Qualatative research includes activities such as interviews, audits, and field observations.
When doing interviews, it’s important to get a variety of perspectives from employees, customers, prospects and detractors. The latter are often overlooked, but they shouldn’t be. Ex-customers have already rocked the boat, and they are usually open to telling you why they’ve chosen not to do business with you anymore. You may also find that they would prefer to do business with you, if only you’d make a specific change. Internal interviews are a great source of information on what’s working and what isn’t.
Audits focus on any number of areas, from the industry and market to public relations, messaging, collateral and websites. They illuminate gaps between what you want to be projecting into the market and what you actually are putting out there. Competitive research clarifies where you stand in relation to others offering similar products.