What’s driving your residents’ satisfaction (or frustration) with your community?

Civic Framework Download

While your city’s services are undoubtedly essential, the community is far more than just the services it provides.

This Civic Framework defines all of the key dimensions that lead to a high quality of life, and a good community survey should include all of these dimensions.

This framework keeps us focused on what is most important – the core benefits residents want from their community.

Check out the following articles for a bit more information on this framework:

And, as always, let us know if you have any questions.

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Pricing

Pricing is a fundamental decision of which research can play a key role. Many forms of pricing research exist depending on the product type, the category, and even the stage within the new product development process. True North can apply any number of approaches to best fit the situation.

Problem Detection

True North starts this process by identifying potential problems to include in the study.  We prefer to review customer service notes and/or open-ended responses from NPS or other tools.  If these are not available, we may prefer to capture problems through qualitative methods.

The resulting list will be edited and perhaps modified by management.

The resulting list of potential problems will be added to a quantitative questionnaire.  The key elements of the questionnaire are 1) capturing the degree to which the problem is a burden to the respondent and 2) the frequency that the problem occurs.

The result is a grid similar to this one.  This framework provides a structure to identify which problems to address first.

With management’s input,  we can further refine the prioritization of which problems to address first by identifying the level of effort involved in addressing each problem.  Problems that take less effort to address, and are located in the upper-right quadrant should be attacked first.

Customers may leave due to problems they encounter with your brand.  Problem Detection identifies problems that may exist before customers leave.  It will identify those frequent nuisances as well as the infrequent big deals.

White Space

Marketers are always looking for white space – that space that defines issues that consumers care about but for which no brand owns. In the past, there has not been good ways to find this white space. Until now. True North’s process clarifies white space opportunities – if they exist.

As part of our brand and market evaluation, we determine the degree to which attributes contributes to brand choice.

When collecting brand perceptions, unlike most other firms, we include a “don’t know” choice since not all consumers can evaluate all brands on all dimensions.

But this is where the fun comes in – when we plot brand attributes based on their impact on choice by the proportion that don’t know what brand is associated with an attribute, we get a chart that looks like this one.

Those attributes that fall into the upper-right quadrant are important attributes that are not associated with any brand.  Thus, they are white space opportunities.  In other words, they are dimensions that a brand may attempt to “own” by adding it to their commutations, packages, thereby creating meaningful differentiation.

Copy Testing

We built the copy testing method we could never find.  So why don’t the big firms use clutter reels anymore when breakthrough is so important?  We know that for a message to make it to long-term memory, it must be linked to an emotion.  Thus, we measure real emotion utilizing AI and facial coding.

Of course, we provide the traditional diagnostic metrics as well.

With the millions firms will spend on video based advertising, good copy testing is a quick return on ROI.  It doesn’t take much to pay back the expenditure several times over.

The two biggest challenges with advertising are

breakthrough,  linking the ad to the brand, and generating an emotional response so that the ad will be recalled and impart a positive emotional response to the brand.  Our approach tackles all 3 elements.

As part of the interview, we ask respondents to turn on their webcams and let us watch them watch the ad.  From this we can read a moment by moment emotional response.

Not only does this process tell us which the level of emotional response, it provides a moment by moment response so that we can identify areas of improvement for the spot.

In the analysis, we compare breakthrough and brand linkage to emotional strength  Where ads fall in this framework defines the anticipated success.

With the millions firms will spend on video based advertising, good copy testing is a quick return on ROI.  It doesn’t take much to pay back the expenditure several times over.

The two biggest challenges with advertising are

breakthrough,  linking the ad to the brand, and generating an emotional response so that the ad will be recalled and impart a positive emotional response to the brand.  Our approach tackles all 3 elements.

As part of the interview, we ask respondents to turn on their webcams and let us watch them watch the ad.  From this we can read a moment by moment emotional response.

Not only does this process tell us which the level of emotional response, it provides a moment by moment response so that we can identify areas of improvement for the spot.

Qualitative Methods

Since most of those reading this understand qualitative research, I will not expand on the basics. However, this is such a wonderful tool but True North believes so many miss the mark with this method . . .

A good moderator should do more than simply manage the conversation.

A good moderator should be very well grounded in the decisions to be made, potential options the client may pursue, potential roadblocks, areas the client cannot pursue, and any other relevant hypotheses.

