Background and Client Objectives
An international telecommunications company began operating in a federally regulated market with relatively few competitors. Within this market, only certain individuals are eligible customers, and operators must follow strict guidelines for maintaining active customers or face severe penalties.
The telecommunications company began to suspect its closest competitors were not adhering to these regulations. They came to TrendSource looking for market research competitive intelligence—to what extent did their rivals in fact follow the federally-mandated regulations, how does this affect the user experience, how are complaints handled, and, ultimately, does following the rules leave them at a competitive disadvantage?
Program Development and Methodology
The client came to TrendSource with these questions in mind, looking to assemble a panel of competitors’ existing customers as well as prequalified individuals who would easily be able to enroll in the program. The client could then deploy this online focus group to unearth intelligence related to competitor compliance.
Utilizing its vast, proprietary Field Agent database, TrendSource was quickly able recruit the necessary sample. TrendSource’s exclusive access to this dynamic, vetted database of 300,000+ active Field Agents spanning the United States and Canada helped the client solve for its single greatest research problem: how to find a suitable sample size of existing and prequalified competitor customers willing to participate in an ongoing program.
The resulting online panel address the clients current research questions, and can also quickly pivot to new focus topics as the client requires, readily responding to client follow-ups.
Results and Analysis
The online market research panels TrendSource built for this client provided a wealth of competitive intelligence, helping to ensure competitor regulatory compliance, and providing general competitive intelligence that ultimately can drive greater market share.
Having a flexible, diverse Field Agent database allowed TrendSource to execute the clients’ goals in a streamlined, highly-efficient manner, and remains one of its key differentiators in the crowded world of competitor market research.