This article was recently featured in the April 2013 edition of Quirk’s Marketing Research Review. You can find the full article on Quirks.com/articles – ID 20090416. Thoroughbred Research Group and DataPrompt International assisted Quirk’s in authoring this article. The article discusses questions you should ask when selecting a telephone facility for your market research survey or recruiting needs.
If you are looking for a facility to handle some or all of your market research calling component(s), think about these five factors before making your choice:
1. Basics
- Can the facility accommodate small and large projects?
- Does the facility have inbound and outbound calling?
- Does the facility provide multi-mode research options (web, email, etc.)?
- Does the facility have international/multilingual experience?
2. Staff
- What are the required qualifications of the interviewers?
- Have the interviewers conducted similar industry/client studies in the past?
- How are the interviewers trained and what ongoing training is provided?
- What is the supervisor-to-interviewer ratio?
- What percentage of the interviewer completes is monitored?
3. Technology
- Does the facility have remote monitoring capabilities?
- Does the facility offer live monitoring of active interviews?
- Are the interviews recorded?
- Does the facility have interactive voice response (IVR) or predictive dialing?
- Does the facility offer real-time access to data?
- Does the facility offer CATI software to ensure routing is correct?
4. Procedures
- What are the quality control procedures?
- Is there a secure on-site server?
- How often is the server backed up?
- What percentage of phone calls are actively monitored for quality?
- Do interviewers read verbatim or are they allowed to paraphrase?
5. Deliverables
- During and after the telephone interviews – what are the deliverables?
- What time are my reports ready each day and how do I receive them?
Research & Marketing Strategies (RMS) has an in-house call center QualiSight, which can be utilized for your market research call center and recruiting needs. If you are interested in using a call center for your market research study please contact Lauren Krell at LaurenK@RMSresults.com or by calling her at (315) 635-9802. Lauren is the Manager of RMS QualiSight and can assist you with your request.
Market research is an essential component of business success. You want to know what your target audience members are thinking. If you are outsourcing to a call center, it’s important to ask these questions to ensure that the call center is up to the task at hand. If they aren’t, it will reflect poorly back on your business or brand.