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.

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.

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.

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

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).

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.

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 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.

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. 

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.

Therefore, Jantsch stated that nothing will provide a business with more rewards than strategies designed to strengthen a company’s referral network.  One of the chapters I just made my way through was titled The Path to Referral (Chapter 3).  In this section, Jantsch proposed the seven stages to an Ideal Customer Lifecycle.  This seems like a newer-aged AIDA model (Awareness-Interest-Desire-Action) but I think it is much more relevant and descriptive than its predecessor.

Baldwinsville’s Research & Marketing Strategies, a market research firm in Upstate NY, offers consumers an opportunity to make some quick cash while sharing their thoughts and opinions on products and services offered in today’s market place. Due to Central New York’s unique demographic composition, which provides an excellent array of diversity for product and concept testing, RMS can offer clients a window into the American consumer’s thought process when it comes to a variety of products and services.

“Focus groups, mystery shopping and surveys are seen as an important tool for acquiring feedback, particularly for companies researching new products or services before they are made available to the public,” said QualiSight Manager Lauren Krell. “In today’s economy, it is especially important for companies to be sure they are investing in the proper endeavor.” Launched in 2009, QualiSight has conducted numerous focus groups and surveys for clients ranging from healthcare to banking decisions to beer tastings. “Recruiting for focus groups and surveys is done in-house by our experienced team of callers,” Krell said, adding that RMS invites individuals to log onto its website, www.RMSresults.com (click on “Join Our Panel”), to register for the company’s research panel pool. “Every project requires unique and specific criteria. Having a large pool of people who have already expressed interest in participating in a focus group or survey provides the potential feedback our clients are seeking.”

Panels make it easy to target market segments.

RMS recently expanded QualiSight , which also offers inbound and outbound communication services to companies seeking to outsource various department functions, especially those which traditionally require extensive staffing and intensive management. “We offer multiple businesses inbound calling services, reducing the amount of downtime and productivity loss an individual business would typically see when utilizing their own internal resources,” Krell said. In addition to offering expanded calling services, RMS has also expanded in size, increasing square footage from 2,000 square feet to 3,100 square feet and making extensive improvements to the RMS office setting.

Inbound calling represents a unique opportunity for the call center in Syracuse, NY. Under this arrangement, individuals call a published phone number that rings into the RMS QualiSight facility, yet to the caller, the operator introduces himself/herself as a representative from the client company. The reception function is seamlessly transferred to RMS QualiSight - feeling “completely transparent” to the caller. This allows the client company to reduce its costs and provide “live person” customer service to its customers and prospects.

RMS understands that each business has unique wants and needs in terms of call center services and works hard to make sure both inbound and outbound calling solutions have unparalleled flexibility. “We have a dedicated staff and advanced technology on hand to custom-tailor services to each client’s needs,” Krell said.

For more information about existing and expanded services at RMS QualiSight - a focus group facility and call center in Upstate, NY, contact Lauren Krell at 315-635-9802 or at LaurenK@RMSresults.com.

RMS has been a member of the greater Baldwinsville community since its founding and several RMS staff members are long time Baldwinsville residents. Located in the village, the firm is proud to be active in the Baldwinsville Chamber of Commerce, the Baldwinsville Volunteer Center’s Taste of Baldwinsville, the Baldwinsville Center for the Arts, and the Northwest YMCA initiatives.

“We’re particularly proud of our accomplishments in helping local companies with their marketing and research needs. Typically, our initial engagement leads to an ongoing, long-term relationship,” said Mark Dengler, the firm’s president. RMS works with all types of industries and has extensive experience in the healthcare, education, banking and manufacturing sectors.

RMS is located at 15 East Genesee St., Suite 210 in Village Commons, Baldwinsville. If you would like a tour of our expanded facility, contact our Director of Business Development Sandy Baker at 315-635-9802 or email SandyB@RMSresults.com.

