Suggested stops along the road to successful client-facility relationships

A map for a good trip

Editor’s note: Rea Kolski is president, TAi Companies, a Teaneck, N.J., research firm. Bj Kirschner is facility director at Schlesinger Associates, a New York research firm.

The road to which we refer in the subhead of this article has many twists, turns and bumps, but in the end we all want to get to the same place: The Land of Successful Client-Facility Relationships. Perhaps the best way to build a smooth road is to visit some of the stops along the way.

The Unique Recruits Lodge

This stop is for those very special studies where the usual guests just won’t do. The challenge here is not only to find these guests, but to find them quickly and then to entice them to spend an evening at the lodge.

Helpful hints to facilities

• If you have very strong convictions that without substantial modifications up-front the recruiting effort will fail, do not take the job. Knowing your market and what it can and cannot produce is expertise on which your clients should rely. But, do not just say no to a project without providing your client with reasons why or suggestions on how the project might be accomplished. Sometimes reasons for not accepting a study can be findings in and of themselves. Fact-based refusals are well appreciated. It is usually better to disappoint a client by not taking the job than by failing at the job.
• However, if you decide to attempt the recruit, communicate with the client about all your concerns very early and in writing. Surprises are often worse than expected bad news.
• Think through all the different approaches you can take to help accomplish the task (i.e., buying a list, networking, properly constructed ads, choosing appropriate days and/or times, etc.) and communicate these to the client. Be sure to include these costs in your estimate.
• Once recruiting has begun, keep the client informed of the progress (or lack of it) often and in writing. Be sure to include all the innovative and proactive actions you have taken so far. Do not be shy in relaying any news. If the client has your well-presented ammunition, it can only help them in making decisions about the rest of the recruit.
• Be flexible about late-in-the recruit changes when they are doable and don’t adversely effect other in-house recruitment efforts underway.
• But if the client does make extreme changes to the specs in the middle of recruiting, and this causes loss of recruits and adds difficulty, you have the right to say, “Sorry, it’s just not possible.”

Helpful hints to clients

• Be reasonable about how unique these people really need to be. Incidence of use does not necessarily or easily translate to incidence of recruiting. There are additional qualifying criteria, as well as the unknown availability factor. Added tools like algorithms or specs meant just to push through ideas tangentially related to the recruit can make even the easiest recruits difficult.
• Do not complicate the recruit with long screeners or convoluted questions with no real qualitative importance. On the one hand, you do not want the screener to be so simplistic that any respondent could figure out the key to the research, but on the other, remember that recruiting is done by phone and after a certain amount of time, respondents are less likely to be cooperative, so the more honed the screener, the better.
• Offer incentives commensurate with the uniqueness and stature of the guests. Facilities are usually willing to work with you on costs, but the incentive is the most important item they have to offer potential guests and it needs to stay firm.
• Listen to and accept suggestions of the facility you have chosen. They know their market and its nuances.
• Understand that the facility is your partner in the effort and wants to succeed as much as you do.
• Do not change the job once recruiting has begun. It is hard enough to recruit unique people without having to start all over again (sometimes several times) in the middle of a job. But, if it is absolutely necessary, understand that costs are involved. Screener changes can result in loss of recruits. Disinviting guests and finding new ones to replace them in a short time is very tricky.
• Try to round up facility bids before bidding to your client. This will cut down on the surprises you might find in costs when the facility actually sees your recruit. Facilities cannot always be expected to adhere to a budget that is unrealistic to their own budgets and which they may not have known about up front.
• Play an active role in your recruiting process. Opening and reading all updates takes time, but they often contain important information. Waiting until the last minute to really check a spreadsheet might make it too late to re-recruit, if necessary.

The Sure We Can Inn

This is a charming stop where clients can, with enough notice, order special equipment, services or professional assistants.

