Healthcare Transformation Services Organization | ‘Best in Class’

This blog post was written by our Communications Coordinator Erin Wisneski.

Research & Marketing Strategies (RMS) is assisting practices across the country to navigate the Physician Practice Connections Patient Centered Medical Home (PPC-PCMH) Recognition process, which ultimately demonstrates a practice’s commitment to quality care.

“A Patient Centered Medical Home practice is one which facilitates a true and engaging provider-patient commitment between the patient, his/her physician and family [when appropriate],” said Susan Maxsween, Manager of Healthcare Transformation Services at RMS. “This process cultivates an environment in which the patient receives the care they need while also promoting a working relationship between the physician [or practice] and patient to ensure delivery of comprehensive and well-integrated care.”

The PPC-PCMH, which has become a national benchmark, is a defined model of healthcare delivery that incorporates a coordinated approach through the primary care physician to providing comprehensive care to patients. Achieving this recognition enables practices to validate operational policies and processes supporting the patient centered medical home model of care.

To date, RMS Healthcare, a division of RMS, has assisted 30 practices in achieving PPC-PCMH recognition, 20 of which have received the highest level of recognition, a level 3. The remaining practices achieved a level 1 recognition, which was based upon their paper-based medical record system.

“RMS Healthcare guides practices through the detailed process of quantifying work flows and procedures to affirm quality processes and practices,” Maxsween said. “Achieving recognition is vital, as it demonstrates a practice’s commitment to excellence as well as better positions a practice for increased payer reimbursement for patient care.”

To achieve PPC-PCMH Recognition, Maxsween and her team engage practices to adopt and apply key attributes among their physician group. Those attributes include: collaboration and communication; adoption of evidence-based clinical care; fostering a culture of teamwork; enhanced information sharing, fostered accountability, innovations in technology and again, an overall commitment to excellence.

Beyond the intrinsic value of providing quality patient care, this PPC-PCMH Recognition becomes key to the practices as a business entity, as well. Recognized practices are not only able to demonstrate their commitment to their patients, but they are better positioned to take advantage of private and public incentive payments that reward PPC-PCMH Recognized practices. In addition, they are considered “Best in Class” among their peers, payers and patients in providing quality patient care.

“Overall practices have been very pleased with our level of professionalism, commitment to quality and passion for the work we do,” Maxsween said about helping clients to achieve PPC-PCMH Recognition. “Practices have said that they could not have done it without us and truly thank us for our commitment to be ‘Best in Class’ in assisting them to achieve recognition. Most importantly, practices feel an overwhelming level of accomplishment, validation of their quality of work and true demonstration to commitment to patient quality.”

RMS Healthcare is a leader in providing healthcare transformation services. The division begins by conducting a preliminary practice assessment to assess readiness to achieve PPC-PCMH Recognition. As an outcome of the assessment, if the practice decides to pursue recognition, RMS Healthcare will assist the practice in the journey to achieve recognition.

“We have demonstrated and proven success in our work,” Maxsween said. “We have assisted practices to achieve the highest level of recognition and have experience in working with various Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Patient Registry platforms. We also have proven success in working with practices remotely, assisting practices to achieve recognition through teleconferencing and webinar sessions as well as face-to-face meetings.”

For more information about PPC-PCMH Recognition and healthcare transformation services, contact Susan Maxsween at SusanM@RMSresults.com or by calling (315) 635-9802.

4 Benefits of Transcripts in Qualitative Research | Market Research Upstate NY

Transcripts are a great tool for market research analysts.  Whether you are conducting multiple focus groups or a series of in-depth interviews, having the conversations transcribed is invaluable for reporting.  Oftentimes focus groups will last up to two hours  and IDIs can last up to an hour or more (if they do, you’d better pay the participant a nice incentive).  Although most focus groups package recorded audio files or video files with your rental, transcriptions still offer many benefits to the market research industry.

1) Including verbatim comments in your report (made easy).

Nothing is more painful than having to watch hours upon hours of focus group video to pull additional findings or additional quotes for your market research report.  Actually, scratch that, having to listen to audio files may even be more grueling, but sometimes necessary for our clients to provide them with a quality, in-depth report.  Having the focus groups or interview pre-transcribed come the time of your report allows you to cut and paste those verbatim comments into your PowerPoint deck with ease, rather than having to listen-pause-type, listen-pause-type, etc.

