The Numbers Are In: 5 Important Attributes to Consider when Selecting a Market Research Partner

As a market research buyer, you want a platform built with empathy in mind. Your supplier should have a deep understanding of your objectives, as well as careful consideration of how best to help you meet them. Below, you’ll find the top five attributes that influence purchasing decisions and can help guide you in what to look for in a market research partnership.

Data Quality

While every supplier in the industry recognizes that data quality is an issue, most fail to take any significant action because it’s against their short-term business interests. Poor data quality leads to business decisions that can move the brand in the wrong direction and ultimately result in lower market share. It can also erode the trust built with stakeholders and negatively impact your company’s ability to understand the consumer.

Choose a supplier that employs a carefully crafted quality control workflow, that includes the removal of bots and duplicates; verification of your target audience and the quality of their responses; as well as a deep commitment to providing an exceptional user experience.

Panels can promote data quality by implementing a system that rewards respondents for their honesty and candor. Aytm’s TrustScoreSM – an automatic system of consistency verification scores panelists using an algorithm that looks for inconsistencies in answers. We show our appreciation for survey takers who provide consistent answers, while progressively reducing access to surveys to those that don’t. This protects the interests of researchers. Respondents ranked PaidViewpoint—our proprietary panel— a Top 5 Survey Site by SurveyPolice for five years in a row.

Service Level

Having a supplier that customizes their technology and service to your needs means you can get the research done right, within budgetary and time constraints, while leveraging technology to complete even the most advanced tests easily, for quick iteration and delivery of insights at the speed of the market. This customization empowers you to build best-practice
templates and processes, raising the standard and consistency of all the research being conducted by your teams. Look for market research suppliers that offer a seamless combination of platform, panel, and reporting; along with a flexible service model, allowing you to “Do-It-Yourself,” “Do-it-Together,” or have them “Do-It-For-You.”

Relationship

As a buyer, you need a partner that will become an extension of your research team. Look for a supplier that demonstrates:

• Empathy – It’s crucial that your supplier really listens and understands your unique challenges to help you achieve your desired outcomes.
• Responsiveness – Work with a supplier that responds quickly when you have questions, need help troubleshooting, creating surveys, or launching them to your audience.
• Expertise – Your supplier must bring its knowledge and best practices to the table to fill in any research experience gaps you may have.
• Training – Find a supplier that arms you with the information you need to become more self-sufficient, enabling successful digital transformation across your org.

Reputation + Thought Leadership

Modern market research suppliers should strike a balance between reputation and thought leadership. A reputable supplier keeps its promises and delivers excellent results, consistently, over time. To date, AYTM has powered millions of survey responses, offering insights from more than 60 million consumers across 33 countries and 16 languages.

Yet, to remain at the forefront of innovation, suppliers must anticipate the evolving needs of buyers, while also helping to lead meaningful change in the industry with cutting-edge ideas and solutions. For example, there is currently no recognized industry standard for data quality management. Aytm is actively working to develop a new standard that includes several vectors for establishing data quality.

Ensure that your supplier can not only serve your needs today but is envisioning new and better ways to evolve and meet your needs in the future.