With so much valuable research available - both proprietary and secondary - there's a very real "paralysis-by-analysis" trap to avoid. Are you successfully doing so?

This is the time of the year multiple studies are in the midst of questionnaire design as we anticipate fall interviewing. In a few cases, this is a first time questionnaire in search of any number of market insights. We're able to apply the best of Belden and client thinking to seek answers to prioritized issues.

On the other hand, we're engaged in several repeat efforts and revising questionnaires in order to analyze trends, make comparisons or learn how newspaper changes have been received. Inertia is a funny thing, so be sure to ask yourself (and, we'll be sure to hammer this point home...) "Did the answer to this question provide the information I needed? Was it actionable? Is this a trend that is guiding strategic thinking and useful? Is there a better way to get the same information? Am I better able to serve an advertising or reading customer now that I know this?"

Respondent time and our ability to keep them on the phone or in an online survey are valuable resources we must hoard and maximize to the best of our abilities. Make the most of each and every question.

Amongst the most potentially valuable directions we're seeing are those capturing customer service measures. Perhaps the best spin doctoring way to characterize this is that there is plenty of room for the industry to do a better job! Yet, now is the time to assess exactly how we are serving all our customers across dimensions that will move - correction - IMPROVE our ability to serve.

And, this is not just advertiser service and satisfaction, but also, how are we at servicing each element of our reading audience in the myriad of ways we interact with them?

How do we handle complaints? And, does our success at doing so create a stronger bond to that customer? What's the ratio of those who complain to those who just cancel? Does our web interface delight subscribers trying to stop their subscription during a vacation or do they give up and call to accomplish the same task? What about the classified department...are we taking good care (via phone and web) of all categories and, most importantly, did the ad generate the desired results? And, are all those types of questions connected via internal databases so we can determine how the entire newspaper enterprise is handling each specific customer?

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Here's an interesting reference point from another industry - - What is the last impression most traveler's have of an airline? How long it took to get luggage?

If that's a short amount of time, almost regardless of what transpired before and during the flight, the last impression is pretty favorable.

On the other hand, if there's an interminable delay (that translates to anything longer than 20 minutes), your last thought will be negative. And, nothing during the flight will alter that impression.

The point? By focusing very hard on the metrics having the greatest impact, there is room to improve our position in the eyes of all our customers.

Airline baggage carousels are automated to a varying degree, just like many of our customer service systems. However, there is very much a human element to both and understanding how humans are dealing with and relating to humans can improve our standing considerably.

Implicit is having everyone at the newspaper understand what research is occurring, the objectives, findings, conclusions and how each individual might advance the organizational cause. That's where there is often a serious disconnect. It is amazing how often we find internal resources aren't fully used or that one department doesn't know anything about the research conducted elsewhere in the enterprise that could have relevance.

We've regularly advocated that clients should have a Research Table of Contents...an index or listing (on the paper intranet? Employee handbook? Somewhere!) summarizing what reports are available and what was supposed to be learned, and how the findings might be used.

Which naturally leads to one of the recurring themes often encountered here ...ACTION.