What are the opportunities & threats for the survey research industry?
All too often a certain methodology is used because we may be familiar with it, not because it is the right tool
With so many methodologies at our disposals is it becoming“ too many cooks spoil the broth”? How should we go about selecting the right methodology for our audience?
Andrew Jeavons: Methodologies have come from client demand
What are some of the areas that need immediate attention to prepare survey research companies – especially in context with rapidly changing business dynamics?
Andrew Jeavons: There are two urgent topics that need to be addressed. The first is data security with regard to the EU. The death of the Safe Harbor framework, which allowed data to be imported from the EU onto USA based servers, is a very significant event. The EU is becoming very strict about data privacy and this is something many USA based survey companies have to address immediately. There are no easy solutions, but unless the issue of security and the EU is tackled head on many current multinational survey companies may find they are restricted to USA data collection only.
The second one is, as ever, mobile. The industry has talked for decades about making surveys easier to complete, making them shorter and so forth. The truth is that very little, with a few notable exceptions, has been done about it. In 1998 I wrote a paper for an ESOMAR conference which pointed out that web respondents are more likely to drop out of web surveys on long grid questions. It is now 2016 and I STILL SEE discussions about grids and how they need to be shorter and easier to complete. It seems little has changed for many companies. I think mobile is going to force the industry to amend their ways. Mobile forces surveys to be shorter and more comprehensible; there is simply no choice in the matter. Using mobiles to access the web is becoming de rigueur for millennial, so surveys have to change. Finally companies will have to address the problems of long, unwieldy surveys. I think this will be painful for many parts of the industry, but it must be done. Long grids, long surveys and poor user interfaces have to be dealt with.
- although on one hand they are a natural evolution of the market place. But as you say, there are a lot of them. Selection of the right tool is a question of education, on both the client and vendor side. The risk is that a poor choice of methodology leads to poor results, but the vendor will inevitably get the blame for this. As vendors we must try our hardest to educate the clients and our staff in the methodologies available to enable informed choice to take place. This requires investment in time and money. All too often a certain methodology is used because we may be familiar with it, not because it is the right tool. In the wider world relational databases are a good example of this. Relational databases are great tools, but they are not always the correct choice. They are used because they are familiar. We have to foster a spirit of inquiry and provide the tools to answer questions easily. Documentation and training is the key.