Researching Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty: How to Find out What People Really Think

Citation

Goncalves, K.P. (2006), "Researching Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty: How to Find out What People Really Think", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 23 No. 3, pp. 173-173. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363760610663349

Paul Szwarc's Researching Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty: How to Find out What People Really Think is a hybrid between the rigor and quantitative orientation of a textbook, and the “lightness” of a trade book. It is easy to read, well‐organized, easy to follow, and contains many helpful hints for practitioners new to commercial consumer research. The case studies throughout the book are likely to be especially interesting to new researchers. Senior researchers are not likely to find great value in this book.

The book is divided into five sections, as follows:

1. 1.

   Part I. Introduction and Theory (four chapters; 70 pages).

2. 2.

   Part II. Getting Started (four chapters; 72 pages).

3. 3.

   Part III. ‘Touching’ the Customer (one chapter; 20 pages).

4. 4.

   Part IV. Outputs (two chapters; 45 pages).

5. 5.

   Part V. What Lies Ahead? (one chapter; ten pages).

There are also two appendices: a list of market research associations, and the Market Research Society Code of Conduct.

Part I provides useful background for anyone new to consumer satisfaction research. For example, Chapter 1 reminds readers that “customers” are really a wide array of stakeholders ranging from “external customers” to employees, stockholders, and prospective and lost customers. In chapter 2 the author reviews the important differences between strategic and operational research. He also takes the time to describe several well‐known customer service awards, as well as what some familiar terms mean (e.g. ISO 9002; Six Sigma).

In Chapter 3, Szwarc defines and describes qualitative research, including Internet‐adapted qualitative research and mystery shopping – two categories not always included in similar books. I do not agree with all of his conclusions about the various methods described, but suspect it is his (primarily) British versus my (primarily) US experience. For example, the author states:

“Instant feedback” must be the greatest concern of all moderators. Having just spent a couple of hours running a group, the moderator is asked to produce an instant summary of the “key findings” that emerged from the session. This does not allow any time for the moderator to reflect on all that has happened. Neither does it allow him or her to determine how different this group was from others her or she (or his/her colleagues) has conducted on the subject. Meanwhile, there is a risk that the client has drawn his or her own conclusions, and is keen to see if the moderator has similar “findings” (pp. 45‐6).

In the USA, an informal debriefing session after a day or evening of focus groups is routine. I have been moderating for over 25 years and could probably count on one hand the number of times a client did not schedule a debriefing immediately after the last session of the day, or (when the last session ends late) the next morning. Everyone understands that these sessions may not reflect the entirety of the research, and that findings from other sessions may change the feelings the observers and moderators had during the informal debriefing. In fact, when clients have observed several sessions, their insights can be helpful, because they spent the time focused primarily on the participants, while the moderator was focused on making sure all the material was covered in a thorough and professional manner. There is great value to the spontaneity of these sessions, and they can be very helpful in identifying “hot button” issues or hidden agendas that need to be addressed in the full final report.

Chapter 4, on quantitative research, is where I had difficulty, because the author missed key points that may lead inexperienced researchers astray. For example, in the discussion of disadvantages of face‐to‐face interviewing, there is no mention of interviewer bias! Clearly, interviewer bias is a potential concern any time there is a live interviewer – telephone, in‐person, focus group moderation, etc. – so it should be included. In fact, bias is ignored or downplayed throughout the chapter, and experienced researchers know that bias can discredit any findings.

Aside from my disagreements with some of Chapter 4's content, it is easy to read, even for those who avoid the quantitative world of statistics, reliability levels, and sample size decisions. This alone, would make the chapter worth reading for new researchers, because it might help them overcome “numbers phobia”.

Part II addresses the research design process from when the research sponsor first develops its research objectives, until the formal research instrument is pre‐tested and ready for fieldwork. Chapters 5 and 6 provide both the “client” and “researcher” organizational perspectives – illuminating for those new to the field. These chapters also provide details such as who completes various tasks, how to handle budgets, and what to do when there are conflicts over methodology.

Chapter 7 moves on to sampling – who to reach, how to reach them, issues associated with certain types of samples, how many people to include, response rates, and other practical aspects of sampling that are hard to grasp until one has had to construct a sample. The author even includes a section on longitudinal research and how the samples, questionnaires, and research processes differ for one‐off projects versus those designed to be continuous or repeated at intervals.

Chapter 8 is a good overview of the questionnaire design process, from what to ask, to the role of order bias and how to handle sensitive questions. Szwarc's comments and advice are sound, and to a large degree, reflect what I have seen in my own practice. The sub‐headings he uses and some of the content are not exactly “purist” from an academic perspective, but they are very useful when designing commercial surveys.

Part III (Chapter 9: “Facing the customer”) is what a US researcher would call “fieldwork”. This chapter starts with the respondent's view, and then moves on to the mechanics of fieldwork. He addresses the topics one would expect, along with a few unusual issues that I have had to deal with. Two examples are:

1. 1.

   What to do when you learn something confidential and time‐sensitive from a respondent, which should be shared with the client, but which is difficult (or impossible) to share given standard confidentiality rules.

2. 2.

   Addressing misperceptions on the part of clients who have listened to or observed a small portion of the fieldwork, and then feel that anything which does not agree with their “knowledge” must be wrong.

Only a person who has been in the field for a long time could have written this chapter.

Part IV (Chapters 10 and 11) are written in the same format as earlier sections but feel more like “checklists”, because they cover data cleaning, coding, entry, analysis and reporting. This is where many researchers seem to get lost, and these two chapters could easily be used to guide the data analysis and reporting process in an objective, logical fashion.

Part V, Chapter 12 shares the author's view of major global environmental shifts from demographics (the “aging” of the population in several countries) to technological change (internet, consumer electronics) to psychographics (consumer attitudes toward work, leisure and to the process of change itself). He also addresses how these shifts are affecting the market research process and industry. As he notes, everything is changing so rapidly, it is hard to keep up, and this chapter is a good example. No matter how recently the book was written, readers will find parts of this chapter sound dated – evidence that Szwarc is right!

Overall, this book is worthwhile for anyone new to market research. Junior staffers at research firms, as well as those who work for the companies that sponsor commercial research can benefit, and they may find that this becomes a reference work. It is easier to read than their marketing research textbook, and when in doubt about anything the author says, they can always refer to their textbook for a “purer”, more academic view of the world.