 

• If you HAD to live the life of a Brady Bunch character...who would it be?  Why?
• If you could only drive one TV car for the rest of your life, what car would it be?  Why?
• If you woke up in the morning morphed into a superhero, who would you want it to be?  Why?
• If you had to marry a cartoon character, who would it be (this was prior to "adult cartoons"...other than Heavy Metal or parts of The Wall.) And, Why?
• If you were going to work in a job, that wasn't "White Collar" and wasn't for the money, what would it be?  Why? 

I would entertain myself for hours thinking about and engaged in conversations surrounding topics like this...not exactly saving the world...but at least my brain wasn't turning to Lime Green Jello.

I was listening to some music this morning as I was going about my work.  I love placing my Ipod on shuffle and seeing what comes out.  Music has a fascinating way of putting you in a place, a time, an event, a frame of mind.  One song can flash you to different events in your life...and you're there...for better or for worse...only for a moment.  Music has meaning.  For instance, if you ever walk into my office and I'm listening to show tunes...bust your butt to get out of there as quickly as you can...Don't get me wrong, I like show tunes and it could be one of those really upbeat songs that may sound really happy...it's still not a good sign.

This morning, due to some music I was listening to, I started thinking about this time in my life.  The time when I had much less to do and much less responsibility...and I ran across one of THOSE questions...so I mandatarily asked my staff (no opt-in). 

• If (Insert Your Company Here) were a band, a musician, or a musical group, who would it be and why.  

If you've never asked a question like this of your staff, you should try it.  In fact, I'd encourage you to ask this specific question of your staff.  The answers are insightful.  Is your company like: 

• A Reggae Band - Doesn't get worked up over much, everything is always peaceful, and very little conflict exists?
• A Country Western Band - Down on your luck, always running into trouble...lost your wife, your horse, and your money.
• A Speed Metal Band - Loud, frantic, unorganized.
• A Lounge Singer - Solid for years, but struggling as the world outgrows you.
• A Classic Rock Band - The band that continues to evolve over time to meet the needs of the current listeners, but really has to work at it.
• An Alternative Band - New products, new ideas, new ways of delivering your message.
• A Pop Band - Smack in the center, not really trying to make any waves, but trying to continue as long as the song/group/market will hold out.
• A Hip-Hop Group - New and exciting, pushing the envelope, trying to make people think, maybe in it for the money...and the creativity...and the money.
• A Choir or Symphony - regimented but organized, inadequate as an individual, but brilliant when placed together. 

The list can go on and on...but every answer has an underlying meaning.  These types of organizational personality tests can say a lot without saying a lot.  In a non-confrontational way, you can better understand your staff, the macro view of your company, and the view of what you spend most of your time doing.  Take the following market research litmus test.  The results may surprise you. 

• Call your shot - If your company were a band, a musician, or a musical group, who would it be and why.  Give me your company, the musician or group, and why it describes you.  ENTER IT ON THIS BLOG...RECORD IT!
• Now ask - Ask this same question to those that report to you, your staff, your department, your company.  TELL THEM WHAT THEY SAID...THEY'LL ENJOY IT!
• Evaluate the results - Does it match?  Does the view of those in your organization align with what you've recorded here?  Is it better or worse?  Do you have work to do to improve your organization so that your view of the company matches the view of those that report to you (don't answer this question here).

Social Media Market Research Methods are REALLY Unevolved

Sometimes you just run out of things to say.  We've all experienced it.  When you're engaged in conversation with a group of people, it's the lull in conversation between the end of one topic and the beginning of another.  The quieting of the chatter.  Then something happens, it's a little bit difficult to define what it is, but a stimulus occurs that shoots the conversation down a whole new track, a micro conversation that invigorates the macro conversation.  I believe that this happens in social media, and I experienced it recently with this blog. 

For the first time since starting this blog, for the past couple of weeks, I've frankly had very little to say.  It was a very interesting experience for me.  I'm not a rabid talker to begin with, but I typically have some thought...some idea...some topic for this blog...gestating in my head.  I had nothing.  A lapse in the conversation...

Until last night...

Last night I was given a very simple illustration of the impact social media can have on the conversation.  I've mentioned this before, but I have teens in my household.  Two of them began to argue last night about whether cheerleading is actually a sport.  One of them is a cheerleader, the other a soccer player.  The soccer player posted this simple question to his 300 friends on Facebook..."Who agrees that cheerleading isn't a sport? Sorry Sis."  Incidentally, the cheerleader had just returned from a two-hour tumbling session, was tired, sore, and feisty.  Chaos ensued.  The simple question resulted in 42 Facebook comments (not to mention the internal "conversation" going on in my household).  Both sides of the controversy chimed in with blistering frequency (over an hour and a half) and then the conversation stopped very abruptly when the parents of these teens sent them all to bed around 10:30pm.  

In the process of the conversation, I Googled whether cheerleading was a sport and didn't really come to a definitive answer.  When I didn't get a resolution to the question from Google, I consulted the mother of all immediate answers...ChaCha.

If you've never heard or used this service, it's very unique (and for the most part free).  The teens I know use this service A LOT.  You text ChaCha a question (242242 - spells "ChaCha")...any question...and ChaCha will text you the answer.  You can send some N number of questions per month (data & txt messages apply) without being charged (I don't text them often enough to know what the limit is).  The slogan on their website is "Real people answering your questions!  Crazy Huh?"

