We’ve said for a long time that online research communities provide better research experiences for both clients AND respondents, or members as we prefer to label them. Fun and enjoyment can be quite hard to measure, but seeing the feedback we’ve just received from a community that we’ve been running in Brazil, I think it speaks for itself. It’s so good we had to share it with you…..

“I would like to thank you for the opportunity to be part of the project, I hope you enjoyed my ideas….I loved it and wanted you to know I did it with affection. I found it really cool, I hope you have received lots of good ideas.”

and then there’s this one..

“Thank you! I really liked taking part, I found it to be very dynamic and different.”

and this one..

“I am available when if you need more research, okay? You can count on me.”

I think you get the idea. These people thrived on the  creativity and fun that the tasks we designed offered them, and of course the very personal relationships they struck up with our moderators. I your research needs an injection like this, we’d love to hear from you.

A report just out, published by Forrester and titled ‘Past Present & Future of Market Research‘ came our way today, as we’ve been sited as an example of how to use private online communities to capture the views, opinions, experiences of consumers via our forward-thinking, task-based engagement platform.

The report sites three major trends in Market Research (MR) as being 1) Global market research spend is increasing year-over-year, 2) Online surveying is here to stay, and 3) Market research is transforming to market insights.

Naturally, we’re delighted to learn of the increased spend in market research, though it is the the third and final point that I’m going to discuss further. Traditionally, market research has been contained within departments that can, on most occasions, be somewhat disconnected to the wider decision-making process within an organisation. Often, MR is commissioned to validate ideas or hunches, and fails to deliver more powerful and engaging strategic influence.

Dub’s work in developing online customer communities overcomes this by creating a forum and a voice that can deliver hard and fast research, but also a stream of actionable insights that, by the power of technology and design, can be shared throughout an organisation in a more digestible and engaging manner. As such, it’s ability to shape decisio-making, promoting organisations as more ‘listening’ or ‘customer-centric’.

Insights, information and data garnered from online customer communities can include new ideas for product and service innovation, sales leads and new business opportunities and advocacy, among other things. So, while it ticks the research box, it goes much further and brings with it new relationships, sales increases and greater innovation capabilities.

We recommend you consider this, and other reports from Forrester to keep in touch with the advancements of online customer communities, or alternatively subscribe to this blog!

We’ve just come to the end of a fantastic research community for one of the world’s leading home design retailers. We used our platform, and specifically its micro-blogging capability, to get participants around the world to share their lives and their homes.

As consultants, we’re always hunting the perfect project, and we believe that it’s important to download and review the findings from your last piece of work, and feed it into the next project. So, here are some of the issues that came to the surface that we’re tackling:

• By breaking blogging down to micro-blogging, have we oversimplified it for those who are perhaps more proficient when it comes to using web services?
• How do we balance the number of exercises and tasks participants are asked to undergo during a project? (It seems an idea to start with softer, more personal exercises at the beginning)
• When respondents are specifically recruited, and may not share as much of an emotional connection or shared interest as a more open-invitation community may do, how do we support ongoing collaboration and build their intrigue in commenting on what others have shared?
• How much seeded content is too much, ie. that which sets up a bias?
• How much time should be left between gathering stimulus and feeding back conceptual thinking, without leaving the community cold?
• How much control do research communities really want over their online space, and which elements should we pose for customisation by them?
• What approach should we take to overcome language difficulties, if there is one at all?
• What balance of pro-active vs reactive interactions should we strive for?