2) Free up time for focus group management/logistics and listening to participants.

Although I encourage analysts in the client viewing room to take notes and jot down key takeaways for your report, often other logistics call you away from the groups.  Therefore you end up missing pieces of focus groups where participants could have mentioned something very important for the objectives of the study.  Plus, knowing that the groups will be transcribed word-for-word puts you at ease and allows you to really listen to participants and interpret their thoughts/opinions for your client.

3) Quickens the speed of reporting.

If you include selected comments in your PowerPoint deck, nothing is easier than a quick CTRL-C, CTRL-V from your transcript.  Another benefit is the ability to cut directly to a section of the group by simply doing a CTRL-F for a specific term or topic (for us PC users; forgive me Mac users).  For instance, if you’ve conducted eight focus groups across the U.S. in the past three weeks for different types of cleaning supplies, it might be very difficult to remember takeaways about shopping behavior for dish detergents in a grocery store.  It also might be difficult to remember how your urban markets differed from your rural markets.  With transcripts, just open up the file(s) and search for “dish detergent” and it will take you directly to those mentions.

4) An extra deliverable for the client.

Clients love value-added in market research.  Not only do transcripts help the market research firm write a quicker, more accurate, and more robust report, but the transcripts can also be passed to them as a deliverable.  They can refer to these transcripts down the road for key items or circulate them among staff who couldn’t attend the focus groups.   It’s a win-win situation.

Are you interested in conducting focus group research or in-depth interview market research in Upstate, NY?  Contact our Business Development Director, Sandy Baker, at SandyB@RMSresults.com or by calling 315-635-9802.  Research & Marketing Strategies (RMS) is a market research firm in NY.

Practices Recognized for Top Level PCMH Recognition | Healthcare Transformation Services

RMS Healthcare, a division of Research & Marketing Strategies, Inc., located in upstate New York, is pleased to announce that FLH Medical, PC practices including Internal Medicine – Waterloo, Internal Medicine – Geneva, Keuka Health Care and Pre-Emption Family Medicine have been awarded PPC®-PCMH™ Level 3 Recognition, which is the highest level of recognition, from National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) on January 20, 2012.  FLH Medical, PC is committed to offering their patients the highest quality, safety focused medical services available in the Finger Lakes Region of upstate New York.

The Patient Centered Medical Home has become a national benchmark.  It is a defined model of healthcare delivery that incorporates a coordinated approach (through the primary care physician) to providing comprehensive care to patients.  Achieving this recognition enables practices to validate those operational policies and processes supporting the patient centered medical home model of care.

This group of practices, like many others who have pursued PCMH recognition, engaged in a healthcare transformation journey.  The practice adopted and applied key attributes among their team that led to their wonderful accomplishments and Recognition.  Those attributes included: collaboration and communication; adoption of evidence-based clinical care; fostering a culture of teamwork; enhanced information sharing, fostered accountability, innovations in technology and again, an overall commitment to excellence.

Beyond the intrinsic value of engaging in this practice transformation, this recognition becomes key and important to the practices as a business entity. In doing so the practices are able to demonstrate their commitment to their patients, but they are better positioned to take advantage of private and public incentive payments that reward Patient Centered Medical Home recognized practices.  In addition they are now better positioned among their peers in being publicly recognized as “Best in Class” in providing patient care and to be recognized (among payers and patients) as “Best in Class” in providing quality patient care.  And lastly, they have validated the adoption of key and critical processes, which meet accepted standards for quality and delivering the best healthcare possible.

RMS Healthcare is a leader in providing healthcare transformation services.  We focus on optimizing relationships with our healthcare clients to assist them in providing quality driven patient care.  We have proven experience in assisting primary care practices transform processes to become Patient Centered Medical Homes.  If you’d like further information on healthcare transformation services, please contact Susan Maxsween at SusanM@RMSresults.com or by calling 315-635-9802.

What is Market Research?

