Variety and challenges for a Senior Research Exec

I am currently working as a SRE for a global full service market research agency. I have been in market research for almost 4 years now, always working on continuous international customer satisfaction surveys within one industry.
I work in a team of 7 executives. Each one of us is responsible for various markets on our international project.

Starting the day
When I get into the office in the morning I first of all have a quick look at my emails – especially the ones from clients – to check if there is anything that needs my immediate attention. If so, I deal with it straight away. Otherwise I start doing the necessary daily quality checks on the project. Since the reporting of the project I work on is web-based, the site needs to be checked briefly first thing in the morning to make sure that our clients can access it and that the online reports are all showing the correct information. After that I go back to my emails and respond to clients, suppliers and colleagues. If they have any problems, I liaise with the relevant people within our company to find a solution. If the problem is of a technical nature and related to the reporting web site, I need to liaise with our IT team.

Apart from handling client requests and market responsibilities, there are usually smaller projects within the framework of the study that require my attention.
For example last year one of my clients wanted to change the wording on the scales of their questionnaires. I started off doing some desk research to see whether there was any literature available on this subject. I then liaised with the department responsible for printing and mailing questionnaires and the data processing department to get costs for carrying out a pilot with the new questionnaire. I wrote the proposal detailing the way we would administer the sampling and mailing for the pilot and sent this off to the client. After they had agreed to the proposal I briefed all internal departments involved in the project on what needed to be done. We then set up a test questionnaire with the new wordings, mailed this to a selected number of customers and after receiving back the amount of questionnaires required for the analysis, the data processing department produced the data tables. I used these as the basis for my report to the client which also included a recommendation on whether or not to change the scale.

Tough tasks
A much bigger task is the set up of a new market to the project. This not only involves liaising with a number of internal departments and regular update meetings over a period of several months, but also various client meetings and telephone conferences in which the necessary actions and timings are discussed. If the new market uses telephone methodology and a local agency in the market carries out the interviews, then this agency has to be briefed. It is also necessary to give a training on the reporting web site to the client and dealer representatives.

Dealing with my clients, talking to them on the phone and in person as well as solving their problems are some of the most interesting and rewarding aspects of my job. However, there is also a more tedious site to my role. The daily quality checks, the checking of the sample and testing of new developments to the reporting web site can take up quite a lot of time and these can be fairly boring tasks.

Team support is a key benefit
Apart from these I really enjoy my job. Especially since the people in my team are fun to work with. We have people from different countries and with different cultural backgrounds in the team. This often results in interesting discussions and also in a lot of jokes about each others little eccentricities. We also make time to go out for drinks or for team dinners after work. Since people in the team have different job related backgrounds and different areas of expertise, we learn a lot from each other. If you do not know the answer to a problem, you just need to ask around and someone else is bound to know it.

Apart from the usual training on the job, our company offers training courses which are organised by an internal training department. This means that I can book on a variety of courses that help me to get a better understanding of market research in general and to tackle specific problems I might come across when e.g. analysing data.

Research rewards
I think market research is a very versatile job and it is very well suited for people who are curious, who like to think outside the box and who like to communicate with others. It requires good analytical and problem solving skills and you should be confident in presenting findings to clients. To be a good market researcher you will also be required to understand how and for what purpose your clients use market research findings and you should be able to translate client requirements into suitable market research solutions.