1. Engage your Customers:  Engaging research provides an avenue for customer engagement where you can stay close to your customers by actively asking for their opinions.  The simple act of asking signals that you care what they think; acting on their feedback further reinforces their importance to your business.  Collaborate with your customers to investigate custom satisfaction, product innovation, branding, positioning, promotions, messaging, pricing and more. 
2. Engage your Employees:  Employees are the face of your organization and have the biggest influence over your customers and your business.  Engage your most important resource to find out firsthand how your company is performing and how it can do better.  Don’t restrict your employee engagement to employee satisfaction surveys; think broader.  Engage them in other corporate initiatives, social events, product development, training or the roll-out of new systems.  Engage your employees and your customers will benefit too.
3. Engage with the Market: Add to employee and customer intelligence by layering on information about the market in general.  This includes your valuable data about your non-customers and competitors.  Find out where your brand and products fit in the larger competitive landscape and discover emerging trends in your sector.  Access non-customers and competitive intelligence through market sample which can be sourced through any online sample vendor.
4. Engage your BI:  Business intelligence (BI), leveraged from your internal databases and systems, provides invaluable information about your customers but it only provides the behavioural side of the equation.  Integrating BI with CI (customer intelligence) gives the perfect marriage of behavioural and attitudinal data, giving you more depth to the view of your customers.  Too often, BI data and research data are analyzed in isolation blocking an organization’s ability to connect the dots.  With a bit of effort to connect BI with CI you will find that the whole truly is much greater than the sum of its parts.
5. Make Engaging Communications:  Not all communication is created equal.  But all forms of communication are a reflection of your brand, whether targeted to employees, customers, investors, or non-customers.  Before communicating with your various stakeholders, test your messaging with a smaller group.  Get their input in order to make your messaging and communication materials even better and more effective. 

Engagement infers a two way process where both sides contribute and listen.  Research can be the perfect vehicle for facilitating the engagement process.  With online surveys and forums, organizations can use engaging research to create meaningful conversations and dialogues to actively listen to the opinions and thoughts of your stakeholders.  Kill two birds with one stone by using engaging research to engage your customers, engage your employees and engage the market.

Your customer list is a known entity where you have intimate knowledge of where the list originated and how it is managed. When you need market sample, you purchase through an online sample vendor. There are lots of online sample vendors to choose from but not all online sample is created equal. Online sample sources can vary in quality which in turn affects the quality of your data. It is worth investing in a high quality sample provider. Here are some tips to help you select the right online sample provider.

In evaluating an online market sample vendor, transparency is the name of the game. Your online sample provider is obliged to provide you with standard information on their panel. The obligation comes from industry standards from regulatory bodies related to market research such as ESOMAR which is an international market research organization. The “ESOMAR 26 Questions” is also referred to as “26 Questions to Help Research Buyers of Online Samples”. These are standard questions about recruitment, panel management, incentives, size, burden rules, response rates and more. Any reputable online sample providers should have an up-to-date document with answers to all these questions. If the vendor doesn’t have this document or will not provide you with this document, that is a major red flag.

When reviewing responses from online sample vendors, one of the best measures of panel quality is response rates. High response rates usually mean the panel is well managed on a variety of fronts: quality recruit sources, an incentive program that includes both intrinsic and extrinsic elements, optimal frequency of project invites, and a good survey experience. A good survey experience relates to well-designed surveys and an engaging online research platform to house those surveys. Online panels with low response rates indicate an unengaged sample source overburdened with too many ill-designed surveys.

At Vision Critical, we believe a good quality panel for your online research directly influences the quality of the data collect. Be aware of the differences in quality among different online sample providers and take the time to select the right one. Quality sample gets you quality data and quality insights into your decision making. Invest the time to understand the a quality sample provider.

Firefly Surveys offers enhanced web-based research tools enabling companies to conduct holistic research for better and faster decision making

VANCOUVER, B.C. – Nov. 8, 2011 - Leading global research technology firm Vision Critical today introduced Firefly Surveys, a powerful suite of market research tools that seamlessly integrate quantitative survey capabilities and qualitative discussion forum functionalities as a web-based service.  Firefly Surveys embraces an unlimited on-demand subscription model which offers companies of all sizes maximum flexibility and affordable pricing to meet their market research needs.

“Vision Critical’s Firefly Surveys represents a significant leap forward by offering enterprise quality ad-hoc online research and reporting tools for customers requiring ongoing market intelligence to make timely strategic decisions,” said Andrew Reid, president, Vision Critical. “Our online survey tools enable customers to continuously gauge the constantly and rapidly changing market landscape without adding pressure to their research budget. By offering Firefly through an unlimited SaaS model, Vision Critical is leveling the playing fields for all companies to gain access to professional quality research.”

Firefly Surveys consists of an intuitive web-based survey tool that allows users to conduct high quality independent market research surveys. Firefly delivers engaging online surveys that can yield higher response rates – all for a fraction of the cost of custom market research.

Firefly Forums consists of a social media inspired online discussion module gives marketers a fast and easy way to set up and moderate engaging, online discussion forums that augment online survey research. With forums and threaded discussions, Firefly Forums adds contextual depth to statistical survey data at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional focus groups.

The suite of web-based research tools offered by Firefly provides integration on three levels: integrated workflow for users to design and link related online surveys and forums, respondents have a seamlessly integrated research experience, and analysts have integrated data for better reporting and insights.

Companies can conduct more research for less through the unlimited SaaS model.  Unlimited refers to the number of forums, surveys, completed surveys, forum participants and administrative users. The unlimited pricing provides a scalable way for companies to conduct research while keeping budgets stable.