Market research is the process of gathering information about a specific consumer/customer group or market.  Market research is meant to guide organizations in their decision-making process by providing information relevant to their market’s need.  The information gathered through the research can be used to aid all functions of the organization.

Why is market research so important?

 The more you know about the market you serve the more likely you will be able to anticipate the outcome of your marketing and organizational decisions.  The upfront investment into market research will help an organization develop a better ROI (return on investment) by developing and honing their current strategies (see: Is there a ROI for Market Research?).

Where do I start?

For the most part, garnering any type of information from your customers constitutes market research. This includes anything from passing out comment cards to customers, to conducting a full-on telephone survey with all of your customers.  But regardless of the methodology you ultimately choose, it’s important to start by figuring out what questions you need answered in order to bring your organization to the next level.  After that, the second step will be deciding how you are going to get those questions answered. Quite often, the answer is market research.

Here are a few articles that have been put together by our company’s analytics team to help you get started with your market research process:

Market Research – More Than Just Statistics

When is the Right Time for Market Research?

Choosing In-House or a Third Party? | Market Research Budget

Choosing a Market Research Firm

4 Tips for Writing a Market Research RFP

Is Observational Research Too Often Overlooked in Market Research?

When it comes to market research, we often default to either focus groups, in-depth interviews (IDIs), or surveys to answer our client’s questions.  It’s how the proposal discussion usually starts with a conversation about which of these traditional market research methodologies best fits for the objectives at-hand.  These methodologies focus on gathering new information for your client and assume that answers to your client’s questions do not already exist or can’t easily be obtained without undergoing a large-scale survey or focus groups conducted across the country.

In some cases this may not always be necessarily true, especially in B2C studies.  Often overlooked and underutilized is the advent of observational research. Observational research (or ethnography) is a qualitative market research methodology in which analysts watch or observe people in a particular environment.  The subjects are unaware of the observation and as a result, act in their normal manner.  Observational research goes hand-in-hand with behavioral data.  Behavioral data is series of data points that track actions over time (purchases, traffic, etc.)  The beauty of observational research is that it incurs little to no bias.  Traditional market research is sometimes partial depending on the methodology chosen for the study.  A market research study can incur a large number of biases including: question bias (wording of questions or leading a respondent), environmental bias (the study occurs in an environment atypical to the tested environment, such as using online surveys to study soda purchases in grocery stores), or even group dynamic bias (situations in focus groups where participants agree with the majority, attempt to please the moderator, or are aware of the sponsor).

A good market research consultant will work to mitigate bias as much as possible in traditional market research studies.  In fact, there’s often no other way to obtain information for decision-making other than conducting a survey or focus group of some kind.  But this growing trend of observational research including heat maps, eye-tracking data, and others do offer a unique and real-time way of gathering data.

Many decisions that consumers make are on the subconscious level.  In the book, Consumerology, written by Philip Graves, subconscious decision-making is a main theme.  This means brands or images subconsciously generate feelings and attitudes for consumers without the consumer realizing it.  When they are called a month later and run through a survey script to explore the reasons why they purchased an iPad2, results may differ from the actual day and time they were in BestBuy purchasing it, which stresses the importance of limiting the time frame between actions and the subsequent market research follow-up.  Exit interviews caught on to this concept long ago.  Perhaps that day in Best Buy the respondent intended to look at Nook Tablets, Kindle Fires, and iPads, but because they had seen a person at customer service exchange desk complaining about their Kindle Fire, they subconsciously eliminated that tablet from their consideration set.  Or maybe they used a friend’s MacBook a few months prior to check their email and it created a positive association with Apple.  Would that person remember either situation months later if they were called and asked reason(s) behind their decision-making process to purchase an iPad2?  Perhaps.  But maybe they didn’t realize those were the first and true key drivers to purchasing.

Shop-alongs seem to be a nice in-between methodology, which capitalize on both traditional market research (questionnaire follow-up during or after purchases) accompanied with observational techniques (e.g., accompanying the consumer around the store while you observe).  Shop-alongs offer real-time follow-up with consumers, offer the analyst the ability to explore reasoning in-the-moment, and specific measures can be taken to eliminate some of the bias, such as blinding the two or three products or aisles that the analyst is most interested in gaining information on.  They are also conducted in the real-life environment where decisions are made by consumers.  Some concerns with observational research are potential ethical challenges with field observation of unbeknownst subjects, disruptions in a controlled environment, and potential technological needs or requirements to set up the study.

