As an estate agency, your long-term success relies on understanding how your existing customers experience your services and how you are perceived in the wider market.
It is vital that your reputation is solid, as estate agencies rely on a new flow of vendors and landlords. You want to make sure they choose your agency over your direct competition.
We are in an era where potential customers seek out online reviews and ask for recommendations on social media. This makes it even more important that you understand what your customers think of your business, and you respond quickly to trends in feedback.
When it comes to measuring customer feedback, it is important that you avoid information bias. This can skew your results and give you a false sense of what your clients really think.
One way to avoid information bias is to use market research methods such as surveys and focus groups. This allows you to get a more accurate picture of customer opinions.
We explore how to truly measure customer feedback while also avoiding information bias.
What is information bias?
Information bias is any distortion of information that leads to a decision which is different from what would have been made if the information was accurate or properly interpreted.
This can happen when people misunderstand or misinterpret information. It can also happen when people deliberately distort information to suit their own interests.
Information bias can often occur when market research is conducted. This is because inexperienced researchers may use methods that are not well suited to the task at hand, or they may not understand how to properly interpret the data they collect.
Information bias can skew your market research results and give you a false sense of what customers really think. This in turn can lead to poor decision making when it comes to building your estate agency business.
By using appropriate market research methods and being aware of your own biases, you can avoid this problem and get accurate information about customer opinions.
Avoiding information bias in market research
Below are several ways to avoid information bias in market research:
· Use multiple methods of market research. This helps to ensure that you are getting a more accurate picture of customer opinions
· Use objective measures. This means using measures that are not influenced by opinions or bias
· Use market research techniques such as surveys and focus groups. This allows you to collect data from a diverse range of people, which helps to reduce the risk of information bias
· Be aware of your own biases. This is important when interpreting market research data. Try to look at the data objectively and be open to the possibility that your initial assumptions may be wrong
· Get help from a market research professional
When you are inexperienced in conducting market research, a professional service, such as Know Your Market can help you to not just undertake the research but choose the right methods, helping you objectively interpret the data.
This gives you assurance that your decisions are based on accurate information without any information bias
