Who are our customers? What do they want? How can we find out? Market research is the process through which we can gather and analyze information about our customers and competitors, segment them into categories, and then discover their needs (or in the case of our competitors, their strengths). There are several approaches that businesses commonly use to conduct this effort, such as surveys and focus groups.  Yet these traditional techniques are only as good as the measurement systems they use, and most organizations today still use older measurement techniques that fail to capture the mind of the customer.

The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) has been shown to improve the quality of measurement in market research efforts. It has been used effectively by large and small organizations – from consumer products, to insurance, to heavy manufacturing – to conduct needs prioritization surveys and focus groups.

Voice of the Customer

Expert Choice provides a suite of tools that facilitate the collection and analysis of Voice of the Customer (VOC) information. Combining traditional surveying and segmentation techniques with the robust prioritization capabilities of the AHP, Expert Choice’s market research tool suite can help your team quickly and effectively understand exactly what your customers want, in each specific market segment you wish to track.

Quality Function Deployment

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is the only truly comprehensive quality system available for designing new products and services that maximize customer satisfaction. Developed in Japan in the 1960s by Dr. Yoji Akao, this methodology includes VOC analysis yet also provides a holistic systems approach to getting at the essence of the customers’ needs. Rather than just minimizing the number of defects in a new product introduction, QFD focuses on developing positive quality in a new product, to ensure that the product “wows” the customer. QFD allows you to effectively identify not only what the customer says they want, but also allows you to observe and identify what they need, which they often do not know in advance.

Traditional QFD measurement used a simple weights and scores system. This traditional approach has now been abandoned by Dr. Akao and the Quality Function Deployment Institute (QFDI) (www.qfdi.org) in favor of the AHP methodology. The proportionate (i.e., ratio scale) measurement system (provided by the AHP), combined with a robust customer needs investigation system (provided by QFD), can help take your market research to a level of excellence you never thought possible.

At Synth Solutions we can help your team improve its VOC and QFD processes, improve the quality of your findings and increase your speed to success. Using our QualitySynth™ methodology, we take a systems approach to market research that unites the identification and segmentation processes, voice gathering and analysis processes, and function deployment process to ensure customer satisfaction.

We offer several solutions to help you make your market research efforts excel:

• Comparion Core (web)
• Spyron (web)
• EC11.5 (desktop)
• Wireless Keypads

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