Snap for the independent professional researcher
Snap Survey Software boxFor many Snap users, professional is simply Snap’s ‘second name’. Snap Professional, as a product, provides a complete and comprehensive set of tools to allow those using it to undertake research to a high ‘professional’ standard, and to complete the whole task, from start to finish, for themselves.
In this focus on, we look at what the program does to merit this mark of distinction, by speaking to two users for whom market research is their profession, and who have founded their own independent businesses, providing professional research services. Though both individuals use Snap in varying ways and with quite different results. Both have found that this piece of software has made, and is continuing to make a significant difference to their work as professional researchers.
Philip Frean, when he set up as a freelance market researcher in the UK, kept finding his clients using the same software he had selected and learned while working in a research department some years ago knowledge that is now working to his advantage. While in the US, another Philip, Phil Kopel has found, since upgrading to Snap Internet module, his research and his business horizons have opened up completely.
Case study 1: Snap the professional’s choice that is hard to ignore for Vision Market Research
Freelance market research consultant Philip Frean needed a survey software package that would allow him to do more of the work on his quantitative research projects for himself: he chose Snap. It was not the first time he had reached that decision. Before founding Vision Market Research in 1999, the consultancy he runs from his home in Littlehampton, on England’s south coast, Philip had worked in research and in marketing for one of the UK’s major insurance and financial services companies. While working there, Philip had been given the task of finding a suitable package that would allow the research team to analyze their own data and produce cross-tabs and charts for reports.
"We evaluated three different packages. One of the others was far too complex for our needs. Snap was by far the best choice in terms of functionality and cost..."
"We evaluated three different packages. One of the others was far too complex for our needs. Snap was by far the best choice in terms of functionality and cost. We started with tables, producing the charts outside of Snap. Then, when Snap Surveys brought out a charting add-on we started using this too. As Snap developed, we were using it for designing paper and CATI questionnaires. CATI, with all the automated routing, worked very well. At that time, I was doing the fieldwork too, so having Snap meant I was able to handle the whole process."
Philip’s relationship with Snap did not end when he realized a long-standing ambition to set up his own consulting firm.
"When I set up on my own, I initially put off purchasing my own copy of Snap," he said. "But I had contact with it through a research company in London that I did some work with, where it is their preferred software." Then another client offered Philip more work than originally envisaged because of the value he could add to his research skills by being able to analyze their data too.
Philip explained: "In addition to the research work, they needed a freelancer to handle the data analysis and they needed someone with Snap expertise. Rather than just doing a couple of months of freelance work, I am now running a large qual/quant project for them. The fact that I had Snap experience helped a lot."
As a result, Philip has now purchased Snap 6. He feels this latest version contains a number of innovations that will make life easier for him and his clients, such as the ability to distribute both questionnaires and tables in electronic format. He was also very pleased with the Internet capabilities to the extent that he is weighing up whether to purchase that module too.
He stated: "I need some form of market research software and Snap is something I am very familiar with. It is easy to use. It has been around a while, so it is stable and has had most of the bugs ironed out. I don’t design questionnaires every day, so it is an advantage that it is something I find easy to come back to even if I haven’t used it for a while. It is an ideal product for people like me and the client companies I work for."
Case study 2: Snap Internet adds predictability to lottery results for Kopel Research Group
The Snap Internet module has provided an opportunity for one independent research agency in the US to improve its service offerings, add client value and increase profit in an increasingly tough market.
Phil Kopel is President of Kopel Research Group, Inc. (www.kopel.com), a marketing research agency that provides research services to government sponsored lotteries. He started using Snap eight years ago. Over time, his profit margins were being eroded by high out-of-pocket costs.
"Whatever profit I had was being eaten by the increasing direct costs of focus group and mall intercept facilities, recruitment, incentives, transcription and telephone fielding. I constantly try to provide the client with cost effective, accurate research. When the fixed costs are high, it can be a challenge" Phil reports.
