by Kevin Rohm, Director of Sampling and Panel Services
During my “I know everything” teenage years, my mother would put me in place with her beloved quote “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” While I am many years removed from my mother’s sage advice, I was recently reminded about the power of listening.
We were struggling with a high number of partial completes on a study. Our client and our team got together to figure out what was happening. It was painful on both ends – our client needed the study finished fast and wanted more survey invites sent out. We knew the partial rate was way out of line but couldn’t figure out why.
Finally, FINALLY, we uncovered the problem (something to do with passwords, historical records and programming). But that’s not the point – the point is that it took both the client team and our team to figure it out. Together.
Yup, we had to listen, they had to listen, we all had to collaborate. This was especially hard because of our tight timelines. Everyone wanted action, not talking.
The MR industry is HIGH STRESS – timelines, client demands, project loads – all contribute to the need to push the project through without pausing to listen to each other. It’s here when listening is the most important thing we can bring to our partners.