Why don’t more respondents trust market researchers, and why don’t we as market researchers fully trust respondents? We know skepticism is everywhere. In this survey alone, we see high levels of distrust across several different types of organizations. While it would be great to be fully trusted, maybe some level of distrust is not so bad either. People have a right to question everything, and openness and honesty between us and the respondents could go a long way.
So let’s start by being honest with respondents: we have a lot of questions to ask you; some will be personal, some you may find boring, and some you might even enjoy, but there is a reason why we are asking each question. You, dear respondent, are important. And your truthful opinions are important. We see in this survey that respondents understand market research can benefit businesses, but they are less likely to agree market research can benefit individuals. Perhaps if we could change that sentiment, and help respondents realize that market research indeed benefits them, mutual trust levels could be improved.
Market researchers are like the elected officials for respondents, ok maybe that is not the best analogy given the high levels of distrust we see in government in this survey. But our job is to take the aggregated voice of the respondent and synthesize it for businesses so they can offer ever-better products and services to the public. So yes, market research benefits business, but only if the research leads to improved products and services that benefit the consumer: “Dear respondent, if you answer our questions honestly and thoughtfully, and others say similar things, then that new candy flavor you’d really like just might land on the shelf one day.”
Have we beaten respondents down with surveys that are too long, too wordy? Can we blame a respondent who stops paying attention after the 15th attribute in a grid question or who doesn’t want to read the full page, small font concept? When is just one more question pushing it too far? Why do we say just a few more questions, when it’s really ten more? Let’s make the first move and be more trustworthy as market researchers.
We need respondents, and we need to trust their answers, and in return, they need to trust that we will be honest and open with them.
Jeremy Luksberg
Vice President
RTi Research
