CONDUCTING market research in-house is not unheard of and, so long as a few strategies are adopted, it can provide credible information to base business decisions on.
According to Colmar Brunton Research acting state manager David Bruce, conducting market research in house is perfectly acceptable under certain circumstances.
“If it is market research for yourself and you are doing it to make decisions for yourself then you can do it but if it is for a third party it is more likely that independent research is required,” he said.
“If it is simple research such as customer satisfaction surveys you can do it in-house so long as you have the skills to design questions that provide useful information.”
Asset Research managing director Ian McKenzie said good questions were clear and unambiguous.
“The questionnaire design is a vital part of the process. Once the survey has been conducted it is difficult to go back and do it again if you find that not all the relevant questions have been asked,” he said.
Mr Bruce said being aware of how conducting market research could influence results would help eliminate unreliable data.
“If it is a customer satisfaction survey and you give it to your staff to administer then the results will more than likely be positive. If you, say, give it to one in three people they will give that survey to people they have given good customer service to,” he said.
Mr Bruce said there were certain types of surveys that companies should always outsource.
“Employee research should always be done externally. It needs to have a really strong sense of confidentiality.”
Mr Bruce said some organisations often required independent research.
“The Government of Western Australia for example often requires an independent research company to provide the data because it provides credibility and reliance,” he said.