What'cha Drinkin'? with Bob Qureshi
Editor's note: Automated speech-to-text transcription, edited lightly for clarity.
Dan Quirk:
Hi, welcome to another edition of What’cha Drinkin? I'm Dan Quirk, VP, Marketing at Quirk's Media. Today we're interviewing Bob Qureshi. He is the owner of i-View London, he also is the owner of Provision and he's one of the founding members of Research Club. Well, hi Bob. How are you doing?
Bob Qureshi:
I'm doing really well. How are you, Dan?
Dan Quirk:
I'm doing great. Well, I have to start out right away and ask you what are you drinking?
Bob Qureshi:
Well, it's my favorite for this time in the afternoon. For me, it's four o'clock and I'm drinking my favorite Masala Chai. There's a box just here over to my right and as it's four o'clock it's quite normal that it's English tea time and so I've got my Masala Chai here, which I shall bring into shot, which I've got in this cup here. It's a fine blend of Ginger and cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, but it's a sanitizer for the brain. We're all using sanitizers on our hands at the moment. This is going to help my brain. What about you? What’s your drink?
Dan Quirk:
Well, I am drinking, it's only morning here, so I am drinking in my monkey mug, just a cup of coffee. And if it was not a workday, although I've been known to drink on a workday, especially during the pandemic, I would have put a little of the Irish cream in there. I don't have it today, but that actually was my drink whenever I would travel on a plane, I'd always get that, but today it's just black coffee.
Well, the reason I wanted to talk to you I know that you are the owner of a telephone and online collection data agency Provision, and then you also run and own i-View which has, as I can see behind you, has won an MRS award, I think two times actually. I mean that's your viewing facility. I know you have one in London, and I've actually been to the facility there in London, the one on Strand by Savoy. So, I guess what I want to ask you about is, can you tell me how viewing facilities are gearing up as the shutdown sort of lifts? What are you seeing? What are you hearing? How are you getting ready for that?
Bob Qureshi:
It's been on our minds for some time here in the U.K. The Prime Minister announced that from early July, the 4th of July, which will be our Independence Day, the pubs will reopen and the hotels will reopen and the viewing facility should open too. We have to take into account all the social distancing measures that are in place throughout the world really. So we have to make sure that we can space people and visitors who come to the facility. Besides the signs and the markers, we also have to make sure that the hygiene aspects are all taken care of so that we have sanitizers, we have face masks and screens per specs or acrylic screens where they might be needed. We almost have to take that journey, that route that a visitor may have walking into our facility from the moment they enter the front door of the building.
How is the building entrance managed? Is there a one-way system to keep people spaced? Is there a staggering as to how people can come into the facility? We, for example, will make sure that all our focus groups and depth interview participants, either in groups of three or four or one and two, are staggered so that you don't have too many people sitting in a reception area all at the same time. But there are some in a room taking part in the focus group or the depth interview. Within the room we will space people out to make sure there's a two meter, or as you have six feet in the U.S., distance between them making sure they're comfortable and they're safe, that all the servings that we have are individually wrapped and anything that anybody uses like a pen or a clipboard or a piece of paper, we're going to say to them, you can take that home with you. We don't need to need it back here to wipe down and clean again. So we are gearing up from that that view, of how you would expect the place to feel.
Dan Quirk:
Right. Every viewing facility I think I've ever been in always seems to have a big jar of M&M’s and I suppose those days now are gone and it's probably going to be individual packets but it seems to be the ubiquitous thing at every facility.
Bob Qureshi:
You are absolutely right. M&M’s is a standard staple across all the facilities throughout the world. I'm fairly certain of that. In addition to that, when you have your cookie jar and you have biscuits put out and you may have other things, fruit. So what we now have to do is almost preempt the question from somebody. I wonder if anybody else has handled that apart from the server or from where it was packaged. So when we are bringing in catering for example that will be individually prepared at our caterers and we will not plate it up anymore. We used to put it on a fine plate, give you some cutlery, but now it’ll come in the box and be handed to you and you'll feel happier knowing that no one else has actually handled it apart from the caters who produced it. So, there are a number of things that we have to take into account.
