David Tebbut of IWRBlog (Information World Review) recently posted some interesting observations about Confirmit’s dashboard application, in which an online survey system is used to track customer attitudes in real time and report the results in an automatically updated "dashboard" application. The idea is to be able to provide useful research results instantly — as soon as they are relevant — instead of having to wait hours, weeks or days for results.

In my own experience, the greatest challenge to this type of a dashboard — which in some ways speaks to the potential to integrate customer satisfaction directly into a balanced scorecard type system in a meaningful way — is the ability to collect enough data on a regular basis to cause the "dials" on the dashboard to reflect something meaningful. 10 or 15 responses a day are simply not enough for a system that is meant  to be continuously updated.

On the other hand, there are applications where such a system might be somewhat useful and relatively easy to "keep fed." For example, if on the way out of the store there was a single question that customers could answer — either as they walked out the door or as they checked out — and if there were enough registers in the store — it might be possible to collect enough data to make the dashboard meaningful. Or maybe if there were a way to ask the question on customer cell phones as they walk out of the store (perhaps a little less realistic).

Read more about this article at IWRBlog.

Recent quote from Rebeca M. Johnson, CMO of the Brinker Corporation restaurant chain:

Researcher is good at technical tools…quantitative and qualitative. Insights provider uses those tools to provide actionable recommendations to the company. They manage with research but lead with insight. It’s a difficult person to find, so we’re nurturing them on our own.

Read more at AttentionMax.

The October, 2006 issue of Research Magazine contains a review by Tim Macer of Techneos Entryware 6, a software package that works primarily with Palm handhelds (but also with Microsoft based handhelds) to create surveys and collect data in the field.

Tim liked the fact that the software works either online or offline and isn’t dependent on a permanent internet or wireless connection and that its automatic reminder function made it a great tool for self-completion diary studies. He didn’t like the fact that it is a standalone mobile and web solution without support for CATI or paper and that it offers only basic, inflexible reporting.

During my time at Paramount Parks I was actually a Techneos customer and was very pleased with both the flexibility and the ease of use of the software (we used the professional edition rather than the Enterprise edition). It has a thoughtfully designed interface, both in the survey designer and in the data collection module. The only thing that didn’t work for us was the pricing scheme, but I will readily admit that this was very likely tied to the unique way in which we were using the software.

Read Tim’s full review at Meaning.

Last week 30 of the top executives in market research met for a rountable at the Research Industry Summit for Improving Respondent Cooperation. It would appear that response rates of less than 10 percent are becoming more common, with reports from NOP Research indicating that just 0.25% of the population is supplying 32% of the responses to online surveys, and another report from Cambiar citing a recent ComScore Networks study indicating that 50% of all survey responses come from less than 5% of the population.

"It’s like the holein the ozone layer," said Shari Morwood, VP-worldwide market research at IBM. "Everyone knows it’s a growing problem. But they just ignore it and go on to the next project."

Although online research wasn’t particularly blamed for the problem, it was noted that while the internet channel makes it easier for respondents to complete surveys, there are now so many surveys out there that more and more consumers are tuning them out.

Read the full article at AdvertisingAge.