Highlights of Firefly Surveys include:

• Intuitive authoring tools to create visually engaging online surveys and online discussion forums
• Seamless streaming of respondents from an online survey to an online discussion forum
• Customization of theme for online surveys and online forums based on products, brands, divisions or segments
• Collaboration with one, or many, directly in the tool  to streamline online survey creation and avoid duplication of work
• Easy review process to get approval from stakeholders to launch projects quickly
• Integration with external samples from Vision Critical or any panel provider to broaden market reach or general population view
• Real time monitoring of participation in online surveys and online forums
• Real-time, dynamic reporting engine for customized reports
• Flexibility to export results to Excel, SPSS or CSV

“Firefly Surveys broadens Vision Critical’s suite of products by offering ad hoc online research tools so customers can unleash the power of online social engagement,” added Reid; “Combined with our flagship Sparq product, the world’s number one community panel system, Vision Critical customers can now easily access the tools they need for any research situation to reach far and engage deeply with customers of all types. The addition of Firefly has eliminated the ‘I can’t afford market research but I can’t afford not to do market research’ dilemma, giving companies the competitive edge to stay focused in this challenging economy.”

Pricing and Availability

Firefly offers a free trial period with complete functionality of the full suite of online research tools. Subscribers can use the web-based research tool for as low as $500 per month.  To learn more about Firefly’s features and how it helps businesses discover a new dimension in market research, reporting and engagement, visit www.visioncritical.com online or contact Vision Critical at info@fireflysurveys.com

About Vision Critical

Vision Critical pairs the world’s leading market research specialists with the most innovative software developers, marrying the speed and power of on-line technology with the precision of market research. Serving over 600 global brands through offices across North America, Europe, Australia and our Global Partner program, Vision Critical creates powerful software and research solutions like Sparq^tm, the world’s leading community panel platform. Follow Vision Critical on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/visioncritical

For many companies, market research is the last thing on the “to do” list and is typically done in a one-off reactive fashion, with little planning or expertise.  However, market research, regardless of the size of company, should be an essential part of business planning. Successful businesses conduct research on a continual basis to keep up with market trends and to maintain a competitive edge.

As budgets tighten and CEOs are demanding more evidence of ROI before making investments in new products or programs, companies are faced with an “I can’t afford not to do market research, but I can’t afford to do market research” dilemma.

Running your business cannot be about going with your gut. This isn’t Las Vegas.  You can’t take unnecessary risks and gamble on business decisions. Research helps to minimize the risks in decision-making.  Research helps you make an informed decision.  Research adds another point of data to the decision process.  Research checks your gut or your boss’s gut.  It increases your odds of success – in business that is, not in Vegas.

Previously, research was the domain of large multinational organizations because they had the bigger budgets for marketing and research.  The advent of online tools, have put market research firmly within reach of companies of all shapes and sizes can now afford to reach out to their markets and to get credible information for inputs into their planning and business processes such as:

• Determining if a product idea is viable/if there is demand for a product
• Creating better product or service offerings based on customer interests
• Understanding which attributes of a product or service really matter to a customer
• Better target advertising and other marketing programs
• Determining price points for products or services.
• Re-establish dialogue with dormant or long-lost customers
• Create awareness of ancillary products

Even research on complex issues such as these doesn’t have to be expensive.  What is expensive however, is making a bad business decision because there wasn’t enough supporting evidence from the market.

Research is particularly affordable if you do it yourself and there are a wide range of companies offering a wide range of tools.  It is importance to find the right tool at the right price for your organization that will give you a range of features to satisfy all of your research requirements. Compare features, how easy is it to use and compare pricing.

Even large organizations use a variety of tools.  Some of their research needs are large and complex requiring an enterprise-level platform, a Lamborghini so to speak. Some needs are simple and can be addressed with a more nimble, accessible online tool where they can conduct research quickly, efficiently and for a fraction of the cost of the high-end process and platform.

So whether your organization is big or small, a do-it-yourself tool can enable you to do more research, get more info and better guide your decision-making. Don’t be afraid or intimidated by research.  Ask the questions and get the answers.  Get the information you need to make the decisions that take your business forward

The Internet has changed our lives in innumerable ways, largely for the good and immeasurably for the new and unimagined. The Internet has changed every industry and a burst of new, previously unthought-of industries has emerged.

Market research is no exception.  The research industry has undergone a veritable revolution due to online research.  Why?  The Internet allows us to collect data faster and cheaper. It has changed the way we design surveys by enabling us to seamlessly show visual cues.  It enables us to engage people in the research process.  It has broken open the black box which used to be the domain of the research industry and let the client inside.

We bring Firefly into the market not only In the spirit of empowerment but also in the spirit of opening access to more people to get more answers to their critical business questions. In the spirit of openness and sharing.  In the spirit of learning.  We bring you Firefly, an intuitive suite of online research tools, to help you ask the right questions and get the right answers.

Firefly is here to demystify research. To make it accessible.  To make it less scary.  To make it understandable.  To make it easy.

With the click of a button, we show you how to simply build online surveys with a straightforward process.  Click another button and your questions land in the laps of the people providing you answers. Click another button and you are having online discussions with the same people. Click another button and see the information roll in, taking you one step closer to your business decision.

The online revolution has made research possible for all organizations and the everyday, not just large multinationals and experienced market researchers.  So don’t be intimidated by research.  Embrace it and get involved.

We’ll be here to help you along the way.

Welcome to Firefly.