Helpful hints to facilities

• Be sure your equipment is tested early every day, even if the study is not until late in the day. This will allow enough time for repairs, if needed.
• Be sure your staff is well trained on how to use the equipment and how to troubleshoot if it is not working. Clients expect facilities to know their own equipment (as well they should), so a blank stare 10 minutes before the group is scheduled to start is never appreciated.
• Set up relationships with more than one vendor for each type of client request (A/V, computer, professional assistant, etc.) so that if one cannot meet your needs, you have others from which to choose.
• With VCR and TV prices as low as they now are, consider having a unit per room and even an extra on hand.
• Look into buying hub units for high-speed access. This will allow more people to utilize one jack for accessing the Internet.
• Ask your clients up front if they will have special needs during the study. Ask specific questions about equipment, products to purchase, staffing requirements, briefing and/or debriefing times, etc. Often, if the question is asked early enough, the answers come early also.
• Be sure to specify costs of any extras. If the client asks for equipment to be ordered, get approval of the cost. It is unfair to just add something on the bill that could have and should have been approved early on. Of course, there are times when the request is very last-minute and this is just not possible.
• Be sure your bid lists normal extras (i.e., copies, shipping, respondent food costs, duplicating tapes, etc.).
• Do not promise what you absolutely cannot provide, but be flexible and try to find a way to help. A can-do attitude is much more widely accepted than a “we won’t even try” one. Work with the client on their special requests and let them know the efforts you have put forth. Remember though, as above, if you do need to say no, provide a reason why and put it in a positive light.

Helpful hints to clients

• When your bid is worked up, most facilities incorporate arrival an hour before and departure an hour after the groups into the facility rental charge. If you will need more time, facilities appreciate the heads-up. When clients arrive four hours early, especially those needing assistance or wanting to eat, it impacts every area of the facility. Someone has to be made available to help. This is not only a cost issue, but also a time utilization issue. This person’s other work will not get done that day.

Also, the room may not be available and the facilities may not have anywhere else to make you comfortable unless they ask a staff member to vacate his/her office. You can surely understand how difficult this is.

Staying more than one hour after the last group ends presents another set of difficulties, especially at night. Many buildings request that everyone be out by 11 p.m. Many staff members have arranged for rides home and are being picked up about an hour after the end of the last group or just cannot stay for longer than they have been assigned. However, if you let the facility know up front that you will need to stay later, it can make arrangements accordingly.

• Understand that facilities are not audio/video or computer companies. They have their own equipment with which to record your sessions. Many also have one or two playback units on which you can show commercials to your respondents, but you must notify the facility at the time of booking or at least a few days before the groups if you are going to use these units. If not, you run the risk that they will not have one available when you arrive. (In other words, two playback units for three rooms may leave the client who has not given prior notice without a unit to use.)
• If computers will be needed to conduct the study, please allow enough time for the equipment to be ordered. Many facilities do not always have extra computers around for study use. When requesting a computer, be sure to specify exactly what will be needed on the computer (i.e., modem or Ethernet Internet access, specific software, processor speed, etc.). Also keep in mind that many computer rental companies do not allow programs to be loaded onto rented computers.
• Backroom Internet access is usually available. However, there can never be enough jacks. Some clients still want dial-up, others want high-speed. It is extremely expensive to provide jacks and access for everyone. Please be willing to share, perhaps using a hub that many facilities have purchased. Ask the facility up front if they have wireless Internet connections.
• On the same topic, if you have corporate firewalls on your computer, it is not the facility’s problem if you cannot connect. Please ask your IT person to give you written instructions on how to connect; facility staff members will most likely not be able to break through the firewall.
• If you plan to use a Web site during your research, it might also be a good idea to bring a backup CD-ROM of the site in case a modem line is down or running slowly.
• If you will need a videographer, notetaker or other professional assistant, please give enough notice. These people are in high demand and cannot always be booked on short notice.
• If you need secretarial assistance before the groups, please ask for it well in advance of the group’s start time.
• Shopping lists for products necessary to the study also should be supplied ahead of time (at least two days before the study). This is not only a personnel issue, but also one of finding the product. Not every product is readily available, if at all, in every market. It is very frustrating to search for a product only to learn that it is not sold “in our area.” Arriving at the facility on the day of the study, expecting that “someone” can drop everything and run a shopping errand, and run it quickly, is not reasonable or productive. Often the end client who is sponsoring the research wants its own products to be purchased, so if they can ship them directly, that is always a big help.
• With all “extra” requests understand there is a cost. If the facility knows about the request up front, they should give you the cost up front. But, when they happen last-minute or close to it, that is not always possible.
• Sometimes someone in the backroom asks for copies or extra food. Facility staff members cannot always reach the “booking client” to ask if that’s alright but want to be of service to your client. If you do not want us providing these extra services to your clients (because the item may turn up on your invoice), please let us know and we will indicate that to the backroom clients if that comes up.

