On the art of choosing, or why you should choose in the end
Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 8:11 am
At first glance, it seems very tempting to conduct only a quantitative survey. The large number of respondents or the easy comparability of unambiguous numerical results are tempting arguments for decision-making. However, it must be borne in mind that relying solely on quantitative studies entails risks. This means that, regardless of the number of phenomena studied, the relationships between the results obtained will be a matter of intuition alone, which can lead to erroneous conclusions.
Indeed, if in a given village a significant relationship is observed between the number of storks and the number of children born, does this mean that storks really bring children? It is quite philippine cp number unlikely, and experts can cite as a reason, for example, the occurrence of a harsh winter the previous year. However trivial this example may seem, we will face very similar problems in real market research.
Seeing that our chain of stores is losing customers and our competitors are increasing their sales, we do not know whether:
We have lost customers due to overpriced prices or inferior service,
the product we offer has become obsolete,
competing companies have managed to change their business profile.
After all, the number of potential causes is enormous. Even if we were to find out that customers have in fact recently rated the quality of service in our network as lower, we would still not know whether sales are actually declining due to poorer service if staff are demotivated and fatigued due to fewer customers in the store.
The second problem that can plague us when conducting quantitative research is that we somehow impose a suggested answer through a poor choice of research tools. Unambiguous answers are the essence of this method, and they lead to a wide range of misunderstandings and insinuations. The best remedy for the above problems is a qualitative study. Previous interviews or observations will allow us to choose the right research tools and ask the right questions, while, once we have concrete quantitative data, qualitative research will allow us to determine the reasons why specific phenomena occur.
Indeed, if in a given village a significant relationship is observed between the number of storks and the number of children born, does this mean that storks really bring children? It is quite philippine cp number unlikely, and experts can cite as a reason, for example, the occurrence of a harsh winter the previous year. However trivial this example may seem, we will face very similar problems in real market research.
Seeing that our chain of stores is losing customers and our competitors are increasing their sales, we do not know whether:
We have lost customers due to overpriced prices or inferior service,
the product we offer has become obsolete,
competing companies have managed to change their business profile.
After all, the number of potential causes is enormous. Even if we were to find out that customers have in fact recently rated the quality of service in our network as lower, we would still not know whether sales are actually declining due to poorer service if staff are demotivated and fatigued due to fewer customers in the store.
The second problem that can plague us when conducting quantitative research is that we somehow impose a suggested answer through a poor choice of research tools. Unambiguous answers are the essence of this method, and they lead to a wide range of misunderstandings and insinuations. The best remedy for the above problems is a qualitative study. Previous interviews or observations will allow us to choose the right research tools and ask the right questions, while, once we have concrete quantitative data, qualitative research will allow us to determine the reasons why specific phenomena occur.