1. Customer Care

2.  Qualitative research is based on opinions, attitudes, beliefs and intentions.  This kind of research deals with questions such as “ Why”? “Would?”, or “How?” Customer Care

3.  Qualitative research aims to understand why customers behave in a certain way or how they may respond to a new product. Given that these opinions are often obtained from small numbers of people, the findings are not necessarily statistically valid. However, such data can highlight potential issues which can be explored in quantitative research. Customer Care

4. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH  Qualitative Research is about gaining customer feedback through in-depth research that looks at people’s opinions and feelings.  There are two main qualitative methods – in-depth interviews and focus groups Customer Care

5. Depth Interviewing  Depth interviews are the main form of qualitative research in most business markets.  Here an interviewer spends time in a one-on-one interview finding out about the customer's particular circumstances and their individual opinions. Customer Care

6.  Focus groups / customer panels  Face-to-face interviews  Telephone surveys  Suggestion Schemes  Online discussion forums Customer Care

7.  The majority of business interviews take place in person – very direct and personal  However, studies can take the form of telephone depth interviews Customer Care

8. Group Discussions  Focus groups are the mainstay of consumer research. Here several customers are brought together to take part in a discussion led by a researcher (or "moderator"). These groups are a good way of exploring a topic in some depth or to encourage creative ideas from participants. Customer Care

9.  This is research based on larger samples and is, therefore, more statistically valid.  Quantitative research is concerned with data and addresses question such as “how many?”, “how often”, “who?”, “when?” and “where?” Customer Care

10.  The results of quantitative research will generally be in numerical or % form – For example:  40% of customers rate the new product as “attractive”  3 out of 5 customers will buy a new food product after being offered a free in- store sample Customer Care

11.  The main methods of obtaining quantitative data are the various forms of surveys such as:  Telephone  Postal,  Face-to-face and  Online. Customer Care

12.  Telephone surveys  Self-completion questionnaires  (comment cards)  Postal surveys  Mystery shopping  Third party surveys  Online surveys Customer Care