Organisations use market research questionnaires & surveys in many ways and the following areas are typical “research” targets:

• Awareness or familiarity with products, brands or ideas.
• Opinions and beliefs.
• Attitudes and emotions to change or new situations.
• Usage and behaviour patterns.
• Motivations.
• Emerging trends, issues and opinions.
• Customer satisfaction.

This information enables organisations to improve their planning and can impact significantly and positively on their decision-making process. The two main methods of research are qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative research is usually undertaken using in-depth interviews or discussion groups among a relatively small number of people. It provides exploratory, explanatory and diagnostic information such as how and the why.

Such interviewing is generally conducted face-to-face, although telephone and on-line methodologies can be used. Quantitative research is the statistical form of research, and quantifies the
research results.

Surveys and questionnaires form a key part of market research and are often used to help to reduce risk in difficult economic times. A company can find out more in a brief survey of their customers, suppliers or
staff than in any other way.

Surveys and questionnaires are also frequently used in HR where crisis or change management or assessing staff attitudes and concerns are particularly important. A short staff attitude survey can often identify issues or concerns that exist within an organisation that were previously hidden or suppressed.
“In-house” control of the survey links the survey directly to the required response and the needs of the client.

The flexibility, simplicity and versatility of Keypoint puts the control of the entire process of creation, publication, analysis and presentation firmly in the users hands. Running surveys with Keypoint gives you the data you need that can be analysed and interpreted as necessary so that you are no longer dependant on external opinion or speculation.

Keypoint is an intuitive, easy to use package designed to make the entire survey process simple and very cost effective.

“Good information helps good decision-making.”

Keypoint at Work

Whether you refer to them as surveys, questionnaires or market research, the art of gathering and analysing information is often crucial to the successful implementation of a policy or of a business plan.
Small, medium and large companies as well as local & national government offices all have a constant need for information to help them define policies, implement business plans or simply explore staff attitudes.

This information has to be accurate and current and a consumer survey or staff questionnaire is a simple yet very effective way of meeting this need. Whether your survey contains 10 questions or 1000 the information that is gathered can be used as part of your decision making process and can be used exactly how you need it.

Users are increasingly looking for ways to carry out these surveys and questionnaires themselves and to control the entire process of gathering, analysing and presenting data.

Keypoint has been designed and developed to meet this need in one, easy to use software package that lets the user design the questionnaire, publish it in hard copy, on the web or as an email attachment and then analyse and present the findings in several different forms.

Keypoint does not require any special programming skills or technical knowledge which means that the process of information gathering and analysis can be managed and controlled easily “in house”.

This means that surveys, questionnaires and other forms of market research can be carried out exactly when they are needed and can quickly become an integral part of business strategy.

Keypoint in Action

Local Government focus groups, ‘Best Value’ consultations and client satisfactions audits, are increasingly important in the Public Sector, but are time consuming to run and are often outsourced at considerable cost. Keypoint has become an important component of these Best Value Reviews where consultation with service users is necessary via paper-based questionnaire or, increasingly, electronically via a web site and email.

In industry Keypoint is used extensively, managing questionnaires and surveys that reflect customer needs, staff issues and supplier opinions. This ensures that business decisions and policies are based on sound and accurate business “intelligence”.

A well-featured, easy to use software tool such as Keypoint can support the running of surveys and questionnaires and in-house management of the processes will significantly save time and reduce costs.

As KeyPoint is intuitive it is possible for someone with quite basic skills to create a professional looking questionnaire that is easy to complete, guaranteeing an excellent response rate, which is key if the survey results are to be useful and meaningful.

Examples of Keypoint at Work

The applications for Keypoint are extensive, in fact anyone who needs to
collect, analyse and present data is a potential user and the following are just
some typical examples of uses for Keypoint at work.

TRAVEL TO WORK

Would you pay more to travel to work?

This is just one question that is typically used in travel to work surveys and the responses could affect policy areas such as toll charges for city driving. Administrators of the Travel to Work programme complained about loss of control when the data entry process was subcontracted, citing problems such
as lost time and poor data accuracy.

Projects were taking longer than expected and the time wasted chasing and correcting data, could have been invested in completing the work. Data entry was simplified with KeyPoint, which generated a data input screen as part of the questionnaire and accuracy was assured by built in filters in Keypoint that prevented ‘dirty data’ from being entered.

Paper-based entry forms were also scanned directly into the KeyPoint database, cutting data entry times dramatically. The automated analysis features were also used to provide management with an instant snapshot of the results that gave them the opportunity to modify the survey questionnaire whenever necessary.

As KeyPoint is compatible with most commonly used software packages it was possible to import and export information from other applications into the survey and then integrate Keypoint generated information into other applications and reports.

BEST VALUE INITIATIVE

An increasing number of the surveys are linked to Best Value performance where users were asked about their satisfaction with the services they receive. The size of the review was often related to the value of the service and KeyPoint was particularly well suited where a short, inexpensive overview was required.

