The ten concepts are displayed as an image which has the proposed product image, its description and pricing.

Respondents are first screened to get customers who frequent similar restaurants and order similar products. Then the screened product images are displayed for the respondent to read through. A set of 5 to 6 specific questions are asked which gauges the overall acceptance of the product based on parameters mentioned earlier.

Survey is completed within a week and the client is able to view results as and when the respondents are attending the survey real-time. Within 15 days of the launch of the study the client is able to determine which concepts got the widest acceptance.

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Large Convenience Store Chain tests New Uniform Acceptability

One of the largest convenience store chains in the world is about to launch a new set of uniforms for its staff across its 32000 odd stores. A two pronged approach to the objective ensures that the survey is administered on both employees & customers alike. The first segment of the survey focuses on consumers. The respondents are screened to focus on those that have visited any locations with the purpose of purchasing items and products other than gasoline. The second segment consists of current employees of the store.

Respondents are shown images of uniforms in two sets. One set shows the shirt and the second set shows the options of pants with the shirts. Respondents are asked about their –

The survey is attended by a total of 800 respondents equally divided between employees and consumers. The consumers are identified from the general public whereas the employees are sent invitations by email to attend.

The survey finishes fielding in 4 days and the client is able to look at the most preferred uniform and reasons for it within 10 days of the launch of the survey.

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Large Financial Institution reviews its Unit Level Performance

A global financial wealth management firm which is also an award winning global investment bank and premier asset management business wanted to assess its multi level sales force across the US on sales performance and on customer service levels.

Survey was conducted on customers of this premier institution where online invitations are sent to e-mail ids of the customer database. Customers were asked questions on various aspects of a sales call like –

All these parameters were measured on a 10 point scale and the results were available online real-time. These were compiled for a branch manager by averaging the scores of all the agents working under each manager.

While the survey was live the sales performance of each sales person was evaluated and downloaded on to excel documents. The sales performance along with the customer service parameters were used to assess and rank each and every individual sales person and also the team as a whole.

The survey also asked the respondents if the sales persons had certain attributes which the company wanted to use to inspire its team. In the final results discussed during the performance review of each sales person and the manager, they were also shown the strengths and weaknesses and areas for improvement.

The results were available in excel which were then incorporated in powerpoint for presentation purposes. Each sales person and each manager had their own individual results in excel and powerpoint.

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International Hotel Chain Assesses the Quality of its Breakfast

One of the leading international hotel chains with over 3700 hotels spread across 100 countries tries to assess the quality of its breakfast spread and compare it with other leading competitors.

The hotel chain conducts a survey on people who have had breakfast at their restaurant by placing an interviewer at the restaurant who approaches the people as and when they leave the restaurant.

The questionnaire asks the respondent about various parameters which include –

The survey also tries to find out if the respondent has visited any similar restaurant from a list presented to them. On identifying the restaurants that they have visited a comparison is made on the same parameters.

This survey was conducted in 22 markets of the United States. The results were entered into the system on a daily basis and online reports were available for the clients to view as and when required.

Though this survey was conducted manually, technology enables it to be done today on online handheld devices which simplify and speeds up the process immensely.

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Leading Multinational Coffee Chain Profiles Coffee Drinkers

A multinational coffee company established more than 30 years back with presence in 40 countries and a chain of more than 6000 company operated stores and another 3500 licensed stores profiles coffee drinkers across the globe. In order to boost its efforts of increasing awareness amongst coffee drinkers and to understand the performance of its existing stores this company decides to conduct online surveys to reach out to the right segment.

The survey is conducted in multiple countries where the respondents are first screened to get the people who have the habit of drinking similar products as being sold by the client or by taking the people who have atleast visited similar stores.

Subsequently the respondents are profiled and categorized as ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, etc., based on ownership of products like –

1. Water heater
2. Car
3. Floor type
4. Number of rooms in the house
5. Toaster, Vacuum Cleaner, Washing Machine
6. VCR, Microwave, Computer

The respondents are then asked about their coffee drinking habits like what is the time of the day during which they have coffee or visit similar stores. Respondents are also asked about the quantity of coffee they take on a regular basis and the type of stores they visit. The ratio of drinking coffee at home, at office and outside is also determined.

The respondents are subsequently asked about their experience during their last visit to a similar store where the following are assessed –

1. Brand Awareness
2. Attributes associated with each brand
3. Awareness of location of client store
4. Country in which the client store was visited
5. Frequency of visits
6. Number of people accompanying the respondent during the visit
7. Amount spent during visit
8. Purpose of visit
9. Reasons for the respondent to choose a particular location

The respondents who have not visited the client store or a related store are also screened to understand the reasons why they have not visited.

The survey finished fielding in 4 countries within a month and the results were available for action within 45 days from the first day of fielding.

