Capabilities

Solutions

	Awareness and Image Studies

	Market Feasibility and Competitive Intelligence

	Product Testing and Pricing Research

	Market Segmentation

	Purchase Decision Dynamics

	Customer & Employee Satisfaction and Loyalty Studies

	Political Polling

Methodologies

	Focus Groups

	Representative Telephone Surveys

	Email Surveys

	Mail Surveys

	Intercept Interviews

	Internet-Based Research

	In-Depth Interviews

Representative Telephone Surveys and Quantitative Marketing Research

Closed-Ended Questions Questions with fixed responses, such as "yes" or "no," or, "excellent, good, fair, or poor."
Open-Ended Questions
Questions that ask for an opinion or observation that is recorded verbatim during an interview. An example might be, "In what ways are you satisfied with CLIENT," or, "How can CLIENT change to better meet your needs in the future?"

Businesses and organizations use telephone surveys as a quantitative marketing research methodology for determining what people think and how they behave. Well-designed, high quality telephone surveys are an ideal tool for conducting awareness and image studies, customer and employee satisfaction and loyalty studies, branding and market segmentation studies, and political polls.

Telephone surveys are also used to assess the market feasibility of new product or service ideas, and to compare perceptions of competitors' strengths and weaknesses. Telephone surveys answer questions such as:

What proportion of my competitors' customers are interested in my product or service?
How large are different market segments within a geographic region?
What is the demographic profile of my customers vs. those of competitors?
If customers buy my new product, what income is likely to be generated in a year?

What are Telephone Surveys?

Telephone surveys are a quantitative marketing research methodology that involve calling and interviewing a representative sample of people within a geographic area or a targeted market served by a business or organization. Market Street Research might interview 10 people or 1,000 or more, depending on our clients' information needs. Telephone surveys involve:

Identifying the marketing research objectives
Developing and pilot-testing a marketing research questionnaire
Developing an appropriate market research sampling strategy
Conducting the representative telephone interviews (data collection)
Analyzing and presenting the market research results.

Market Street Research handles all aspects of telephone surveys, including helping you to clearly define the research objectives based on your company or organization's information needs. We design state-of-the-art marketing research questionnaires and research sampling methods, and closely monitor data collection by nationally respected polling firms. Our analyses and presentations are our greatest strength-Market Street Research goes beyond statistics, tables, and graphs to provide quality analysis and actionable results.

Questionnaires

Market Street Research develops custom marketing research questionnaires for each project. We work closely with clients to define the goals of the research so the questions we ask focus on the specific decisions our clients need to make.

Market Street Research has over 25 years of experience in preparing the highest quality marketing research questionnaires, and our process allows us to create questionnaires of any length and complexity. We can quickly and easily modify a questionnaire even after it is in the field. Market Street Research never relies on templates or "canned" questionnaires , since our clients' information needs are unique and no single survey instrument can accurately reflect all business or organizational decisions.

Our market research questionnaires typically include a mix of closed-ended and open-ended questions, to allow depth of response and probing by skilled interviewers. Market Street Research pilot-tests all research questionnaires on an in-house basis, and reviews suggested changes with clients before revisions are made. Our clients always have final approval on questionnaires.

Sample Design

Market Street Research brings to bear decades of experience in designing marketing research samples for telephone surveys and political polls. Depending on your needs, we might recommend a:

Census, in which all members of a population are contacted and interviewed
Representative sample using random-digit-dialing (RDD) or other systematic sampling technique
Disproportionate sample, in which certain groups are over-sampled in relation to their actual representation within a population, to make sure we interview enough members of that group to allow for statistical analyses of their opinions
Convenience sample, in which we identify people who have certain characteristics and survey as many as possible or up to a specified quota

Each year Market Street Research conducts literally tens of thousands of marketing research interviews with consumers, corporate executives, professionals such as doctors, not-for-profit leaders, and employees within an array of business and organizational settings.

Who Should Conduct Telephone Surveys?

Market Street Research recommends telephone surveys for clients who need to understand their image or reputation among the general public or within a specific market. Clients interested in branding or segmentation studies should consider telephone surveys as the best quantitative marketing research method of reaching people who fully represent the needs and opinions of the general public or market under consideration.

Telephone surveys may not be an appropriate method for answering qualitative questions. These questions may require a qualitative marketing research approach, such as focus groups, to answer questions like:

What are my customers' or potential customers' reactions to new product or service ideas?
How effective are my advertising and marketing materials?
How do people make purchasing decisions?
What are my company's strengths and weaknesses vis-à-vis competitors?

In addition, some populations cannot be reached effectively by telephone-examples include groups that tend not to have telephones, such as low-income residents or people who live in institutional settings, and groups for whom a list of telephone numbers does not exist, such as shoppers or patients using a particular facility whose names cannot be revealed for sampling purposes because of HIPAA. In these cases, Market Street Research might recommend intercept surveys, mail surveys, or e-mail surveys.

Market Street Research has conducted telephone interviews and other quantitative marketing research for 25 years in such diverse industries as health care, industrial manufacturing, financial services, technology, education, and public policymaking.

We understand the fundamental issues that concern clients in a range of arenas, the types of decisions they typically have to make, and the factors that influence those decisions. We move quickly to understanding the specific decisions you have to make and the type of information you need to make those decisions. In all cases, we bring the proper market research methodology to bear on your data needs.

Data Collection

Market Street Research contracts with nationally-respected data collection and polling firms to conduct interviews for large-scale telephone surveys. We work extremely closely with these firms, in most cases contacting them daily to monitor response rates and inspect the quality of open-ended responses. We provide interviewer training materials and work with our vendors to make sure the data collected is top-quality. When selecting a new vendor, Market Street Research maintains stringent quality standards and we change vendors if these standards are not met.

Click here for more information about Market Street Research's top data collection vendor, Research Data Design, Inc. of Portland, Oregon.

Healthcare Marketing Research

Market Street Research has considerable experience and expertise in utilizing the telephone survey methodology in the research we conduct for clients in many industries, including for organizations in the healthcare field. In fact, conducting healthcare marketing research is one of Market Street Research's greatest strengths. Since 1980, MSR has designed and conducted many hundreds of healthcare marketing research studies for healthcare providers ranging from internationally respected academic medical centers such as Massachusetts General Hospital, Cleveland Clinic and Johns Hopkins, health systems such as Partners Healthcare and Memorial Hermann, as well as for many regional and community-based hospitals, specialized clinics, and physicians' practices serving urban, suburban and rural markets across the United States. Learn more about our expertise in the field of healthcare marketing research.

Please contact us to discuss how Market Street Research can help you achieve your goals.

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