consumers recall vast amounts of information about products which are very often not that important to them .
Once we learn what information we can get from respondents accurately the quality of research will rise .
It will also show us which methodologies are the best to use . I suspect mobile will come out as the best simply because it can be used “ in the moment ” which minimizes the problems of recall . Better to get 5 questions from a respondent when they are in the supermarket than 20 a week later when they are at home .
Are small enterprises able to leverage the power of surveys ? If so what more changes you intend to
suggest in coming 5 years ?
Question text should be made as short as possible
“ lowering the cognitive load of a survey is probably a more realistic goal than making it more interesting ”
As an insight expert what are some of the changes you will like to recommend that will have a positive impact on the survey research industry ?
Andrew Jeavons : As I mentioned we need to work out why respondents respond , that is something been ignored for too long . Survey complexity and length have to be addressed somehow ; with better quality data we have better quality research .
What we really need to do is take an in-depth look at the assumptions and expectations of surveys . There is a huge amount of evidence from research on eye witness testimony in legal cases which show us that people are not very good at remembering . If people cannot recall which person attacked another person and what they looked like , then how reliable is their recall of what they did in the supermarket on the last visit they made ? Is it reasonable to expect a high level of recall about what shampoo you bought last week ? We are heavily invested in the idea that
Andrew Jeavons : I think smaller companies can get easy access to survey technology , companies such as Survey Monkey and Survey Gizmo provide great systems at an economic price . However technology is not enough , the design of a study and the interpretation of the results is more important .
I feel that frequent short surveys can be far more powerful than “ kitchen sink ” surveys ; I ’ d like to see more emphasis placed on this approach .
The temptation to have long surveys has to be resisted . Indeed it would be great to have a written “ survey pledge ” ( like Grover Norquist ’ s tax pledge ) signed by companies who perform surveys and clients agreeing that their surveys will always be less than 20 minutes , have no grids , be mobile friendly and so forth . It would be a start .