In one case researchers used KeyPoint to create a two-page questionnaire, which was frequently re-issued with the questions modified each time. The library facility enabled successful question formats to be saved, further speeding up the process of revising the surveys for future re-publication. KeyPoint also provided powerful analysis tools, many of which were automated, so that the researchers quickly gained an overview of the data. The department also used dedicated statistical analysis software such as
SPSS and the data from KeyPoint was imported and integrated into these reports as well.

CRIME & DISORDER

Local Authorities work in partnership with the police and community to provide Central Government with feedback on incidents and perceptions of crime, which includes consultation with the public.

KeyPoint was used to produce the questionnaires that are completed during face-to-face interviews with the public in places such as shopping centres. Keypoint based surveys have also been used to help the police in the following areas:

• Crime and Disorder Strategies
• Local Policing Plans
• Performance Indicators
• Best Value Reviews
• Residents' priorities for police action
• Satisfaction with local policing

The data was often entered manually via the data input screen, which was created during the forms design process. Once stored in the database the information was analysed in a variety of ways and the results presented graphically or as tables within a written report.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

The reputation of your company can be directly affected by what you and others say! There is no doubt that good research is often the key to successful public relations. PR departments often conduct market research surveys to gauge public reaction to proposals and plans and the format of the questions can frequently be different in order to reflect shades of opinion.

PR surveys cover a wide spectrum of interests and include:

• Surveys of the general public and opinion
• Analysis of key target audiences on specific issues
• Identifying, defining and managing public relations problems
• Keep a track of how effective your media campaigns are
• Attract more favourable media attention
• What 'facts' are commonly misunderstood about your organisation?
• Do you need to change the way you talk about yourselves?
• Over time, how do things said and done by you and others affect your
  reputation?

The benefits of reliable research figures help companies to focus their work, stimulate media coverage and help counter negative criticism during times of bad press. Clients can also improve their standing among key groups and a solid baseline can be established and tracked, to measure the success of your PR message across.

Keypoint’s flexible library options made the design of sophisticated questionnaires simple to create, store and modify. The on board analysis and presentation tools meant that all information gathered could be filtered, sorted and presented to clearly identify trends and opinions.

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

In business, the best opportunities for creating value are likely to be through existing customer relationships. Customer satisfaction surveys help you understand how your customers are
responding to your products and services.

In the public sector, high levels of customer satisfaction are likely to be indicative of more effective service delivery.

In order to meet the deadlines and targets set in Service Level Agreements (SLAs), service departments and support groups frequently run surveys to determine customer satisfaction levels.

They also use these surveys to gauge customer demand for new services. The live data analysis tool is frequently used in this environment to see what areas need immediate or short-term attention.

Keypoint’s dynamic data analysis tools give a snapshot of the survey results prior to detailed analysis.
If the customer is using graphs or histograms to present their data they will be automatically updated as new data is entered into the survey.

BANKING & FINANCE

Banking and financial institutions regularly conduct internal staff surveys to ensure that their staff is fully aware of the latest financial regulations. They are also constantly monitoring the movement of bank account users, looking for trends. Continuous surveys are used to measure market share, customer satisfaction and reasons for choice and look at several areas of banking, including:

• Current accounts
• Savings and investment accounts
• Mortgages
• Loans
• Credit cards
• Life and pensions
• Insurance (car, household, medical)

This often involves setting up quite detailed questionnaires that have very specific questions and objectives and can act as much as a way of identifying training needs as it does in ensuring full awareness of the latest regulations and products.

These surveys will often be comprised of a number of different “answer types” and Keypoint lets the user include many different question types in the survey that include numerical, alphabetical and text based responses.

Often the on board question library can also be used to speed up the design process as questions that become “standard” and are used frequently can be added to the question library.

HUMAN RESOURCES

HR departments are increasing users of surveys covering a wide range of topics and typical of the questions that they ask are:

• How can we effectively attract and retain talented people?
• Are we seen as an employer of choice, where people want to work?
• Are we communicating effectively with ...?
  • Prospective employees (e.g. graduates, school leavers)
  • Existing employees
  • Competitors' employees
  • Former employees
  • Recruitment agencies

The right question asked at the right time can save a company, significant amounts of time and money by making sure the staff they have are happy and that the staff they recruit in the future are right for the job. Furthermore the right survey can help define recruitment policies and help in
answering the following questions:

• How effective is our recruitment activity?
• Is our recruitment activity reaching the right targets?
• Is our organisation attracting the 'right sort of people'?
• Is our web site meeting our recruitment needs?
• What role are agencies and consultants playing in our recruitment?
• How can we best optimise our recruitment processes

The right question at the right time can speed up this process and ensure that the recruitment policy meets precisely the needs of the employer and the employee.