In our last newsletter we asked if there was an interest in complaints benchmarking, and said to contact us if that was something you wanted to pursue. The silence was deafening! So although we would strongly recommend the inclusion of complaints in the insight mix, we aren't going to pursue the idea of benchmarking any further.

THERE'S A BUZZ IN THE AIR 

Internet usage is now commonplace, so it makes sense to look at online ways of measuring customer feedback on your brand, services and activities. One such approach is ‘Buzz monitoring’ – the online monitoring of brands or user generated content (UGC). This looks at any instances on the Internet where people are mentioning your company or brand.

A range of companies offer buzz monitoring services. They track ‘mentions’ from a wealth of media, including millions of blogs, forums, news and press release sites. The potential advantages of buzz monitoring are three-fold:

• It can provide a more immediate and effective way of picking up feedback than traditional customer satisfaction surveys. 
• Acting upon the information it delivers can help you to enhance customer satisfaction, boost your profits and strengthen your competitive edge.
• It gives you a valuable insight into what is happening out there in real time – and enables you to pick up any early warning signs of problems (which makes sound commercial sense).

To find out more, please click here

These days, many different groups of people claim to deliver insight: some Market Research teams; Data Analytics teams; those involved in competitive intelligence; and numerous research agencies. So is ‘Insight’ just another name for something that we’ve been doing for years? No, it isn’t.

• 20 years ago, there wasn’t an IT industry: it was a ‘computing industry’.
• This spread to encompass networks, systems, software etc.
• A new, wider term was needed to cover all of these issues: IT. 

MEET THE TEAM MEMBER

Move over, ‘Meet the Client’, it’s now time for ‘Meet the Team Member’...

This is the first in a series of seven features based around Steven R Covey’s excellent book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” We will be looking at each habit and showing how it can be applied in the world of insight.

 

We can respond to any situation that arises in life in two ways: by being proactive or reactive. Covey states that proactive people can actively choose their response, taking the initiative in any situation.

In the insight world, it also pays to be proactive. Some Insight Managers feel that they are always reacting to a constant stream of demands. The challenge is to turn this situation around and to start being more proactive – and therefore more effective. This involves four key steps:

• Understand your business’s needs
• Plan in advance wherever possible
• Prioritise your work
• Learn to say, “No!”

One of the most important elements of an insight role is being able to summarise a huge amount of data and analysis clearly and succinctly. This can be notoriously difficult, especially if it is carried out by the person responsible for the work. It’s the classic case of “Can’t see the wood for the trees”.

The most effective solution is to get someone else (a ‘buddy’) to do it with you. This approach enables you to benefit from:

• Greater clarity – It’s often easier to summarise things verbally.
• A new perspective – You gain a more objective view of your work.
• A faster response – Two minds actually are faster than one! 

‘Buddying up’ can also help you to appraise a project before it starts, or in putting a sensible financial value to the conclusions from a project. Perhaps the best use of a buddy is for simple sense checking. You may have become too involved in the project to make recommendations that are actually credible. A buddy can take a ‘Dragon’s Den’ approach – testing what you’ve said and making sure that it isn’t foolish.

To take a closer look at the advantages of buddying, please click here.