Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Customer surveys
One of the best ways to learn what customers think about a product or service is to ask the
customers directly. Agribusinesses can gain much valuable information, which can help
in formulating market plans, by communicating directly with customers through surveys,
interviews, and informal conversations. Although there may be reluctance among some
customers who do not want to be bothered or who distrust any information-collecting
activity, experience shows that food and agribusiness customers are willing to share their
opinions with fi rms they do business with, especially when the data collection effort has
been properly designed. When such information is used effectively, it is invaluable in making
marketing decisions.
Market research relies heavily on surveys of various types to track customer attitudes.
Extensive
personal interviews
lasting an hour or more may provide a great deal of informa-
tion about customer purchasing decisions, attitudes, and how the product is used. Such
in-depth interviews must be developed and performed by trained interviewers; they are
therefore quite expensive, often averaging $100 or more per completed interview. In many
cases today—especially if the interviewee is a large farmer or a professional such as a veter-
inarian—the person being interviewed also wants compensation for their time while being
interviewed. This can easily add much more to the cost of the session.
Telephone interviews
have gained in popularity because of their lower cost and the
speed at which a telephone interview study can be completed. However, it is impossible
to collect as much information by telephone as compared to a personal interview because
telephone interviews seldom last more than 15 minutes. It is diffi cult to explore many issues
very deeply in such a short period of time. Depending upon the length of the survey instru-
ment, phone interviews by professional market researchers may cost from $15 to $70
(or more) per completed interview.
Written surveys
remain a widely used method of studying customer opinions and atti-
tudes. Written questionnaires can be short or long, but longer ones usually get a much lower
response rate. A quick written survey delivered through the mail is considered successful
when 15 to 25 percent of the questionnaires are completed and returned. It may be a very
short survey response offered at a trade show, where customers and/or prospects are asked
to respond to a few short questions. More formal mail surveys involving phone follow-up
and multiple reminders will generate a substantially higher response rate—50 to 60 percent
being very common. Many fi rms use online survey tools to distribute questionnaires. This
medium can help execute a very quick, very focused survey of customers. While there are
advantages to written surveys, it is diffi cult to collect much detail or in-depth reasoning
behind responses from a written survey. Yet because they are relatively inexpensive, written
surveys are considered a good way of collecting some kinds of
market information
.
For all types of surveys, careful
pretesting
, or evaluating the questions so that what is
being asked is clear to the respondent, is important. Poorly worded questions can cause the
results of a survey to be virtually meaningless. The meaning of a question may be clear
to the author of the survey, but totally confusing to the respondent—or worse, it may be
misunderstood, with the result that it elicits incorrect information.
Focus group techniques
Focus group interviews
are another method of learning more about customer attitudes and
one that is widely used by agribusiness marketers. The focus group allows companies to gain
