Some key highlights from the statement below:
- We believe we can be safe and be open for business!
- We are working from home, but you can contact us as normal – and our remote working procedures take account of data protection requirements
- Our large team of telephone interviewers can also work from home so our telephone interviewing service remains open
- This counts as well for our call center partners abroad
- We are following MRS guidelines on F2F research, but recommend considering other options where possible
- We have a raft of remote research tools like video depth interviews and online research platforms – both with the potential for client observers (to give you something to do whilst working from home!)
- We understand this is a time to think creatively and long-term – please contact us and we’d love to discuss more
If you need any further detail then please do get in touch with your USP contact.
Remote working
95% of our staff works from home until further notice. All of our researchers, project managers, consultants and operations staff are fully equipped to work from home. They are all securely connected to the server, the phone network and our conferencing system. You can contact us as normal by phone – and our remote working procedures take account of data protection requirements. We suggest we meet with you by video conference or phone as much as possible for now, just for everyone’s safety. We imagine many of you are working from home too. We are also pleased to say that our telephone interviewers are set up to work remotely. So, we can continue to offer a comprehensive B2B and consumer interviewing service. We experienced the last two weeks in Italy and Spain that respondents are available for interviews, even working from home, and they like to have a discussion other then Corona.
Research methods
A large majority of our research is not significantly affected. Most of our research is undertaken in-house so we have control over this and can act flexibly and in an agile way as the situation develops. We have been assured by suppliers about their continuity plans and are pleased with how the research industry has responded so far.
We are currently following the MRS advice regarding F2F research: www.mrs.org.uk/resources/coronavirus. However, we are speaking to our clients about alternatives as we are conscious that things can change very quickly. In any new proposals, we are trying to offer non-F2F research methods where possible.
For F2F quantitative research, we believe that most projects can be transitioned to remote research methods with a little bit of thinking and we have experience of this transitioning. We accept there are some cases where only F2F will do and in these cases, we can follow current MRS advice or postpone.
Please do consider that there are a wide range of alternatives to F2F qualitative research. These include online groups, online communities and video depths to name just a few. We have experts in these who would love to tell you more!
And finally …
USP Marketing Consultancy (a private -owned company), grew from just a few people to one of leading European research agencies for the construction, installation, living, real estate and home improvement market, by remaining flexible to client requirements and thinking long-term. Our ownership structure, in-house operations and strong team of researchers helps us do this. We see no reason for this to change and welcome any discussions with clients and prospects to ensure we can meet your needs in all eventualities, both in the short and long term.