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World's leading technology company measures the Awareness, Consideration & Preference metrics

World's leading technology company with presence in more than 170 countries conducts tracking study twice every year with the objective to measure Awareness, Consideration & Preference metrics for itself and its major competitors. It also intends to determine what aspect of the customer experience moves the customer from awareness, to consideration and then to preference. This also would serve as a baseline performance score-card measure of its product awareness, consideration and preference at the customer level.

The study is conducted in 34 countries and in 28 languages. The entire study is conducted on the web with samples being provided by multiple sample providers.

ZeeProbe contributes to the entire process by programming the study in all the languages and ensures that the client is provided with an online real-time report. The survey also goes to the same country with multi language options as well. The client is able to download ASCII format data and data layout as and when required from the online reports. ZeeProbe also sources samples from samples providers (12 in all) to ensure that the exact number of completed interviews is provided in all the countries.

The study lasts for two months with a total sample of more than 225,000 respondents and 28,000 completes. This study is being repeated twice every year since past four years.

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National Upscale Retailer needed to improve Employee Morale and Retention

Leading national upscale retailer felt the need to increase their service levels at their department stores and quickly found that employee morale and retention was not where they wanted it to be. Turnover was high and department store managers and regional zone managers needed a way to effect change.

A survey was designed with our help to probe the employees around the country to ask specific questions revolving around the following:

• Work environment
• Job satisfaction
• Vacation and sick policy
• Dress code
• Employee relations
• Health benefits
• Retire plans
• Morale
• Team work
• Recognition
• Work hours
• Supervision and direction
• Compensation and bonus schemes
• Decision making authority to service customers and solve complaints
• Training, resources and tools for effective job performance
• Contribution in decision making
• Company culture
• Other

We facilitated the distribution to a sample of 32 department stores around the country. We collected the data from 450 respondents and made it available with different access levels to the corporate office, regional zone managers and department store managers within 2 weeks of the survey going live.

Depending on the access level of employee, they could run to see trends and uncover issues in certain department stores locally or regionally and national level macro issues that required policy shifts globally.

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Leading Worldwide Marketing & Advertising Agency conducts print advertising effectiveness

The world’s largest and most celebrated media company with presence in 67 countries decided to provide a value added service to its clients by assessing the effectiveness of its print ads. The feedback would include specifics on ratings of various ads in various magazines and in various sizes as well as positions. The reports would provide feedback on the top of mind recall. Ads ranked by action taken, Ads ranked by Ad Recall Indices along with a general demographic profile of the respondents.

The online survey was sent to respondents from the general population showing them images of ads which were released in magazines. Each survey would be for one magazine. The company focused on getting feedback on close to 50 magazines running 50 surveys every month. For all the ads which respondents would remember, further questions were asked about the action he/she took after seeing the ad and if they could recognize the advertiser as soon as they saw the ad. Some of the questions that were put across –

1. Would they gather more information after seeing the ad?
2. Would they visit advertiser’s website?
3. Would they visit a store or dealer for more information?
4. Would they keep the ad aside for later reference?

The respondents were also asked –

1. If their opinion about the company/product would be more favorable after seeing the ad?
2. Would they recommend its product or service?
3. Would they purchase the product or service?
4. Would they consider purchasing the product or service in the future?

The respondents were also profiled and feedback tabulated to see the difference in various parameters based on age, gender, employment status and education.

An automated system was put in place where all the ad images would be uploaded by the client to a portal and the survey programmers would be able to direct the survey pages to the respective ads as and when they were asked. This resulted in drastic reduction of time ensuring that the surveys were over in 5 days from start to finish. The client could access the reports from a portal through a password protected system.

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Billion Dollar Consumer Packaged Goods Company Tests Food Concepts

A global manufacturer and marketer of high-quality, brand name products for consumers throughout the world conducts Concept studies and tests on various national product launches. In its efforts to introduce the most widely accepted products for the most successful launches, the client company designs concepts through the year and promotes them to potential customers through online market research surveys.

In the brief 15 minutes survey each respondent is asked a set of 20 – 25 questions. They are shown images of various food concepts and also given the details of the ingredients. Each respondent is requested to rate the concepts being shown on the following –

1. Purchase Intent generated by the concept
2. Overall Liking of the concept
3. Uniqueness of the concept
4. Purchase Frequency potential

Each study analyses close to 10 concepts of a single category/brand. The concepts are then rated based on each of the points mentioned above. The concepts displayed to the respondent also contain a ‘Control Concept’ which happens to be an existing fast selling product in the market. This helps the client in comparing the performance of the new concepts with the one which is doing well in the market.

Over a year the company tests more than 150 concepts and makes a list of all the concepts to be compared on various aspects. This exercise helps them determine the specific concepts which would not only do well in the market but might outperform a few of their core products.

The 150 concepts are tested utilizing close to 20 different surveys with each survey taking less than a week including questionnaire design, programming, fielding and online report submission.

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