We always hear unexpected things; in fact, this is a benefit of qualitative research, learning things we did not expect. But the moderator cannot pursue lines of questioning if they don’t understand the potential company decisions, limitations, hypotheses, etc. This is the basis of good probing and knowing where to follow-up.

This is why my favorite moderator while I was on the client side was a former Director of New Product Development in a well-known firm. She understood what it took to take a product from the qualitative research phase through to launch. She was a business-person, not just a moderator.

Likewise at True North, our moderators are business-people who have been on the client side and are very well experienced in qualitative research.

It’s all about finding the emotions that drive the decision.

All the latest behavioral economics research has revealed that humans make decisions unconsciously and emotionally and justify rationally.

When we ask for the reason “why.”  We expect to hear the rational reasons.  But we also know that these may not be the real reasons.  Thus, we listen for those emotionally laden words such as . . .

  • I’m confident . . .
  • I don’t trust . . .
  • That scares me . . .
  • That makes me feel good . . .
  • That’s a lot of work . . .
  • That makes me feel good . . .

This is where we dig in and probe.  This is where we find the real reasons “why.”

Projective Techniques

Projective techniques provide very useful set of techniques that allow us to understand the real reasons for choice (or to reject).  They primarily focus on letting the emotional guard down so  that we can get to the real reasons.  The following are a few of these methods:

  • Projection on others — If we ask why others do something – and they will project their own beliefs on their answers.
  • Photographs – Asking the respondent to find a photograph that illustrates how they feel about the topic – and then use the photograph to describe the topic. This gives a very rich, unfiltered opinion.
  • Metaphors – Ask for a metaphor that describes how they feel. This works great. Tell us investing is like a roller coaster tells us a lot about how they feel in just a few words.

Reporting

The power of qualitative is that real people are explaining their beliefs.  Numbers and percentages can be theoretical and distant.  It is hard to ignore a customer telling you when they will not buy your product.  This can have a much stronger and real impact on decision makers.

Thus, at the very least, we will bring in quotations of the respondents.  But depending on the issue, and especially if the results are going to senior management or others who could not observe the research first-hand, we like to create short video reels on different topics.  This allows decision makers to truly understand what was said, including the emotion attached to the statements.

Complete Satisfaction Study

Two categories of customer satisfaction studies exist. The first is a more strategic “Full Satisfaction” study, and the second is used primarily as a management tool.

The Full Satisfaction study includes many metrics on many topics. Through the analysis, we identify which are the most important topics. From this, management can decide which of those issues they want to focus on. These issues are placed into the second type of study – “Event Driven” satisfaction.

Event Driven studies are used to provide 360-degree feedback to the front lines. Results are provided down to the lowest level possible. This may be a retail outlet, an office, or feedback on a specific event that occurs infrequently but is highly relevant. You can read more about this in the “Event Driven” satisfaction survey summary.

The Process

The ideal process is to interview client facing associates to understand what they believe to be the most important dimensions leading to satisfaction. Then we prefer to interview just a handful of customers to get their perspective – which is more often than not different than that of the associates.

From this feedback, we can design the questionnaire and field the study.

Analysis and Deliverables

After all of our data quality checks, we will determine the drivers of satisfaction – those dimensions that most lead to satisfaction, referral, and retention.

When identifying these drivers, we do not rely on what respondents to tell us – we analytically determine the drivers. This does two things for us:

1.It ensures we get the real reasons, not just the reasons they want to tell us

2.We can keep the questionnaire shorter by avoiding these stated importance questions. This gives us more questionnaire space to include more dimensions.

Once we have this, we can build the following grid. This grid is a favorite of management and typically is a key component within the executive summary. This clearly tells management where to focus (and perhaps what set of questions need to be added to the Event Level study).

Event Driven Satisfaction

Two categories of customer satisfaction studies exist. The first is a more strategic “Full Satisfaction” study, and the second is used primarily as a management tool.

Event Driven studies are used to provide 360-degree feedback to the front lines. Results are provided down to the lowest level possible. This may be a retail outlet, an office, interaction with customer service, or feedback after completing a service or a project.

In this type of study, we are trying to interview the customer very soon after their experience when they will recall elements they liked or did not like.

The Full Satisfaction study includes many metrics on many topics. Through the analysis, we identify which are the most important topics. From this, management can decide which of those issues they want to focus on. These issues are placed into the second type of study – “Event Driven” satisfaction.

The Process

The ideal process is to first complete a full satisfaction study so that we understand which metrics to include in this study.

