A Taste of Our Own Medicine: Researchers Using Research

In professional services firms you always hear the "cobbler's kids have no shoes" mentality about their look and feel, use of research, etc. Well, we may not (and you may not) have huge budgets but that doesn't mean we can't follow our own advice and find out what our market is looking for and move in that direction.

For years we have been conducting client feedback but like many of our clients it has been used largely for score keeping. Right now, we're wrapping up a broader A&U project about what companies are looking for from value-added research firms and now we have the opportunity to take a fact based approach to addressing it.

The takeaway - even if its a simple methodology find out what your customers are looking for and find a way to provide it to them.

My favorite comment from the research about why they would choose a small/medium provider over a large one:

"Smaller providers are more like a Partnership. They are easier to meet with the entire or most of the organization to understand there process and build a relationship where they understand my business intimately."

Comments

Messi said…
While people may have different views still good things should always be appreciated. Yours is a nice blog. Liked it!!!
July 6, 2009 at 7:45 AM
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