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Market research is a crucial business function that answers questions that influence decision-making in the business. The right research strategy, when implemented correctly, generates a considerable return on your investment — which is why businesses are careful about the methods they use for research.

There are two popular market research methods: online survey solutions and focus groups. Both methods come with their sets of pros and cons in specific areas of market research.

Firsthand Feedback: Go with Focus Groups

Businesses use focus groups to analyze behavior among a group of people. The method involves people participating in an interactive group setting. It entails hosting the event at a neutral venue where participants can offer firsthand information.

Focus groups function like conversations between a company and its customers. The latter tries out a product and service and offers the business their feedback instantly. Businesses who wish to explore all angles of their feedback would learn more from personal discussions with customers. With a focus group, they learn how customers think and why they think that way.

While this method encourages good discussion, it can also be a costly and time-consuming endeavor since you have to narrow down the list of people you wish to join, as well as gather them. Also, qualitative data can be more difficult to analyze since it can be subjective.

Immediate and Definite Answers: Choose Online Surveys

If you want to get a definite answer from your customers through measurable metrics, online surveys are the way to go. By spending time designing an engaging survey, as well as asking the right questions, businesses can distribute surveys to different groups of respondents routinely. They can also get conclusive and instant results.

By choosing a representative sample, you can collect quantitative data that accurately represents your consumers. With a survey, you can:

• Gather more candid responses
• Yield concrete data
• Benchmark against previous data
• Track changes in responses over time
• Send follow-up messages or emails

Due to the rigid nature of its presentations, surveys won’t give you an idea of how respondents arrived at their conclusions. You can’t change the questions once you initiate the survey, as well. So, asking better questions is also important.

Which One should you Use?

If you aim to gather feedback or generate ideas about what customers think about your services and products, conducting a focus group survey would be more useful. Research that requires a more open-ended approach to the customer’s thought process will gain more insight from focus groups.

When it comes to collecting accurate and reliable data, however, survey research remains unparalleled. With an online survey, you have a larger sample size and more concrete data to analyze. If you require a more direct approach to gaining instantaneous and diverse responses, use an online survey for your research.

Both online surveys and focus groups have their place in market research. The next time you try to determine which method is ideal for your study, determine the nature of insight and feedback that you aim first.

The Philippines usually ranks at the top of the list of countries with the best business process outsourcing providers. It’s even ahead of India, with a global market share hovering at the 18% level. And Manila isn’t the only city at the top of the rankings. Cebu, Davao, Sta. Rosa, and Bacolod also belong to the top 100 destinations for BPO operations.

The industry currently employs more than 575,000 workers, and the projection is that the number will be nearer to 700,000 by 2022. Competition is fierce amongst BPOs, whether they are local or foreign-owned corporations. With this competition, companies need to be resilient and strategic in their recruitment efforts. HR departments receive hundreds, if not thousands, of resumes. But getting to a quality shortlist of applicants might be more challenging than you think. Time-to-hire is one of the critical aspects of the recruitment process for the BPO industry.

Consider the following ideas for an improved shortlisting process:

The BPO Attraction

Attracting applicants is the easy part. One of the main attractions for working at a BPO is the compensation package. Salaries of teachers and BPO entry-level positions are within the same range, which is around $4,400. But BPOs provide more perks to their employees. Also, BPO workers tend to get pay incentives based on the work (quality and quantity) that they do.

For this reason, companies can get as many Grade A applicants as Grade D applicants.

Separating the Wheat from the Chaff

There’s a reason why recruiters spend just 5-6 seconds screening CVs. They deal with thousands of them, and the situation couldn’t be more accurate than in a BPO context. This is the initial step to take for discarding all the Grade D candidates. If applicants don’t spend time to make their resume stand out, allowing them to progress in the interview process might be a waste of time. Here are a few more things for you to consider when shortlisting applicants:

1. Split your criteria. You, of course, want the perfect candidate. But rarely do you get an ideal CV that contains all the qualities that you want. Divide your selection criteria into “essentials” or “nice to have.” The essentials will, of course, be the hard set of skills. A position in computer technical support requires someone with sufficient knowledge of computers. Leadership and people-skills might fall under the “nice to have” category. Understand your priorities and find the right balance.
2. Question marks. Another strategy you can employ is to focus on what your candidates don’t have. If, for some reason, they manage to get through to the initial CV screening process, then look for inconsistencies, like employment dates. This might be an indicator of their level of integrity or honesty. Grammatical errors are often used as red flags. In the BPO industry, where many clients come from the Anglophone world, recognizing this question mark is extremely important.
3. More screening. Make technology work for you. There are now creative ways to screen candidates using timed-online testing. While the result of the test might reveal just a portion of a candidate’s capability and personality, it is an excellent way to compare candidates with one another.