The difference, however, is that these metrics should be very specific. We want these worded in a way that if a frontline salesperson sees the results, they will know exactly what to do. If we are not clear, the field will define these dimensions in a way that suit them – regardless if this is what customers are really searching for.

If we can’t complete a full satisfaction study first, we can create a driver analysis of those items we did include to see the extent to which they do drive satisfaction (or delight or referrals).

In addition to traditional training and management, the metrics placed in this study tell the field what is important to them. Therefore, we should expect results real behavioral results based on what is included in this survey. For as Edward Deming once said . . .

“You get what you measure.”

– Edward Deming

Analysis and Deliverables

The results are placed in an online dashboard so that all locations, branches, offices, etc. can view their own results.

The most effective situations occur when location managers review results with their teams periodically, and even read some of the comments. This instills the objectives the front line and can significantly motivate them.

Download our New Product Development System Process

Developing new products is expensive.  Not just the dollars spent but the vast amount of internal time it swallows up.  Despite management enthusiasm, most products fail.  But this failure rate can be reduced simply by following a sound New Product Development system.

There are several benefits to a New Product Development System.

  • Increases the probability of success. It ensures a thorough process that weeds out ideas with a lower chance of success.
  • Fails Fast. It will quickly identify ideas with a lower chance of success so that the investment in those poor ideas is limited.
  • Manages Senior Management Ideas. If you have worked in new product development for any period of time, you will agree with this statement – Many of the worst ideas come from senior management.  Placing these ideas into the process will allow you to provide leadership with objective feedback on their ideas.
  • Norms. By taking all new ideas through the same process, you will develop your own norms for success.

Take control of your New Product efforts by creating a process.

Feel free to download our New Product Development process diagram.  Our treat.

True North Market Insights is here to assist you with your product and market research needs. To schedule a call with one of our professionals, click here.

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Fail Fast – An Internal Screening System For New Product Development

In the brainstorming phase of a project or new endeavor, there’s the old adage that says: There’s no such thing as a bad idea! While this is true at the most basic level, it feels as though there should be an addendum to that quote.

There’s no such thing as a bad idea… as long as you know how to eventually recognize that it’s bad and instead prioritize the good ones. 

A strong internal evaluation process can be extremely beneficial when you’re working on new product development. It introduces valuable things like:

  1. A focus on defining a customer need. As each idea is presented, ask and clearly identify what problem it is addressing. Make sure that you are explicitly communicating the benefit.
  2. The ability to screen out ideas before dollars are spent. Save research, time, and money by first polling the brains at your own company. You might realize that you already have the answer to whether or not something is feasible.
  3. A natural record of past ideas. Implementing a thorough screening process helps build a habit of documentation, and means that you won’t waste time revisiting an old idea.
  4. An objective process. With a scoring system, you can easily lobby for strong ideas and veto weaker pitches in a way that feels purely numerical, not personal.

Ready to start taking advantage of all those perks? Download our template for recording and scoring ideas internally.  Our treat.  This will help you get up to speed quickly.

Documenting and Scoring New Ideas During Product Development

A well-documented idea makes your evaluation process easier. Our Internal Screening Guide (provided in the download) outlines our five recommended elements for a quality description. These include factors that ensure your consumer is placed at the forefront of your development, as well as tactics for evaluating if the product is a good fit for your brand.

Of course, your documentation technique can be somewhat personalized to your company or the project at hand. Our guide simply provides you with the foundation you’ll need to get everyone on the same page.

Once all ideas are documented in a uniform manner, you can score them. This provides an objective way for you to see how they measure up against each other. Objectivity is your best friend during these evaluation sessions, as it can speed things along and help you avoid hurting any feelings or defensiveness.

Our scoring system is also included in our download. Each member of your development committee can give their input, and an easily calculated average will give you the final result!

Prioritizing Internal Company Ideas

So you have your pitches, you have your scores… how do you make sense of these numbers and decide what to act on? It’s not as simple as launching your highest-scoring ideas. You’ll also want to take into account the effort required to successfully implement each plan.

You might have a perfect-scoring pitch, but if it’s not realistic for your budget or timeline, you’ll want to let it go. You can find your threshold of plausibility using a prioritization matrix, also included in the download!

And, speaking of priorities… Your number one priority right now should be downloading that resource. This free guide will help you to make sure that every new idea gets the proper attention and resources—or lack thereof—that it deserves.

True North Market Insights is here to assist you with all of your product and market research needs. To schedule a call with one of our professionals, click here.

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