What is survey coding in market research?  Here is an example:

The process seems very simple, but there are many factors that contribute to coding that make it unscientific.  Research & Marketing Strategies (RMS) – a market research company in Syracuse, NY – utilizes coding in almost every single quantitative report sent to clients.  It’s extremely valuable for clients (and much easier) for them to be able to see a percentage breakdown of how respondents answered a question rather than having them read through 800 open-ends.  However, caution should be taken when reviewing any coded question.  Here are a few reasons survey coding is not a scientific and fool-proof process:

1) Survey coding is subjective – if you were to take three separate analysts and have them code the same identical 100 open-ends, you will undoubtedly end up with three very different graphs.  Not only will you end up with different percentages for each category but most likely different categories as well. You could argue that even the same analysts would code the data differently depending on the day.  It helps to create some kind of consistency with codes, either referring to a past project with that client, or using the same analyst to code questions from the survey.  It also helps if you know if there are any specific topics that the client would like pulled from the open-ends and you can be sure to create a category for that.  For example, if a client wants to find out how many people referenced the “Christmas special” on the question about content of advertising, you can ensure that a category in your graph will depict that.

2) Processes differ – some analysts will limit coding to using just one all-encompassing code, while others could decide to use up to four or five if the open-end covers a wide array of topics.  On top of the decision to use codes per open-end, some analysts will aggregate the statistics by percentage of responses while others will use percentage of respondents.  We endorse the percentage of respondents.

Now, I am not arguing that you should not use survey coding in a report.  In fact, for previously stated reasons, it offers analysts and clients both major benefits that I believe outweigh the subjectivity of the process.  Other substitutes for coding of open-ends that seem to be a nice supplement are using Wordles in our PowerPoint reports.  These Wordles encompass all words used in verbatim responses and are able to highlight the words used most often by respondents in larger font.  A second option is limiting the scope of the open-ended question to force the respondent to eliminate interpretation from the analyst.  Instead of asking “when you think of client XYZ, what comes to mind?,” you may want to ask “when you think of client XYZ, give me one word or phrase that comes to mind.”  By limiting the scope of the response, it eliminates additional details and cuts right to the core of the question (and it will save you hours of coding - You’re welcome!)

Do you have questions about coding or how surveys can benefit your business?  Contact our Business Development Director Sandy Baker at SandyB@RMSresults.com or by calling us at 315-635-9802.

Read Part One quotations 1 to 3 by clicking here.

4. If you were the client and had no limitations, what would you want your research provider to do for your business?

“When you decide what you want you must create a vision of perfection centered on the customer. [Using a grocery store as an example] I began to paint what the perfect grocery market would look like.  I could picture the valet parking and someone to tell them about a wonderful special.  I saw store advisers and computers helping people make the best choices to save money and eat a healthy diet.  I saw a manager for each department always on the floor to help customers and ensure their area was perfect…I saw an assistance program where (people) are available to help elderly shoppers around the store to read the small print on labels and lift heavier items…I saw lots of checkout lines (and automatic checkout lines) so no one had to wait in a long line.”

In the context of market research services, a provider should strive to deliver on all facets of customer service to the client.  In a perfect market research world, this could mean surveys being designed, tested and up and running in 24 hours, using call center employees with 20+ years of phone survey experience for all calls, real-time access to incoming data, or fast turnaround on reports.  It’s important to note that each client and each research project has a different view of “perfect.”  Some like email contact, some preferred to be called, while some prefer in-person contact.  Some like to be updated continuously, while others will check-in on their own.  Some reports need to be turned around in 48 hours while other clients would like the research firm to go more in-depth on findings and spend more time developing findings.  As a market research provider, it’s important to understand your client’s expectations and deliver on them.  Just hold off on the valet parking.

5. Understand what exactly your prospects want from a market research provider and build your business around those key benefits.

“All you need to do is discover the customers’ vision of what they really want and then alter your vision if need be.  (You need to have your own vision as a business in order to understand your customers’ vision.)  When you find out what customers really want, what their vision is, it will likely focus on just one or two things.  Your vision has to fill in the gaps.”

At its core, market research firms do research.  Some providers do research for Fortune 50 companies while others do research with the local town diner on the corner.  Some market research providers cover both and/or everything in-between.  Many market research providers will spend countless hours trying to understand why a specific segment of the market visits their store 10 times more than another segment.  At the same time, this market research provider won’t spend five minutes all year-long doing any research on their own firm, addressing questions like: Why do businesses choose us as a market research provider?  What are our competitive strengths?  What can we offer that no other firm can offer?  It almost seems too simple, but sometimes market research providers are so focused on looking outward to help our clients grow through research, we often neglect using research to help within.