One thing that I'm very conscious of is that you don't want the place to feel too clinical. I’ve had enough of knowing what hospitals can look like. We want it to almost feel like a high-end salon that you're going for a very fine haircut or you're going to the hairdressers and the moment you arrive, you have a great welcome, you're taken care of, but you can see that people are dressed in a particular way that their hygiene is very important, that people are spaced out. We might, for example, decommission one of our rooms and have extra waiting area. We're very fortunate we've got the largest floor space within the U.K. and all on one floor. So that allows us to actually space out all the visitors that we have. But the key fact is really making sure that anyone who comes to our place feels that they’re being taken care of here. To feel safe and come again.
Dan Quirk:
And I know you do have an amazing facility there and it's is quite spacious, so I can see where you would have the room to do that. In your other role though that I haven't mentioned yet you are one of the owners of the premier networking party organization in the marketing research industry, the Research Club. We have just joined together in a partnership because you have held a virtual research club already and the Quirk’s event is going to be doing a virtual event. As part of that we're going to have the Research Club host the party on the second night related to that. So maybe you can tell us a little bit more about how that works.
Bob Qureshi:
Oh, absolutely. I'm really excited about this and I have to mention my colleagues Jonathan Wheeler and John. And as a side note, if I may, Tara Mackay, who as runs the global event, gave birth to her daughter this morning, Cleo has joined us. She's six pounds, eight ounces and her and Erin, her partner, are delighted and Carter now has a younger sister to join him. And it's important to note that Tara actually sent the e-mail out yesterday before she went to the hospital. So she was working the last minute to promote the Quirk’s virtual event, which should have landed on everybody's inbox today.
We carried out a virtual event as a taster and a test about two weeks ago and we were amazed to find 350 people from around the world that logged in from 21 different countries, music playing in the background by a professional DJ and the opportunity for people to chat and actually send messages to people they recognized and you had the choice over the period of the time to tune in or tune out. And as we're doing here, you can have your favorite drink with you and notes on what others are drinking while the evening is taking place. So that is something we're looking forward to. Incredibly exciting.
Dan Quirk:
I think it's going to be great. Your parties are always great and I love the idea of the DJ and everybody sitting around, if not in person, but virtually moving right along though. The fun part of our interviews are a random question that we ask, so I'm going to pull one out here. Aha. What is the last artist, whether musically or painter or any artist that you last Googled?
Bob Qureshi:
Actually it was George Michael, I mean, I've always been a fan of this singer for ages and there was a program on about it recently, I think it was celebrating the X number of years since he passed away. It was around this time I believe, I may be incorrect, but there was a program going on and I was Googling a little bit more about his life story and his background, from a Greek background having really wanted to have his own professional career. The part I was reading about was his battle with Sony, how he wanted to get out of that contract and what he had to do and really lost a couple of years to fight for his case. And maybe that's something we can all learn, that if you really believe in something and you are prepared to play the waiting game, you sometimes need to do it. And as a consequence, I mean, what a huge star. In fact one of his videos he didn't feature in it. He was obliged to make the video, didn't feature in it, but had all the A-list models and that was a huge, huge hit.
Dan Quirk:
Right, right. Well, that's a great story and it is important to remember as we go through this time that we all just have to persevere. We all have to just keep moving on. It's a new reality, hopefully a temporary reality that we all are living through. Eventually we'll talk about these days maybe fondly, maybe not so fondly depending on your situation, but it's been so good to talk to you Bob, and I can't wait until the Virtual Research Club and best of luck in reopening your facility and cheers to you.
Bob Qureshi:
And cheers to you as well. Dan, thank you so much for this. It's been a pleasure speaking with you.
Dan Quirk:
Thank you. Bye.