1. UNPROFESSIONAL PLANNING
The Research Design and the Methodology should be well-planned such that the objectives of the Research are met. When companies hire agencies for conducting surveys, it is necessary that they co-ordinate with the agency and involve as much as possible throughout the Research process. This way, they gain proper understanding of their target audience and also they have an opportunity to ensure whether their Research problems are being resolved.
2. NOT ASSIGNING ENOUGH TIME
Being Hasty when it comes to Research makes your survey end up as a disaster. Market Research requires time; Hasty Research and Hasty Decisions is not what you want for your business. For instance, when In-Home-Usage test is your Research method, give as much time as required to your respondents in order to gain proper experience as a user before conducting the survey.
3. CHOOSING MISREPRESENTING RESPONDENTS
Make sure the chosen respondents are representative of your Target Audience. Narrow down to hire the most suitable target respondents. For ex, if your business is based on beauty products for women, it doesn’t mean that all women in the world are your target audience. Your target audience list narrows down to potential customers based on the age group, ingredients used, nature of the product, price of the product, geographic location and so on. Choose respondents who match all these criteria.
4. HAVING UNCLEAR QUESTIONS IN THE QUESTIONNAIRE
Ask Questions that get you the answers you require. Don’t expect the respondent to read your mind. These kinds of mistakes occur especially when the questions are open-ended. The respondents often get confused and won’t be able to comprehend on what basis the question is asked. For example, if you would like to know the respondent’s experiences of using a particular product, it is always advisable to ask the respondent for their inputs on each attribute of the product instead of a generic question like ‘How do you like the product’?
For close-ended questions, give proper options. Include ‘Others’ and ‘Not applicable’ wherever necessary.
5. NOT ARRANGING THE QUESTIONS IN A LOGICAL ORDER
The order of questions is another important factor that many researchers ignore. If the questions aren’t in a logical order, the results of the survey are more likely to be biased. For instance, when two questions are based on the same aspect, the answer given by the respondent to the second question is more likely to be influenced by the first question and answer. Example, One of your questions is aimed at knowing the respondents’ evoked set with respect to a Sportswear brand. Suppose, another question in your questionnaire requires the respondent to name various Sportswear brands, the brands naming question should not come before the evoked set question.
6. HIRING AN UNSKILLED INTERVIEWER
If the interviewer is unskilled or not properly trained, the entire Research process can turn out to be futile. Unskilled interviewers make blunders like putting words in a respondent’s mouth, making mistakes in communicating the questions to the respondent, not questioning the respondent when they give incoherent responses, carrying on an unprofessional interaction, conducting the interview impatiently or hastily and so on. Proper training and supervision is necessary to ensure a smooth and efficient Research process.
