The cost of market research very well could be the largest barrier businesses face when determining whether or not to use the service.  Some clients view market research as an extravagance rather than a necessity and oftentimes only use it when absolutely needed.  This line of thinking assumes that all “worthwhile” market research costs far more than what is available in your budget.  However, that’s not always the case.

Many of our clients at Research & Marketing Strategies (RMS) have utilized our Quick Pulse telephone surveys, which are designed to gather data fast for whatever issue, topic, product or service you need definitive data on.  This type of methodology is not your traditional full-scale 10- to 15-minute survey where you ask questions about many different subject areas.  The quick pulse telephone survey has a much smaller scope.

What is a Quick Pulse telephone survey?

Here are five identifying features of a quick pulse telephone survey:

  1. Short script (10-15 questions).
  2. Short call (lasts approximately three minutes).
  3. Quick turnaround (fieldwork can last as little as one or two days).
  4. Fast results (the entire project from start to finish could take as little as one week).
  5. Less Expensive (offers flexibility in the number of completes, less expensive than a large-scale study).

Although it is somewhat adaptable, the quick pulse telephone survey calls usually last no more than three minutes.  This means that the script contains approximately 10 to 15 questions, only one or two of which are open-ended.  Much of the script involves straight-forward questions, choice-based responses, and yes/no designs.  This enables the telesurveyor to move through the script quickly over CATI and move on to the next record.  Because the calls are so quick it enables RMS to collect a large amount of data in a relatively short time frame (think days instead of weeks).  The total number of completes can range anywhere from 100 to 1,000 – again offering you more flexibility with your budget.  The largest benefit of this type of work is the ability to get results fast.

One example of our quick pulse survey work is something we did with a banking client.  The client was looking to get quick feedback on one of their branch locations to determine why consumers in the market were not opening up core accounts at the location.  So we collected 100 completes over the course of a few days.  From start to finish, the project took just over a week to complete.  Another example of our quick pulse telephone survey work was a project we did for the local YMCA to help them gain statistically reliable data for site locations.  These results were presented by RMS at a public session.  The results detailed how many residents were in favor of the proposed YMCA site and reasons why they supported or opposed the site.

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Productivity for quick pulse telephone surveys sky-rocketed at RMS after the conversion.

Are you interested in hearing more about quick pulse telephone surveys and how you can use them to help your business?  Contact our Director of Business Development, Sandy Baker, at 315-635-9802 or email her at SandyB@RMSresults.com.  Research & Marketing Strategies is a market research vendor in Upstate NY.