Phil was already looking for an Internet interviewing solution when Snap Surveys introduced the Snap Web module in 1998. He comments: "Most of the Web survey packages I saw were from people who knew the Web but did not know research and did not have the back end analysis." His knowledge of Snap meant he could start using the Web module without having to learn any new software.
"Lotteries are a perfect vehicle for Web-based surveys. We create research panels by linking to the Lottery’s website and player affinity programs. The Internet has opened up a whole new area," says Phil. "It’s faster, more accurate and allows us to design studies that other methods would not allow us to do." For example, he can show concepts and images to respondents in a way he cannot do over the telephone. But if anything, he sees his Web-based research as a replacement for focus groups more than phone surveys.
He explains: "The strength of a focus group is the ability to show artwork and concepts and for respondents to offer their opinions. This is something you can easily do on the Web without needing to transcribe it afterwards. In fact, it’s significantly more accurate because, unlike focus groups, I can obtain hundreds of independent verbatim responses and I can even weight them and quantify the results."
Phil cites other advantages he has experienced, such as the ability to overcome geographic bias and to be less intrusive by allowing respondents to complete the survey at a time that suits them. "Respondents decide when it is a good time for them to take the survey. They are sitting in front of their computers and can take as long as they need to complete a questionnaire. Compare that to the attention given to the survey by a person being interrupted by a telephone interviewer while preparing dinner."
There are incentives for the panellists, but although these are relatively modest, respondents are quick to complete surveys and generous with their answers. A couple of thousand invites will typically result in 150 completes in the first hour, and a 60 to 80 percent response rate over a two week period, after a reminder or two.
Phil has even included questions to test respondents’ views on the survey experience. "Overwhelmingly people gave a lot of positive reinforcement." He reports. "These are lottery players and so they care about the subject matter, even so much as thanking us for giving them the opportunity to comment."
The most important benefits for Phil are that his research methods have provided consistently accurate results and have eliminated almost all of the outsourced costs, so he can provide good value to his clients.
Snap has allowed Phil to squeeze out more savings, through other efficiencies as well. He has reduced paper use and printing costs by using electronic copies wherever possible.
Snap has allowed Phil to squeeze out more savings, through other efficiencies as well. He has reduced paper use and printing costs by using electronic copies wherever possible. "Since the survey is web-based, I post the draft on the web and send those needing to review it an e-mail with a direct link. Everyone, including the client, their advertising agency and product designer has an opportunity to make comments directly from his/her office, and I can make changes very quickly. Further, in this manner it becomes very easy to get everyone to sign off and to keep to deadlines."
Phil sees the integration between the data collection and the analysis as very important. "With this survey process the information can be cross-tabbed, and along with the verbatim responses, effortlessly exported into the report."
The integration and the range of functionality Snap provides has allowed Phil to develop his business by offering comprehensive and highly professional services to major clients without needing to step outside. As Phil puts it: "The combination of Snap Professional and its Internet Module provides my company the ability to offer a full range of services without the need to manage a large staff."
Why the choice for professionals?
Large research buyers will often come to relatively small, independent research providers or freelance researchers, attracted by a combination of their flair and originality in research, their attention to detail, their flexibility and commitment to getting the job done, and possibly, for the good value they offer.
They are the same attributes you find in Snap professional:
- Flair and originality in design, making Snap both easy to learn and use,
- Accuracy and reliability to ensures the most important details in research are attended to.
- Tremendous flexibility to collect data in many different ways, including now the Internet, and to analyze it and present it however you want to
- Commitment from the Snap Surveys support services, by phone or e-mail, backed up by experienced consulting services, so no-one need ever feel they are entirely on their own
- Value, from a modular pricing structure and a variety of license plans to ensure you only pay for what you need, with entry level packages for less than the cost of a new PC.
At both Vision Market Research and the Kopel Research Group, Snap has meant two independent researchers can offer a full range of services without the need for a large staff. Snap also means they can concentrate on what they are best at doing: designing good research and drawing conclusions and insights from good research data.
May 2002