I texted this simple question to ChaCha.  "Is cheerleading a sport".  As always, ChaCha came back with a reply in less than 30 seconds.  "ESPN Court rules cheerleading is contact sport, yet many states for high school sports are not ruling it a sport, it depends who you ask.  I would say Cheerleading is a sport."  An ESPN Court ruled that cheerleading is not only a sport but a contact sport.  If you've seen many cheerleading competitions, you'll understand.  In the past several years that I've attended these competitions with my daughter, I've seen more people fall out of "stunts", more girls kicked or inadvertently punched in the face, fallen or dropped from 15-20 feet in the air, and/or hurt than I've seen in most other "sport" activities.  At one point I actually tried to start videoing when these athletes "took a whipper."  I agree with ChaCha.  Cheerleading, at least competitive cheerleading, is a sport.

In connecting the dots from this experience to the market research that many of us provide, something occurred to me.  Social media market research methods are REALLY UNDERDEVELOPED and VERY UNSTANDARDIZED.  As I've followed the #MarketResearch hash tag on Twitter, I realized something.  The way that most of us operating in the market research industry define market research, and the way that a lot of "other" businesses often define market research are very different.

You'll often see this post pop up on Twitter "Conducting #MarketResearch on...".  The interesting point here is that this person is typically not doing any kind of Qualitative or Quantitative research as the market research industry has defined it.  No focus group, no ethnography, no MROC, no survey, no statistical analysis, but is simply "looking stuff up".  They're "looking stuff up" using Google, and Facebook, and Twitter, and article sites, and possibly...when they just can't get the answer, they're shooting the question over to ChaCha...all in the name of market research.  Not exactly our market research methods...or are they?  Are these our evolved research methods for conducting social media market research?

A few years ago I ran across an article in Quirks by Tim Macer.  He was doing an evaluation of a number of industry software packages.  Since then, when I run across his published articles, I try to take a look at them.  Recently, he and an associate published their "Globalpark Annual Market Research Software Survey 2009".  This was their sixth annual survey and well worth a look.  Pertaining to this post, a small part of this study was an evaluation of the online communities being managed by his sample.  The results were a little surprising given the amount of "chatter" that goes on regarding social media and research methods.  He found:

• "Communities are still very rare."
• "Early adopters are still operating very few communities."
• "Over half of companies have no plans to operate an online community."
• Of the companies that were running communities most were using the same software to run their communities that they were using to run their panels.

This recent "cheerleading" experience and the lack of established and solid social media based research tools, leads me to the conclusion that I stated earlier.  Social media research methods, and their accompanying technologies, are REALLY UNDERDEVELOPED and VERY UNSTANDARDIZED.  In fact, I'm not even sure that they are completely defined yet or even exist with any level of sophistication...they are EXTREMELY UNEVOLVED.  I appreciate the efforts by a few early adopters in our industry who have started writing about how to do this work more effectively.  If you've seen or written one of these articles, please post the link to your article here as a reference for the readers.  

Before we face the challenges of the unrepresentative online panel, we as a market research industry, should define what social media research is to begin with (even though the definition will evolve...much like the conversation evolves), and establish best practices for doing good, quality, social media market research that can be analyzed and/or evaluated in reportable ways that represent the opinions of engaged participants willing to add to the conversation. 

• Are you aware of a great article on how to conduct social media research?  If so, please link to it on this post.  For the good of the market research community. 

Hanging With The Locals - Regional Tastes and Market Research

Actionable Market Research: How's your marriage?

As I was driving into work this morning, a story came on the radio that I found very interesting.  A group of Sociologists in Switzerland had conducted a study of a "representative and longitudinal sample of 1074 cohabiting and married couples living in Switzerland" to identify traits that would predict success in marriage.  I tracked down an abstract of the research article "Optimizing the marriage market: An application of the linear assignment model" scheduled to be released April 16 in the European Journal of Operational Research.  The title sounds pretty...

 boring...really...academic, but the results will surprise you.  Though the authors of the study would never have intended it, the results of the study were pretty humorous, may have some merit, would require a fundamental change to "dating", and don't reflect very well on those of us who are male.  For example: 

• It was recommended that women marry men that are five years older than they are.  My take on this is that maybe it would give those of us who are male a chance to "GROW UP!" before we hear it repeatedly from our wives.

• They recommended that men marry women who are 27% smarter than they are.  You always hear about men trying to "MARRY UP", now there is statistical evidence that validates why men should do this.  Women...find someone who is clearly less intelligent than you are and your success in marriage will increase.  I'm assuming this is because of the ongoing need to have someone smart enough in the marriage to compensate for the stupid things men do, their reluctance to ever ask for directions, and their inability to use a map.

• The researchers also recommend cultural similarity...aka a cultural "MATCH UP".  Specifically, they recommended that the Swiss marry other Swiss.  I find this somewhat insensitive, but do the statistics lie?  Can this be applied to the US...if you are looking for a marriage partner, should you avoid the Swiss entirely?  What about locally, should a Utahan marry a Mississippian?  It's probably a good idea for Utahan's to marry other Utahan's, no one else understands them anyway (I'm actually from Utah so I have every right to say that).  Does this mean that my Utahan sons have no shot at successfully marrying (and hanging on to) amorous French women because their potential for a successful marriage is statistically unlikely to succeed (even if they could find one to court to begin with)?