Thursday, September 28, 2006
Perception vs Reality
It is true that in our world perception is very often more important than reality. In fact perception IS reality. Ever been to LA? Well yes then you know what that means.
There are two aspects to this that I find interesting right now:
a) how do we actually know how consumers and respondents comprehend our surveys? Of course any good researcher will tell you that there is an art and a skill to successful qre writing. Of course that is true. However like any art and skill it needs to update! For example, in Hong Kong recently I have witnessed that open ended questions have poor undetailed answers on-line. That goes against the wisdom! Well it is down to design of the qre. We think we know what people are doing. We think we understand the process of self-completion but we do not. Well not enough anyway. Cognitive Testing has thrown me some amazing insights into the power of perception - how the same question can be answered two different ways on-line based on perception. Now this has always been true, it is just that the on-line curve is newer and less explored!
b) what makes someone join our panel? Do we really know why people join? I am forever asking myself how do I recruit more people? What do they want? What will make it more efficient? Do they perceive that we are trying to sell them something? Do they need extra reassurance perceiving this all as a scam. It is NOT!
How do I deal with the perception issue. Guess! Engage, understand. Try and try again...
There are two aspects to this that I find interesting right now:
a) how do we actually know how consumers and respondents comprehend our surveys? Of course any good researcher will tell you that there is an art and a skill to successful qre writing. Of course that is true. However like any art and skill it needs to update! For example, in Hong Kong recently I have witnessed that open ended questions have poor undetailed answers on-line. That goes against the wisdom! Well it is down to design of the qre. We think we know what people are doing. We think we understand the process of self-completion but we do not. Well not enough anyway. Cognitive Testing has thrown me some amazing insights into the power of perception - how the same question can be answered two different ways on-line based on perception. Now this has always been true, it is just that the on-line curve is newer and less explored!
b) what makes someone join our panel? Do we really know why people join? I am forever asking myself how do I recruit more people? What do they want? What will make it more efficient? Do they perceive that we are trying to sell them something? Do they need extra reassurance perceiving this all as a scam. It is NOT!
How do I deal with the perception issue. Guess! Engage, understand. Try and try again...
