Social and economic environment in Russia influences greatly the financial
state of many research companies, especially regional ones.
In the recent years such influence makes many companies to cut expenses for
implementation of research projects which affects, among other things, the
quality. At the same time the clients interested in high quality of the
executed projects pay more attention to reliability of research results,
regulatory and organizational aspects of research projects.
RAI uses its own quality control system which
comprises necessary regulations, special organizational structure, necessary
technical facilities. This approach provides for high quality of research
projects, transparency of their implementation and possibility of control by the
client.
The RAI quality control system performs the processes
necessary to guarantee satisfaction of the client’s needs:
-
quality
planning,
-
quality
assurance,
-
quality
control.
Quality is controlled during the whole life cycle of
the project and comprises all its aspects and elements including:
- Project, organizational and management decisions
- Used material and technical basis, software etc.
- Quality of the works performed while implementing the project
- Quality of the project results
Quality control process consists of the following:
- Quality control concept definition for the project
- Planning of the quality control for the project
- Organization and quality control for the project
- Analysis of state and quality assurance for the project
- Completion of the quality control for the project
- Analysis
of experience and lessons learnt as regards quality control.
RAI quality control
standards meet the requirements of the European Society of Marketing Research
Professionals (ESOMAR), one of the most famous and reputable research
associations in the world founded in 1948.
Taking into consideration
the importance of data quality control we consciously increase the requirements
and exceed ESOMAR standards. Within implementation of this principle RAI has
developed a technology of electronic project control. All activity as regards
the project is performed using a special software system which enables the
director or a client to control on-line the works performance and project
execution quality.
The control procedure consists of the following
stages:
1. Quality control at the
stage of methodology development and data sampling calculation
The information
trustworthiness is guaranteed due to a thorough study of the research sampling
structure, principle of its creation, representativity.
A thorough following the methodology of research lays a foundation for high
quality of research information.
2. Quality control while
preparing and during field work
Before the field work RAI
employees do obligatory piloting of questionnaires as well as carry out
briefings and trainings for interviewers and regional partners. During the
field works each interviewer undergoes an obligatory intermediate check of
performance.
3. Quality control after the end of field work
After the end of field
work 100% of filled in questionnaires are visually checked, interviewer’s
routing charts and regional partners’ reports are verified. 10% of filled in
questionnaires are checked by a second personal interview, by telephone or by
sampling of routing charts sent by post. It is verified whether the interview
has really taken place and the key questions are checked. During a telephone
survey all calls are registered allowing the client to listen to any interview.
Quality control of depth, expert interview and focus-groups implies 100%
listening to and watching of audio and video records and verification of
transcription.
4. Quality control at the stage of data processing
During the data
processing the primary information array is checked for completeness and compatibility.
5. Interviewers’ performance analysis for all the projects
On each stage of the
project information of the interviews’ performance is collected and analyzed. A
special software system allows to have detailed information of all projects in
which the interviewer has participated and to assess the level of his(her)
qualification for performing work under the certain project.
RAI standards include
time gaps optimal for data collection and analysis. Each client or partner may
count on a particular result in time defined by the standards.
|
|
Time
Time gaps
|
Executor
|
|
Defining the problem
and setting the goal of the research, making a commercial offer
|
1 unit
|
Project manager
|
|
Development of the
research program
|
2 units
|
Analytics and data
processing department
|
|
Desk research,
collection and analysis of secondary information
|
10 units
|
Analytics department
|
|
Development of tools
for quantitative research
|
3 units
|
Analytics department
|
|
Preparation of start of
field work
|
3 units
|
Field work department
|
|
Quantitative survey
|
Not exceeding 14 units
* depending on the research geography
|
Field work department
|
|
Control procedures
|
3 working days
|
Control department
|
|
Data entry
|
3 working days
|
Field work department
|
|
Data verification
|
2 working days
|
Control department
|
|
Preparation of
computation tables
|
3 working days
|
Analytics department
|
|
Preparation of
analytical report
|
8 working days
|
Analytics department
|
|
|
|
|
|
Development of tools
for qualitative research
|
2 working days
|
Analytics department
|
|
Preparation for qualitative research
|
4 working days
|
Analytics department
|
|
Organization and
conducting of groups
|
3 working days
|
Project manager
|
|
Preparation of transcripts
|
2 working days
|
Field work department
|
|
Preparation of
analytical report
|
7 working days
|
Analytics department
|
RAI projects undergo obligatory verification of
received data. This procedure is carried out by the specialists of both, the
control and analytics departments, who are not involved in implementation of
the verified project. Only after confirmation that the project has been
implemented applying all the RAI standards the Client gets the final materials
(intermediate results). In 10% of cases during implementation of (specialized)
projects which require profound knowledge of the research topic specialists in
related spheres, spheres of the research topic and scientists are invited.
Stages of verification of a marketing research
- Verification
of research program and working
hypotheses
- Verification
of correspondence of the tools to the solved problems
- Verification
of completeness and appropriateness of the field work plan
- Verification
of quality of data collection organizing
- Verification
of quality of questionnaires filling in
- Verification
of completeness of control procedures
- Verification
of data entry
- Verification
of completeness and appropriateness of calculations plan
- Verification
of completeness of solving the set problems in the final materials.
