Action-oriented research

How do you make sure that research is acted upon?

One of our personal bugbears is when we hear from a client about some research they did in the past which didn’t result in any actions.

When we present our findings, we always make sure we include very clear recommendations. Where it’s appropriate, these include our suggestions for specific actions that could be implemented.

We’ve recently completed a major piece of work for a market-leading client. To help the client team really understand the findings, we made them step into their customers’ shoes for a while. We also produced a handy “guide book” for them to refer back to as they implemented the findings.

As well as the bigger picture, we gave them a list of things they could change which would help improve the customer experience. At the end of the presentation, the client team had an action planning session to decide how to take these ideas forwards.

They agreed a clear action plan, and all of the ideas will be implemented within 2 months – even the ones which they think might be tricky.

What a great example of a client that wants to listen to its customers and act upon research.