Recruiters also use a scoring chart to rate applicants and determine if they can progress to the next stage of the recruitment process. If you come up with a shortlist of four or five candidates, this generally means you’re ready to make an offer to any of these candidates, barring any mishap in the interview process. These things will help ensure a faster time-to-hire for your BPO.

Many people have always dreamed of starting their own business, yet they don’t proceed to actually doing it because of a fear of the unknown. But if you just look around at some of the people that have successful businesses that basically don’t seem to have a clue, it should make you feel better about moving forward. Starting a business may not be as difficult as previously thought. Here are a few problems that scare people off from starting their own business to be prepared for.

Business Loan

It isn’t the easiest thing in the world to acquire a business loan. Financial institutions will make you jump through hoops and fill out enough paperwork to keep you busy for weeks. Plus, there never seems to be a hurry on their part. That loan you thought would come through within a month could still be spending half a year down the road. However, if you truly think your business will take off and be successful, using a low-interest credit card could allow you to skip all the hassle of trying to secure a loan.

Rental Space

In this day and age, a rental space for your business may no longer be needed. In the past, everyone had brick and mortar stores that they either rented or took out a mortgage on. This would lead to fewer profits, if any, since paying rent, utilities, and insurance can quickly become expensive. Instead, you should consider just operating the business entirely out of your home or even your garage. Online businesses are flourishing and need considerably less overhead. If you plan accordingly, you may not even have to take out that business loan to start your new enterprise.

Keeping Records Is Not Really Your Thing

It’s understandable if you feel like you don’t have the knowledge needed to keep your books in order. Trying to keep track of taxes, invoices, finances, and customer relations is difficult for even the most seasoned of business owners. If this is your first go-around, then this alone could have you feeling overwhelmed about beginning something new like a business.

With this in mind, you can contact a NetSuite consulting company and they will be able to guide you to the right software that will make record keeping so much simpler. In fact, if you decide to go with NetSuite, the cloud computing software will allow you to always have access to your data from any device in the world.

As the founder and CEO of InventureX, Kyle Thomas has turned his experience building brands into a business that’s worked with over 350 clients. InventureX is a company that works with clients to create successful crowdfunding campaigns. As the most positively endorsed crowdfunding company on the internet, Kyle Thomas is confident that InventureX can find your brand’s perfect audience.

While it’s difficult to predict what the future holds, InventureX’s history of being a top performer in the crowdfunding realm speaks for itself. Established in 2012, InventureX has accumulated the success and clientele of a company double their age. I caught up with Kyle Thomas to discuss InventureX and how it has innovated the crowdfunding industry.

Why did you choose to focus on crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding is one of the most productive concepts to come out of the modern age. While supporters once sent companies well wishes as these businesses asked for money from large banks or big-time investors, those same supporters can now help them succeed through donating to their crowdfunding campaigns. This has changed the game in how and what products are made.

Through crowdfunding, consumers are directly funding products that they’d support. This is, in a way, a direct representation of supply and demand. An idea is introduced, supporters ask for – or demand – it through their donations, then businesses can supply this demand with those funds. It’s an effective, mutually beneficial process.

Why did you start InventureX?

With the popularity of online marketing growing, it has also become more difficult to put your products in front of potential supporters’ eyes. We often see these great ideas pitched to the public and get little to no traction due to a lack of exposure. That’s not because the product or idea isn’t good, it’s that they didn’t craft their marketing strategy. Unfortunately, not understanding strategies, algorithms, and techniques can be the difference between your brand being seen by one million people or ten. We form relationships with these brands so that we can bring our campaign strategies to their table and help them be seen. Once they’re seen, many of those audience members become supporters. In the crowdfunding industry, support means money that can go directly into your brand’s future.

Speaking of the future, what does the future of InvestureX look like?

There’s no predicting that, but I know it’s bright! The great thing about what we do is that new technologies and strategies are coming out every day that make our job even more relevant. Being able to provide a service that stays on top of the advancements is why we do what we do. I’m confident that the future of our company will be full of new opportunities for our business and our clients’.

InventureX has put itself at the top of a market whose growth has only begun. By understanding the art of communication and marketing in crowdfunding, Kyle Thomas and his team work to be and stay the best for their clients. As Thomas said, there’s no predicting what the future holds, but it’s bright for anyone looking to bring new, innovative ideas into the world. Want more Kyle Thomas interviews. Check out his Interview.Net and ExceptionalMindsBlog interviews where he talked about how InventureX is changing the way crowdfunding is approached.