The Aim to Please Cafe

Helpful hints to facilities

• Know what food types are available in your area. If a client requests something that you know you cannot get for them, let them know. Do not play mealtime switcheroo on them without prior notification.
• Set up good relationships with several restaurants in your area. Explain the importance of quality food, on-time delivery and extras. This can be a very lucrative business to local restaurants. When choosing a new restaurant, order a demo of their food for your staff to taste. This way you can test the quality and give accurate recommendations to clients.
• Be informative. Let the client know how long a restaurant takes to deliver. Do not tell them it will be there in a shorter time just to “keep them happy.”
• Have a good variety of soft drinks on hand. Have plenty of coffee ready at all times. Small refrigerators in client rooms stocked with beverages are always appreciated.
• For clients making last-minute food choices, have a menu binder available. Only have viable choices in the binder. Remove menus from restaurants that won’t deliver, or that have gone out of business. If you know a restaurant is closed on that specific day, inform the client up front so they don’t even look at that menu.
• Try to keep in mind special food requests that revolve around dietary restrictions. The requests may seem odd to you, but they are very important to the clients, so if they can be met, make all effort to meet them.
• If you want to help a client make food choices before they arrive, have someone on your staff call them to discuss options. Recommendations are always helpful.
• Be sure a staff member cleans up dirty dishes and food service items at every possible interval without interrupting the clients that are observing the groups. This helps avoid accidents and also gives the clients a clean environment in which to work. If a client insists that food remain hour after hour, there isn’t much you can do, but always try to at least suggest removing it.
• Be sure to ask your client what he/she would like done with leftover food. Many clients, especially if they are from the local area, appreciate having it wrapped to take home.

Helpful hints to clients

• Please understand that not all ethnic food types are available in every market. If your study is taking you to multiple locations, choose the food accordingly. Larger cities usually have more variety from which to choose.
• Try to get food orders to the facility a day or two before the groups. This allows enough time to arrange for timely delivery of your meals. While facilities are willing to provide menus to choose from at meal time, it does require patience on the part of the backroom clients. Good restaurants are often busy, so on-time delivery cannot be guaranteed. Also, when menus are provided, it is important to limit the decision to two restaurants (at least two people ordering from each). Few restaurants will deliver small orders.
• Some foods (sushi especially) take a long time from call-in to delivery. If your clients are sushi lovers, please understand that 90 minutes is the norm.
• Special diet needs cannot always be met on short notice. Please be as quick as possible when such a need exists. If you do have special dietary restrictions, try explaining them to the facility so they don’t inadvertently make a mistake.
• Special occasions are happy for everyone. Let the facility know if you will need a birthday cake, or if someone is observing another special date.
• Please let a staff member know if something has spilled on the furniture or carpet. The quicker it can be cleaned, the less likely the damage will be permanent. Accidents do happen, especially in the dark.
• If you know your client is part of a conglomerate that might not be known to everyone, please let us know. We don’t want to serve a competing brand if we can help it.
• Some requests are really beyond the scope of service. One such request comes to mind: “Please only serve yellow M&Ms. Remove the rest from the bowl.” Do you really want someone to pick through the M&Ms first? Perhaps the person who likes only yellow can do the searching. Another client had his own way of dealing with color choices when blue M&Ms first came out: He just took them all out of the bowl and threw them across the room because it was not the color he had chosen. If we could get the blue client and the yellow client to agree, one could do the picking for the other.
• The facility, while choosing the restaurant, is not responsible for the food. While the food charge can be adjusted if it is not good, please remember that the adjustments made are for food dissatisfaction only. The facility will make the restaurant accountable in most cases.

Good communication

The most important part of the entire trip on the road to successful client/facility relationships is two-way communication early and often. With all the ways to keep in touch available, there are few, if any, excuses for not returning calls or e-mails in a timely manner. In the end, we all want the same results: high-quality research.