Using cellphones as market research tools is an opportunity that has not yet been explored, says BMI-TechKnowledge analyst Tertia Smit, but a Cape Town company says it may have found the right model.
There are enough cellphone SIM cards to cover more than half the South African population and the rise of the portable phone has allowed people unprecedented access to the telecommunications network. However, it seems little is being done to use the technology for market research purposes, says Smit.
"The obvious application is there. However, someone will have to come up with an appropriate model that incentivises people for their time," she says.
Peter Searll, founder of Dashboard, says his company has developed a methodology and coding for using cellphones as "a real research tool".
"Cellphones are the most common electronic device in Africa. If you want to reach someone, no matter when or where, a phone call [can be made] or an SMS can be sent," he says.
According to Searll, the combination of interactive voice recognition (IVR) technology and cellphones brings another dimension to the market research industry.
"Using a person to ask questions can often influence the respondent`s responses. However, IVR asks the same questions time and again, ensuring there is no influence on the respondents," he says.
Searll, who has 15 years` experience in the market research industry, says an added advantage of cellphone market research is that it delivers information a company can act on.
"Monitoring client satisfaction is important. However, a monthly report often means it arrives too late to do anything about the situation and daily information changes continuously. However, a timely weekly report can help a company obtain information that it can act on. The flexibility of cellphones is readily apparent," he says.
Searll`s system works on a combination of IVR and SMS. He says the data is captured immediately for analysis and this eliminates the errors that often happen with manual capture.
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