Within the ESOMAR directory alone there are 1,600 major research organizations listed and that doesn\u2019t take into account the number of small research consultancies globally (the Independent Consultants Group has itself over 300 individual members).\u00a0 With so many agencies competing for new business and fine margins between them in terms of price etc \u2013 how can companies stand out from the crowd?<\/p>\n
My role involves going into research agencies and evaluating what they are currently doing in terms of project reporting and consulting on improving those processes. Despite the preconception that what \u2018their\u2019 research agency does is unique, the vast majority of agencies deliver very similar reports, usually in PowerPoint, usually manually created with accompanying data tables.\u00a0 I\u2019ve written before about the need to look at a project\u2019s final intended audience and present\/report accordingly.\u00a0 Too often than not a project is delivered to an insight team within an organization and that team needs to synthesize the report\u2019s findings down to a more \u2018manageable\u2019 report to then distribute to senior stakeholders who aren\u2019t necessarily trained in interpreting and understanding market research data. By thinking about the \u2018after effect\u2019 of a research project, a research agency can help with this considerably and show a real point of difference compared to competing agencies.\u00a0 Agencies need to keep front of mind who their report will inevitably be delivered to \u2013 as I mentioned before, it could go through several pairs of hands before being delivered to the CEO.\u00a0 It is critical to engage the CEO with the report\u2019s key insights in order to make the project actionable and make a real business difference \u2013 which hopefully would lead to additional work for that specific agency.<\/p>\n
Firstly, let\u2019s look at the deliverables themselves \u2013 PowerPoint is the delivery format of choice and will remain to be so for the foreseeable future.\u00a0 There is still something quite satisfying for a research buyer to receive a PowerPoint deck.\u00a0 Of course, the production of this deck could take a team of research executives several hours or days to complete \u2013 time which could be potentially reallocated if those reports were produced via\u00a0report automation<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen first-hand, clients save incredible amounts of time by automating the production of a project\u2019s set of reports.\u00a0 In a recent example one of our partners was spending almost 60 work days producing a set of reports, through automation there were able to get this down to a day and a half \u2013 over five working weeks back to move around internally. That time could be reallocated to finding real, actionable insights which will have direct impact on the client\u2019s business.<\/p>\n As well as delivering the key insights via PowerPoint, by offering the client an online infographic reporting tool the client\u2019s senior stakeholders can look at the key insights at their leisure (via their ipad while travelling to work etc) rather than having to download a large presentation. Giving them the ability to not only access the data but interact with it as well \u2013 changing the filters, looking at different timeframes etc \u2013 might encourage them to engage with the project more, understand it clearer, become more inquisitive and ask more questions which might (in turn) mean more project work for the agency to answer those questions.<\/p>\n Not only do we at E-Tabs offer the ability to automate a project\u2019s PowerPoint reports but also we can help with the online reporting too.\u00a0 Our custom build\u00a0dashboard service<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0means you don\u2019t have to learn another piece of software or concern yourself with stuff outside your remit like buying server space or involving IT in terms of the hosting.\u00a0 Our team looks after the entire process from beginning to end, allowing you to take all the credit but do none of the work!\u00a0 We\u2019d be more than happy to jump on a call or pop in to your office for a non-obligation chat to discuss how we can help diversify your report deliverables to give you the advantage when it comes to proposals.<\/p>\n If you would like to speak to someone about your reporting, please fill in the form below and someone will be in touch.<\/strong>
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