In this blog post, I am not discounting the value in traditional market research methodologies but rather advocating for more outside-of-the-box market research techniques.  As a market research firm in Upstate, NY, we are tasked with providing our clients the best possible and purest market research project.  With that in mind, observational research cannot be overlooked because it provides real-time, unbiased feedback from real consumers.  As a market research firm, we owe it to our clients to look for new and better ways of collecting data.  Market research needs to continually evolve.

Are you interested in speaking with a market research consultant in Upstate NY?  Contact our Business Development Director Sandy Baker at SandyB@RMSresults.com or by calling 315-635-9802.

Healthcare Transformation Services | RMS Healthcare Newsletter Launched!

RMS Healthcare, a division of Research & Marketing Strategies, Inc., is a leader in providing healthcare transformation services.  We focus on optimizing relationships with our healthcare clients in order to assist them in providing quality patient care.  To further demonstrate our commitment to improve quality healthcare, we are pleased to announce the launch of our quarterly healthcare newsletter, the Quality Care Courier.

Valuable topics in this issue include:

• Patient Experience Surveying
• Achieving Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Recognition and Meaningful Use in tandem
• Regulatory Updates from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA)
• Updates on HIPAA Regulation
• Practical steps to taking action (regarding the above topics ) in your practice or organization

With the healthcare industry changing so rapidly, we recognize that it is challenging for physicians, ancillary care providers and administrative staff alike to keep abreast of ever-changing regulations, updates regarding becoming a Patient Centered Medical Home and other services aimed to improve and sustain quality patient care. It is our goal to provide key healthcare stakeholders with valuable and timely information to be better able to navigate and tackle these changes.

In addition to launching the Quality Care Courier, RMS Healthcare has proven experiences in assisting primary care practices transform processes to become Patient Centered Medical Homes.   At RMS Healthcare, our expertise and quality driven goals can help keep everything running accordingly, whatever your concern.  If you need help utilizing patient satisfaction surveys, PCMH guidance and assistance, or any other healthcare transformation services, RMS Healthcare can help!  RMS Healthcare is committed to upholding the reputation of being Best in Class as a consultant. Further, we instill this philosophy with practices as they strive to become Best in Class amongst their patients, peers and payers.

To view the full newsletter, click here!

To read our other healthcare blog posts click here.

Do you have any questions about healthcare transformation services?  Contact Susan Maxsween, our Manager of Healthcare Transformation, at 315-635-9802 or email her at SusanM@RMSresults.com.

The Dangers of Defining Your Competition Too Narrowly

Many market research projects address the competitive challenges a company faces in its marketplace. Image and Awareness surveys usually try to measure the brand equity of the competitors as well as the entity sponsoring the research. Feasibility studies include a competitive overview component that inventories the total competitive weight that the proposed enterprise will be up against.

While this may sound like Marketing 101 and too obvious to even mention, it’s worth noting that products from even large and successful companies often fail because of competition from outside their categories. A recent example is Dell pulling back from producing netbooks, not because of competition from other netbooks or even other types of laptops, but because they were hurt by the popularity of the iPad tablet. Someone in the computer industry would probably be quick to point out the long list of differences between a netbook and a tablet, but since consumers will use the two devices for largely the same activities (or at least believe that they will) the two items compete against one another.

It doesn't look like a netbook, but it put a big dent in that category.

 One interesting and, at times, frustrating phenomenon that we have found in the Bunker is that there is a tendency for our clients to want to define their competition too narrowly. They often want to say that their competition is only composed of products or services that are just like them while downplaying the competition from those where there is a (perceived) small amount of overlap or that their industry defines as a different category. For example, a four-year college might not see a community college as true competition because the latter “only” offers two-year degrees, an assisted living facility might not view a nursing home as their competitors because they serve people along different points along the continuum of care, or a pizzeria may not see a fast food restaurant that serves primarily hamburgers as a threat to them. From the standpoint of an objective outsider, it’s easy to see how those views are too short-sighted and ignore very real and legitimate competitors, but for whatever reason, people inside industries tend to think that way about their own industries. I suspect it has to do with the fact that insiders know and care about things that consumers don’t always know and usually don’t care about. A person who is hungry and looking for an affordable lunch won’t think in terms of “Should I go to Pizza Hut, Domino’s or Little Caesar’s?” unless they are absolutely dead set on getting pizza. It’s far more likely that they would also consider diners, sub shops, burger joints, and the whole gamut of options within the same general price and convenience range.

