3 Methods to Ensure You’re Collecting Quality Data

Whether you work for an international organization, or you’ve launched a start-up business, market research is vital. From an authentic connection with your target audience to standing out against the competition, collecting quality data comes with a host of benefits.

Keeping up with developments in the world of market research can feel overwhelming as new technology emerges that promises to outperform traditional methods in a shorter amount of time. Luckily, whatever your goals, there are some simple ways to combine the old and the new, to boost the quality of the data that you’re collecting and avoid wasting precious time and resources. In this blog, we’ll be discussing the top three methods to ensure that you’re collecting quality data, every time.

1. Better Survey Design

Surveys are popular amongst businesses because they allow professionals to gain an insight into the thoughts, opinions, and circumstances of their customer base or target audience to effectively bring innovative new products or services to the table.

As you approach a potential survey design for data collection, there are several questions you should ask yourself before you begin:

• What type of survey questions will work best for your needs? As a market researcher, getting high quality survey data can be harder than you’d expect, and that starts with your questionnaire. A big part of your decision-making should surround your survey method and the types of questions you’ll be asking your respondents. Here are some great tips for designing an effective survey. If you’re new to building surveys, Vision Surveys can help you customize and build the best interview experience for your audience and allow you to test the survey in a variety of formats including desktop, tablet, or mobile phone.To make the best choice, you must understand your target audience and keep them engaged. You don’t want an overbearingly long survey because you want your respondent to give thorough, thought-out answers throughout the entire interview.
• Does your survey need to be completed within a specific timeframe? There are a few different approaches that you can take to survey design when it comes to the timeframes for data collection. Do you want to use a cross-sectional survey, which collects data that reflects respondents’ views at a certain point in time, or would your organization benefit more from a longitudinal survey that asks the same questions to similar audiences over a prolonged period? Also consider how fast your industry vertical is moving; the rate of consumerism change has never been higher, and customers are expecting more from the brands they interact with most, faster.
• How will you analyze your data?It’s easy to fall into the trap of taking the process one step at a time individually, collecting a complete data set before you begin to think about analyzing the results. However, by establishing how you want to analyze and organize your data early on, you’ll be able to shape your collection methods towards what works best and makes the most impactful sense for your business, leaving the quality of your responses reliable in the final stages of your project.

2. Technology

Today’s digital age requires a blended approach to research – use of traditional methods as well as the capitalization of online sample for faster answers.  If you’re only relying one over the other, then you might be missing out on a gold mine of data that can inform your business decisions faster. Timelines for the acquisition and analysis of data are shortening for decision makers, so technology provides an opportunity to get quality results fast and in real time.

Additionally, advances in technology allow us to protect and safeguard our insights gathered online.  Cyberfraud damages are projected to hit $10.5 million dollars by 2025, which is more than damages caused by every natural disaster in one year and more profitable than all illicit drug trade combined!

Technology is also driving data collection in non-profit and public sector organizations. These organizations use data collection technology in crisis management and risk assessment tasks that would be nearly impossible to complete without comprehensive online accessibility.

3. A Transparent Partner

The importance of honesty and transparency surrounding data collection should never be understated, and for high quality customer relationships, businesses need to keep their audience in the loop on why and how they use their data.

Ultimately, market research is an area that demands the very best, so to collect the highest quality data, you also need to ensure that you’re working with a transparent partner who can support you as you make the tough decisions around data collection practices. If you are running into issues in your data reliability, make sure you have a partner who can clearly explain what happened, why it happened, and the methods they are implementing to prevent similar data quality issues in the future.

Data collection is a complex task that acts as a cornerstone to successful business maintenance, so getting things right the first time is crucial. By following these three methods – implementing quality survey design, utilizing technological advancements, and finding a transparent partner – you can rest easy knowing that you’ll always be getting the best possible return on your data collection investment.  InnovateMR can provide you with the resources to ensure quality results in your data collection.

InnovateMR is a fiercely independent full-service ResTech company that delivers faster, quality insights from business and consumer audiences utilizing cutting-edge technologies to support agile research. As industry pioneers, InnovateMR provides world-class end-to-end survey programming, targeted international sampling, and customized consultation services to support informed, data-driven strategies, and identify growth opportunities. Known for their celebrated status in customer service and results, InnovateMR combines boutique-level service with extensive global reach to achieve partner success.