Customer Satisfaction Study is applicable for getting quantified and objective research information about the customer's satisfactions. "Customer satisfaction" refers to a satisfaction with a product or a service of a company and it shows how the perceived performance fits the customer's expectations and needs.

This method can be also useful for understanding which are the strongest or the weakest aspects of the product or service, or to identify request trends and find out client's company position on the market. The main objective of customer satisfaction is to build and improve customers´ loyalty and retention. If customer satisfaction had no influence on the customers´ purchase decision it would obviously only be of limited interest for suppliers. Therefore, customer satisfaction has to be seen in the context of the whole purchase process.

Customer satisfaction study can also manage "snow ball effect" - satisfied customer's recommendation of a concrete service or product.

Focus Group is the most frequently applied qualitative technique. In a focus group the carefully selected members of the target group attend to a common conversation, which lasts an hour and half or two hours. The advantage of the method is the interaction between the participants in a realistic group situation. The feedback gives a direct or "live impression" of customers´ attitudes and opinions.

Groups usually consist of eight persons, occasionally there are smaller, so-called mini groups with only four to six participants (e.g. manager groups, children groups, creative groups). During the conversation are often applied projective techniques which help participants to express themselves.

This type of research can determine:

• opinions on the positions and usage of brands
• opinions on competing brands and their evaluation
• evaluation of television, radio and press commercials, evaluation of advertising designs (storyboards, animations, moody stories)
• evaluation of label and package designs
• evaluation of new products (can be connected with tasting samples)
• standpoints on newly introduced products
• standpoints of the focus group and its consumer habits

Its advantage is the use of group dynamics to reveal the opinions of the participants and the possibility to collect a lot of information in a short time and for a relatively low prize.

SC&C has its own focus studio in Prague with the most advanced audio/video equipment and provides its customers with first-class services. Individual focus groups performed by SC&C are moderated by research specialists with extensive experience in this field of research.

SC & C Express is fast quantitative research, which was developed to encourage flexible marketing and PR decision making. Greatest advantage of this product is the speed of obtaining results, which is 48 hours, in the case of need also 24 hours.

Most common situation for using SC & C Express:

• fast information about unexpected market changes
• post-tests (including after day-tests) of advertising and PR campaigns
• pre-tests of advertising and PR campaigns
• monitoring of the course of advertising and PR campaigns
• testing of new suggestions about names, slogans etc.
• to find out customer´s preferences
• to gain items for articles and PR
• to find the best marketing and PR solution

Design of the product SC & C Express

Methodology of data collection: standardized personal interviews

Number of respondents: from 300 to 1 000 according to the solved case

Target group: representative quota sample (Czech population or specific group)

Questionnaire: up to 10 closed questions + socio-demographical data

Speed of processing: in 48 hours, in case of need also in 24 hours

Some retailers hire marketing research companies to evaluate the quality of service in their stores. These companies use mystery shoppers to get the information anonymously. They assign a mystery shopper to make a particular purchase in a  store or restaurant and then report on the experience. Typically, the shopper is reimbursed, and can keep the product or service.

Mystery Shopping is applicable for studying the actual process of the servicing, but also the quality of the information service or the persuading abilities of those being in touch with customers. During Mystery Shopping, in details trained interviewers - as 'clients' or 'customers' - collect information or observe the happenings during a shopping or service using a situation and after it they complete a questionnaire (outside the premises).

Application of this method can be useful for examining the operation and characteristics of customer service offices, shops or depots (speed of service, competence, waiting time, quality, cleanliness, etc.). A big advantage of this method over any other type of data collection is that the 'observed' persons are not aware of the research so the results are not subject to distortions.