6. Truly dissatisfied customers may not (and probably will not) complain.

“Perhaps ninety-seven percent of our customers are so fed up they can’t even be bothered to complain and tell us where we’re going wrong.”

This quote points directly to the need to commission market research with customers.  I’ve read statistics in the past that say anywhere from 90% upwards of dissatisfied customers will not complain to the source.  That means there is a whole base of dissatisfied customers in the market that you (as a business) are unaware of.  By using a survey and proactively calling or emailing past customers, you provide them a forum to voice their feedback.  Now that you have it, you can take action on correcting problems you may have never knew existed.  In itself, this is one of the largest benefits of engaging in satisfaction surveys.

This concludes the two-part series on key takeaways from Raving Fans – and their market research implications.  The book was a quick read and offered some good pointers revolving around customer service.  The Bunker would be interested in hearing your feedback in the comments section below.  If you are interested in speaking to a market research provider in Upstate NY, contact our Business Development Director Sandy Baker at SandyB@RMSresults.com or by calling 315-635-9802.

Raving Fans is a well-known customer service book written by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles.  The book claims to provide a revolutionary approach to customer service, stating that satisfied customers just aren’t good enough now a days.  Overall, the book had a few nice pointers and quotables, but I didn’t like the authors’ tone or the mood.  It made me think that the author was trying to write a business version of the book and movie A Christmas Carol.   The lessons were too preachy and their “revolutionary approach to customer service” are things that most children running lemonade stands already grasp.  However, I do think the book made some quality points, which were very applicable to market research; here is my spin below.

Here are a few takeaways/quotations that I flagged from the book and how they might impact a market research provider like Research & Marketing Strategies (RMS):

1. Customer service is still number one.

“…Look at how we’ve been training our managers.  When I was in college, we took courses in marketing and consumer behavior.  The assumption that the public was a mindless group of buyers and that with proper advertising and promotion, products could be produced en masse and sold to naive buyers…Advertising, product positioning, and market-share pricing strategies are all important.  But when all is said and done, goods aren’t sold; products and services are bought.”

This one came in the foreword of the book and I think it makes a good point.  As a market research provider, who you market to, the way you market, and what you market are all very important.  But it often comes down to building personal relationships with clients and having them trust in your service.  Putting yourselves in the clients’ shoes is a common expression at RMS, and cannot be overstated.

2. Quality touches all aspects of market research services; quality as a stand-alone benefit is non-descriptive.

“[When meeting with his boss]…Thinking to prove himself worthy of the new position, he had promised the President to drive for quality in his department.  Total quality.  ’Great idea.  Too narrow a focus,’ the President had told him abruptly.  ’Quality is how well our product works in relation to the customer’s need.  That’s just one aspect of customer service.  Customer service covers all the customer’s needs and expectations.”

I also agree with this point.  Customer service goes well-beyond just quality.  A market research provider delivers on accuracy of data, timeliness of deliverables, helpfulness and the ability to consult on results, and responsiveness to client requests to name a few.  Quality is the umbrella over all customer service aspects, but to simply say that ‘we produce quality work’ may not do your firm justice.

3. Don’t change your proven market research processes because of an isolated occurrence.

“[In response to a recent sign being placed at the dressing room entrance in a department store stating staff will count the number of items taken in and taken out by each customer as a result from items being stolen] One customer out of a thousand steals something in (our) dressing room…next day the store puts up a sign offending the other nine hundred and ninety-nine customers…No one ever seems to compute the cost of offending so many customers in order to slow down one crook.”

When I read this, instead of thinking about clients, I immediately thought of instructions I’ve seen in surveys.  Often times survey instructions on a paper survey or online survey are overused and crammed full.  I understand that as a market research firm, you are trying to pursue 100% accuracy with results.  But what survey designers oftentimes don’t think about is that for every few surveys you saved by adding overbearing instructions, you might have forced 5x the amount of respondents to exit the survey because it was too wordy and long.

Check back later this week at the RMS Bunker Blog for more key market research takeaways from Raving Fans.  What do others think about this book?