RESEARCH

ResearchFirst’s core competency is market research. We have extensive experience in all areas including: customer satisfaction, best marketing practices and churn benchmarking, market pricing, product bundling and segmentation strategies, mover buyer behavior, best alternate channels practices and benchmarking, and consumer and business market research, to name a few.

Our expertise – in creating market research instruments that are both user-friendly and designed to provide usable and reliable results and then analyzing the results to provide significant insights – is augmented by our experience in actually using market research results to make decisions as Product Managers in the Telco world.

Custom Research and Forecasting Capabilities

Market Trial Management

Benchmarking

Reports

 

Custom Research and Forecasting Capabilities

ResearchFirst’s expertise in telco product development, marketing and sales/care practices puts us in a strong, unique position to help service providers and vendors with specific research needs.

Our strengths include a deep understanding of:

  • The telco environment, processes and terminology having served in key positions in the telco industry. Includes an understanding of telco informational needs for decision making and business case development
  • Customer needs and desires – consumer and business
  • Services and technologies required to fill these needs
  • Best practices in marketing, sales and customer care
  • Operational issues required to provide a smooth customer experience

Research methodologies

We conduct primary qualitative and quantitative research for residential and business markets, providing end-to-end service. Examples include:

  • Primary and secondary research
  • Online survey design, execution and analysis
  • Focus groups
  • In-home audits
  • Mystery shopper programs
  • Discrete choice analyses, conjoint analyses, Van Westendorp price-sensitivity meter analysis, et al.
  • Delphi technique
  • Industry benchmarking

Project examples

We uncover actionable information and provide analysis and strategies for telco service providers and vendors with specific research needs. Examples include:

  • Consumer and business market research
  • Sales/Care research
  • Best marketing practices and churn benchmarking
  • Best sales/care practices and benchmarking
  • Best alternate channels practices and benchmarking
  • Competitive assessments
  • Customer onboarding process improvement strategies through in-home audits
  • New product feasibility, planning and market entry strategies
  • New technology deployment strategies
  • Market pricing, product bundling and segmentation strategies
  • Demand analysis with customized forecasting to build penetration rate and revenue models for current and emerging network services
  • Turnkey market trial management
  • Mystery shopper programs
  • Mover buyer behavior
  • Customer experience/satisfaction studies
  • Technology review – examine sales tools to identify effectiveness and usability.

Pricing is on a per-project basis. Please contact us to discuss your needs.

Market Trial Management

ResearchFirst has designed our market research methodology to support the evaluation of market trials by voice or data service providers. Service providers use the results of this market research program for guidance on:

  • Overall demand for services
  • Service pricing strategy
  • Service packaging and bundling options
  • Feature and functionality issues
  • Targeting the best prospects for services
  • Ensuring that service offerings are ready for general consumer availability

RF’s research program combines data collection (traditional or Internet-based survey data collection methods) and reporting with industry and service-specific analysis and interpretation.

Pricing is on a per-project basis. Please contact us for a complete proposal.

Benchmarking

For years ResearchFirst has provided sales revenue, penetration rate, line and feature churn, and new service adoption benchmarks to major North American service providers.

RF currently manages the broadband benchmarking project for the BMMA (Broadband Multimedia Marketing Association).  The report, which covers broadband product growth, penetration, and churn, is designed to help telcos develop growth and retention strategies through a comparison of their results against their peers. We act as the clearing house and perform analysis and report generation functions associated with this project. Service providers who would like to participate in this project should contact us.

We also manage an ongoing sales/care channel benchmarking study, which includes areas of operational and sales effectiveness, such as revenue per order, bundle sales, AHT (average handling time) and much more. Service providers with interest in participating in this project should contact Anna Gibson at anna@researchfirst.com.

For any additional information on these or other reports, please contact us.

Reports

ResearchFirst is able to provide reports on telecom issues such as the following:

  • Packages and bundles features and pricing – residential markets
  • Packages and bundles features and pricing – business markets
  • Packages and bundles features and pricing – Canadian market
  • Penetration of bundles, features, etc. (with or without historical data)
  • A la carte features pricing
  • Broadband competition offerings and updates

Pricing is on a per-project basis. Please contact us for a complete proposal.