One example of an industry that seems to get it, for the most part, is professional sports. If you follow sports in the media, you will often hear commissioners, team owners, and executives from the major leagues say that they are in the entertainment business. That language often rankles sports purists, but it’s accurate. The NBA, for example, isn’t just competing against college basketball for its fans’ attentions. And its competition is much broader than just that from other sports like football, baseball and hockey, whose seasons overlap with basketball. In reality, the NBA is competing against TV dramas and sitcoms, movies, concerts, video games, social media and any number of other leisure time activities that somebody could be doing instead of watching an NBA game on TV or attending one live at an arena.

Of course, that last paragraph represents the other extreme of defining competition and, for the practical purposes of market research, it would be impossible to study the entire range of possible competition. But, it is useful in illustrating a general principle that market researchers and their clients should remember when approaching competitive studies: You don’t define who your competition is, your customers do. Generally speaking, those customers think and behave outside the narrow category boundaries created by marketers. When defining competition, it’s always best to think like a customer.

RMS is on the Map! | Healthcare Transformation Services

This blog post was written by our guest blogger Susan Maxsween, Practice Transformation Manager at RMS.

RMS Healthcare, a division of Research & Marketing Strategies, Inc., is a leader in providing healthcare transformation services.  We focus on optimizing relationships with our healthcare clients in order to assist them in providing quality patient care.  We specialize in assisting primary care physician practices in transforming to patient centered medical homes (PCMH). The patient centered medical home has become a national benchmark. It is a defined model of healthcare that incorporates a coordinated approach (through the primary care physician) in providing comprehensive patient care. Achieving this recognition enables practices to validate those operational policies and processes supporting the patient centered medical home model of care.

The Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC) has and continues to be recognized and respected as the leaders in advancing the patient centered medical home. The collaborative believes that if implemented, the patient centered medical home will improve the health of patients and the viability of the healthcare delivery system.  Further, it is the shared understanding and commitment of patients, payers, employers and clinicians that the patient centered medical home model is essential to improve the overall delivery and management of patient care.

In 2011, the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative developed a Practice Guide to PCMH Transformation Resources.  This guide was developed as an outcome of a “Call-to-Action” to organization’s providing practice transformation services.  The purpose of the guide is to provide resources for practices and organizations interested in achieving patient-centered medical home recognition. RMS Healthcare met the rigors of qualifying to be recognized as a practice transformation partner and is listed in this guide.  The guide can be found on the referenced link: http://www.pcpcc.net/transformation.

RMS has proven success in providing healthcare transformation services in assisting practices to obtain recognition with the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Physician Practice Connections – Patient Centered Medical Home (PPC^®-PCMH™) model. RMS Healthcare is committed to upholding the reputation of being Best in Class as a consultant.  Further, we instill this philosophy with practices as they strive to become Best in Class amongst their patients, peers and payers.

Do you need assistance in healthcare transformation services?  For more information contact Susan Maxsween at 315-635-9802 or by emailing her at SusanM@RMSresults.com.

5 Advantages to a Smaller Market Research Firm | Syracuse, NY

As you enter the market research field, or even if you are a grizzled veteran, you may have asked yourself this question – Which would be better?  Working for a smaller market research firm or a larger one? With the vast number of market research firms around, you certainly have your choice based on your own preference. It really depends on your style and needs from a career because big and small cater to different styles.  Both offer separate advantages and, in an ideal world, it would be nice to experience a good blend of benefits offered by smaller and larger market research firms.  If your company is good at what it does, and you are good at what you do, you might just be able to experience both over the course of your career, all at the same place.  Here are five benefits offered by smaller-scale market research firms:

1. We provide you with a more well-rounded skill set.

Oftentimes, larger market research firms will have designated departments or dedicated personnel that handle specific job duties.  You could have separate staff to program surveys, populate data into PowerPoint, and analyze the findings. As is the case with many smaller to mid-size firms, you’ll see more “all-in-one” roles.  So, if you are interested in exploring all phases of the market research process, start with smaller firms. The great thing about this  is you can find which part of the process you like best and map your career plans from it (whether it be programmer, graphic design, sales, etc.).  Having multiple responsibilities also helps you better understand all of the ins and outs of a specific project from start to finish.  Smaller market research firms provide you with a more well-rounded skill set.

