by Bob Walker | Oct 17, 2023 | Business strategy, Insights industry, Marketing and strategy
I was sorry to see that Qualtrics recently laid off 780 positions (October 2023), coming on the heels of 270 layoffs back in January of 2023. This represents about 20% of the Qualtrics workforce. Having once gone through that painful experience in my career, I...
by Bob Walker | Jun 24, 2021 | Business strategy, Marketing and strategy, Marketing research
If you have been in business long enough, you know that the hard work of research is sometimes seen as optional or discretionary by some management teams because it’s hard to calculate the true ROI of research. But we’re thinking about this all wrong. Companies...
by Bob Walker | May 26, 2021 | Business strategy, Marketing and strategy, Strategic research
Whenever we go to Amazon, or Netflix, or any other site, we are immediately presented with dozens, if not hundreds, of choices. Many of these choices are randomly selected by the retailer based on past purchase behavior across the buyer’s digital mesh. Across...
by Bob Walker | Nov 13, 2020 | Business strategy, Customer satisfaction, Research design, Sales forecasting
Automated surveys are everywhere, triggered by retail and online purchases, a flight you took, or your dentist. If you are like me, you probably get wee bit cranky when you experience a badly conceptualized customer feedback interview. We seem to be swimming in an...
by Bob Walker | Aug 25, 2020 | Business strategy, Customer satisfaction, Marketing research, ROI
I have seen many CSAT programs change a company’s culture by quantifying problems and isolating their causes, thus boosting retention and profitability, and moving from reactive to proactive. Conversely, some companies don’t think that customer satisfaction (or...
by Bob Walker | Mar 1, 2020 | Business strategy, Marketing research
There have been some recent news articles about the role of marketing insights and research, most notably Jeff Bezos of Amazon, who in his 2018 letter to shareholders said: “No customer was asking for Echo. This was definitely us wandering. Market research...
