The question in the headline above is certainly a loaded one these days. To the person being asked, it could apply to a million different things in addition to the pandemic. At the time of this writing in early October, it could be about the impending election. Or about the regional virus flare-ups. Or the wildfires or hurricanes or derechos. Or the job losses. Or the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Or the state of the world in general.
Any and all of those things are likely to draw a range of answers and emotions.
That’s also what we got earlier this summer when, as part of our annual survey of client-side readers, we asked researchers how they felt about the future of their jobs as insights professionals.
In terms of broad themes, a surprising number of comments were hopeful, in spite of everything that’s going on, though of course many others offered dire predictions. (More than a handful of respondents who are near retirement expressed some variation on the plan to ride out their next few years. Fingers crossed, right?)
Several respondents noted that it felt like research gained in importance, as companies need ways to check in with consumers’ mind-sets and keep track of the many shifts and changes we’re all going through:
COVID-19 has given corporate researchers a time to shine. More than ever, employees and stakeholders throughout the company want to know what consumers are thinking and feeling right now and are turning to us for the answers.
There were multiple expressions of worry that COVID has wrought a kind of Wild West feel within businesses, where the rules have been changed and the urgency of the need for information means that anyone and everyone within a company can and should conduct research even if they’re not trained to do so.
I don’t think folks appreciate the value of what professional researchers bring to the table. Many people think they can create their own surveys using SurveyMonkey or something and then present the findings they want to share. Additionally, seasoned professionals are considered “expensive” in lieu of “experts,” particularly since the people hiring do not understand the difference in experience/knowledge between seasoned and new researchers.
For some, the pandemic has been a forge of adversity that is creating something valuable from an awful situation.
On the brand/corporate side, I think as long as your work is tied to company strategy, it feels like a positive and promising future. For me, understanding the impact of COVID on our audience – and our business – has elevated our visibility and roles within the company. With unprecedented times like this, I think there would be a need for insights professionals to help understand, navigate and work through implications.
Your assessment of the current state of things also depends heavily on whether your firm already sees value in listening to consumers:
The COVID crisis has served to underline the importance of customer insights to senior leadership as insights have been involved in on everything from brand communications strategy to product and policy changes to demand forecasting.
This situation has made companies aware of how vital it is that we are consumer-obsessed in order to drive our performance through meeting consumer/customer needs better – and quicker. Agility will be even more important going forward, which will challenge established processes. But having the insight teams more central and “at the table” will enable companies to keep a close pulse on our consumers – critical as they are paying our salaries!
And while some anecdotal evidence is out there that response rates are up a bit, as people are generally more reachable (or maybe just desperate to talk to anyone other than their family members!), there were comments about having a hard time reaching respondents, especially in B2B:
I work in the B2B space. My internal stakeholders have the same level of interested in customer feedback. The issue is, customers are too busy managing the medical and economic crises to have time for research. Have seen a significant decline in response rates.
Finally, among the longer-form responses, this one stood out for its concision:
Have you read the book “Bullsh*t Jobs A Theory” by David Graeber?
Time for a career change, perhaps?