2. We give you empowerment.

Usually, the more people there are in a market research firm, the more steps and teams you’ll have to go through to have something approved.  That’s not to say that having more people involved won’t add value to the process but it usually hinders progress and improvement.  Sometimes the higher-ups in organizations tend to protect workload rather than delegate it. To use a Bunker phrase, “if it’s everyone’s responsibility, it’s no one’s responsibility. – VM” With smaller firms, they have no choice but to empower staff with responsibility and action.  You can take a project (whether it be in-house or for a client) and run with it without having to worry about “Big Brother.”

3. We offer you more quality control.

I can see this as a benefit for both smaller or larger market research firms.  One could argue larger firms can employ more staff, which in turn can employ more staff to watch over fieldwork, edit documents, etc.  However, tying into my last point of empowerment, you’ll have a greater sense of quality control with your own work.  Due to the smaller nature of studies, you’ll be closer to the client and closer to the data collection process.  As is the case with Research & Marketing Strategies (RMS) – a market research firm in Syracuse NY, we do everything in-house.  When clients come to Syracuse to do focus groups, they’ve quickly found out we can do a lot more than just be a focus group facility host.  We can design their recruitment screener and recruit participants, we can design the moderator’s guide, we can moderate the groups, we can write the report, and we can develop action items based on the research.  So by having engagement in all steps of the market research process, our team can closely monitor quality because everything is done right here in this building.

4. We give you ownership.

This ownership comes in two forms.  The first is with clients.  In most cases for a smaller market research firm, you’ll be a key point of contact with the client, similar to what ad firms would call an Account Manager.  You work directly with clients on a day-to-day basis figuring out their problems and pain points, design a project to find solutions for them, and feel that sense of reward when you deliver.  As is the case with point 2 (empowerment), in larger market firms you may write the report and customize recommendations, but you don’t get to truly see how the results pan out.  Smaller market research firms offer that, we are our clients’ prototypical “back-office market research firm.”  The second piece of ownership comes from within your market research firm, as you’ll get to see how your efforts impact and improve the firm.  If you’re lucky enough, you’ll be able to see that growth from year to year and you can start telling your “remember when” stories to the newbies.

5. We have a great work-life culture.

Smaller market research firms have a “can-do” type atmosphere.  If something needs to be done, you can just do it*.  It’s not always a necessity to hold meetings with more than a few people and as a result, more work gets done.  We eliminate (or at least recognize) Fake Work (great book, by the way).  In this book, the author stated that when you hold meetings, you are pulling away valuable resources from real work.  An hour-long meeting with 10 people is not 1 hour of lost production, but rather 10 hours of lost production for your firm.  Also, as basic as it sounds, you get to know your other colleagues on a more personal level and learn to understand what communication styles work and don’t work with them.  Sometimes larger firms lose sight of that because their big picture thinking is too big – and communication problems are inherent.

Those are five advantages to working for a smaller to mid-size market research firm like RMS in Syracuse, NY.  On the flip side, larger market research firms have larger budgets, which usually mean more perks, more travel (due to larger clientele), and more national or even global implications from your market research (in addition to other advantages).  There are definitely benefits to each and ultimately it will be up to you to decide which is better for you.  As is the case with our growing market research firm over the past 10 years, we certainly strive for continued development here at RMS, but we never lose sight of our roots.  One thing we can all agree on is market research is an engaging and enjoyable career choice, so dive in.

*Do not take this too subjectively. The Bunker will not be held responsible for legal implications. 

