Survey Consumers Person-to-Person

Garbage In, Garbage Out. This motto of the early computer age can be applied to consumer attitude surveys. The survey questionnaire, when used well, is an invaluable tool for identifying consumer sentiments as guides to retailer action. Using it well means constructing the questionnaire with care and analyzing the answers properly. A Harvard Business Review article pointed out that the steps between questionnaire construction and data analysis also must be done well. Those middle steps include sample selection and administration of the questionnaire.
     Here are the problems:

• Telephone surveys are yielding low and unrepresentative response rates in this age of cell phones and caller ID.
• People who volunteer to take online surveys tend to be more educated than the general consumer population and are less likely to be middle-aged.
• When consumers take surveys online, they answer carelessly. A Market Strategies International research project to evaluate this issue found that about 15% of consumer respondents said they owned a Segway Personal Transporter, a rate many times higher than what sales figures indicate is true.

     Address these problems and get the best from consumer surveys by forming a person-to-person relationship with your respondents:

• Have one of your staff trained in survey methodology or have a survey consultant personally invite each consumer to participate. The invitation, like the survey itself, should be in the language most comfortable for the consumer.
• Before finalizing construction of the questionnaire, conduct one or more focus groups with a small group of consumers to explore the best ways to phrase items and motivate participation.
• During survey administration, tell each respondent the name of a person to contact with questions.
• After data analysis, conduct a focus group to check that your interpretation of the results makes sense.

     Since GIGO was first coined by George Fuechsel, an IBM 305 RAMAC instructor, to refer to Garbage In, Garbage Out, the acronym has morphed. It’s come to mean Garbage In, Gospel Out, referring to the excessive respect we have for analyses just because they’re performed by computers. When you combine computerized analysis with survey administration, retailers can be misled into accepting as gospel what is actually garbage. Retailers then take the wrong action steps.
     Be sure to select consumer samples and administer surveys in accord with professional standards. This adds to the cost. But flawed surveys are worse than worthless.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

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Use Consumer Attitude Survey Findings