Consumer Durables

There is very little product differentiation in the consumer durable market – at least among the top level players. A particular color or feature offered by one company is often mimicked by others. Hence the decision making is often driven by customer understanding and brand perception. This is where Consumer Durable companies find CATI,CAPI,CAWI type web interview based market research very useful.

How has the customers perceived my brand, why have they moved to some other brand, what was the key decision making parameter or why have I scored less in that particular aspect that bent the buying decision – are few very important question that brand managers target to figure out from the market. This helps them design marketing campaigns, communication, discount mechanism to swing buyers decision in their favour.

Consumer durable companies that require installation services also needs to keep a watch on their on-field partners and ensure that the customers are not wrongly overcharged or if the process went in a timely, smooth manner. This marks a beginning of a good journey for a great product.

Many consumer durable companies also do small surveys around their customer care departments and call centre experiences of customers. This helps them gauge the ownership experience of customers and thereby decide on whether to fill up any particular gaps.

Healthcare

The Healthcare industry is a very demanding industry with end customers (patients) are often driven by brand perception or word of mouth about a particular hospital. Being a both product and service based industry finds market research as an imperative tool for their businesses. Traditionally the healthcare companies have shied away from market researches. But the scenario is changing fast. A healthcare organization can often use CATI, CAPI, CAWI or any other web interview based research techniques to ensure that they can stay updated about the customer experience or thoughts about their brand.

A simple research with patients who have been discharged recently helps the hospital to understand if the patient is satisfied with his or her treatment or has faced any issues during the admission process. It also helps understand how the customer rates all the aspects starting from doctor’s friendliness to staff behaviour to check out, check in process.

Even digital healthcare companies who are new entrants in the healthcare industry are finding CATI, CAPI or CAWI based researches useful. As this industry continues to become more specialized, hospitals and medical institutions are finding the need of market research more important than ever to understand newer ways of improving service and add tailored-products. This helps fill up the gap and take action immediately if there was any bad experience thereby preventing a trigger of negative word of mouth.

Automobile

Buying a car is not a one time transaction based on features. The process is much longer in the pre-sales period and post –sales period. It starts from customers debating about what kind of car they need, brand perceptions, talking to existing owners about their experience, comparing features with competitors, deciding colour et al. Post purchase is even more crucial. From the owning experience to workshop servicing experience – the customers experience affect prospective customers and repeat customers.

An automobile company finds CATI, CAPI or CAWI very important tool for keeping in touch with their customers and measuring their journey of ownership at every level. This not only helps them find out what the customers are liking or not-linking but also what theya re aspiring for. If a particular customer is unhappy about service experience the company has a chance to plug that gap, or if a walk-in customer has decided not to make the purchase based on the unavailability of a particular feature or colour, the company gets clear indication about what they need to introduce in their next launch.

These provide a feedback to the product, marketing or operations team accordingly and help them plan better. The customers also feel involved and feel that they are cared for which triggers a positive word of mouth thereby influencing more prospective customers.

Hospitality

The hospitality industry is a huge service industry where customer experience is at the epitome of business. At every step of the process from check in, check out to housekeeping to restaurant service or food quality – the customer expects to be pampered. Hence it is very necessary to understand how the customer felt about his or her experience after they have left. A CATI based research methodology comes very handy in such cases. Property owners and managers often do a telephonic survey to find out customer experience and perceptions about their property.

Researches also help in understanding if a certain customer can be upsold a bigger package or membership. It also generates valuable feedbacks from existing members on what further they are looking for. Many hospitality chains also do research on client preferences before opening up in a new location.

The research findings act as a key decision making drivers for any strategic business related decision as well as small operations related decisions. This helps the hotel or restaurant to continuously keep their services up to the mark and win their customers’ heart. Hence, it is not surprising that any good hospitality company will keep an annual budget earmarked for customer surveys around few key areas of their business.

IT

An online interview based research is often uselful to find out what your clients and customers are thinking about you. IT industries are often targeted either towards a business (service based IT companies) or direct consumers (product based IT companies).

A service based IT company often uses CATI, CAPI or CAWI based researches to understand client requirements and market gaps. This helps them to design their offering in a way that it becomes lucrative and attractive to their clients. Product based IT companies often use CATI, CAPI or CAWI to find out the customer reactions to the market or products they intend to launch. This can be helpful for pre-launch or post launch surveys that provide insightful information to design marketing strategies and communication.

Another very important area where IT companies use the web interview based research techniques is to understand if clients have been able to understand use their products properly. This helps them identify any necessary training requirements around products or features the end customers are finding difficult to comprehend. This helps in plugging any gap in communication at an early stage, save money and find out newer ways of how to generate hype about a new product.