A Glimpse into the Mind of CNY’s Holiday Shopper

Survey Shows Majority Prepared, Avoid Black Friday, Embrace Cyber Monday

This blog post was written by Erin Wisneski, Communications Coordinator for Research & Marketing Strategies (RMS).  

The New Year has dawned and, as our Top Ten Trends of 2012 laid out, many exciting developments are o­n the horizon for market research. Before we embrace these changes, however, let’s review the recent hustle and bustle of the holiday season.

In an effort to show the lighter side of market research, in addition to better understanding Central New York’s consumer, Research & Marketing Strategies, Inc. (RMS) conducted a holiday shopping survey. While the results won’t cause revolutionary changes in the way vendors prepare for the holiday season, there are some intriguing insights to consider.

For example, more than three-quarters (76.1%) of shoppers surveyed said they made a list prior to beginning their holiday shopping, and nearly nine-tenths of those (88.6%) “checked it twice.” This indicates most shoppers have a plan prior to beginning their holiday shopping. In addition, 63 percent said they have a holiday gift budget, which more than half (52.2%) said was about the same as the previous year. Those who were planning to spend more and less than the previous year were exactly the same percentage (23.9%).

As for the prepared shoppers, 50 percent of those surveyed said they begin their shopping prior to Thanksgiving and 8.7 percent said they finish before Turkey Day – talk about a stress-free December. Of those who begin after Thanksgiving, more than a quarter of shoppers surveyed (28.3%) said they steer clear of Black Friday while 17.4 percent said they venture out. Surprisingly, when it came to established sales days for in-person shopping (Black Friday and Small Business Saturday), the majority of those surveyed did not shop on those days; 63 percent said no to Black Friday and 65.2 percent said no to Small Business Saturday. On the other hand, a majority (58.8%) of shoppers surveyed did take advantage of Cyber Monday. While 41.3 percent said they shop the day before the holiday, a small percentage (4.3%) procrastinate beginning and ending their shopping Christmas Eve – sounds like risky business! Of course, that all depends on the size of your list.

Nearly a majority (47.8%) of shoppers surveyed said they shop for five to 10 people, while 30.4 percent shop for 11 to 20 people, 13 percent shop for less than five people, and 8.7 percent buy gifts for more than 20 people (that’s quite a list!). When it came to budget specifics, 39.1 percent said they spent between $501 to $1,000 on gifts, while 30.4 percent spent between $101 to $500, 28.3 percent spent more than $1,000, and 2.2 percent spent less than $100. How did they pay for their gifts? A near majority (45.7%) paid for most purchases with a credit card, while 43.4 percent stayed in the black using either cash (13%) or ATM/debit card (30.4%). A small percentage (4.3%) used lay away.

Despite the ease Internet shopping can provide during this hectic season, 63 percent of shoppers surveyed said they did the majority of their shopping in person, while 34.8 percent did the majority online. In fact, nearly all (93.5%) of those surveyed said they do some shopping in person. Of course, this doesn’t mean those surveyed aren’t taking advantage of online shopping as nearly three-quarters (73.9%) said they made online purchases. While only 2.2 percent used mail order catalogs for the majority of their shopping, 32.6 percent also said they did some catalog shopping; 6.5 percent said they did some shopping via telephone, but no one surveyed said the majority of their shopping was conducted in this manner.

Last, but certainly not least, is where shoppers looked for sales and specials – an interesting statistic for vendors. Online research (41.3%) and newspaper circulars (32.6%) blew away other mediums (radio/TV ads – 2.2%, mail flyers – 6.5%, in-store ads – 8.7%, email newsletters and alerts – 6.5%, and other – 2.2%) for promotions, according to shoppers surveyed. Even more interesting is that none of the shoppers surveyed said they were influenced by website banner ads.

While this is just a fun and brief glimpse into the holiday shopping habits of the CNY shopper, it certainly provides food for thought such as the preparations shoppers engage in prior to fulfilling their lists, the means in which vendors reach these shoppers and the “hype” surrounding established shopping days. Keep these statistics in mind when planning for the 2012 holiday season.

To learn more about surveys and market research, contact Sandy Baker at Research & Marketing Strategies, Inc. (RMS) via email (SandyB@RMSresults.com) or phone (315) 635-9802.