Water Opinions can provide a wide range of primary and secondary, quantitative and qualitative consumer-centric research services, including polls, focus groups, media management, and alternative, cutting-edge research technologies.
Water Opinions services provided include:
Online Surveys: Appropriately designed online surveys are an effective data collection method when the sample consists of known respondents with online access (for example, an internal survey of an agency or organization in which all potential respondents have guaranteed internet access through their workplace). Online surveys are also effective in augmenting response rates when respondents contacted through another medium (such as by mail or telephone) indicate that they would prefer an alternative method of responding.
Telephone Surveys: Telephone surveys are the most accurate and reliable method of obtaining data that is representative of the general population. Due to the near universality of telephone ownership and minimized respondent burden, surveys conducted via telephone yield higher response rates, increase the representativeness of the sample, and reduce bias.
Mail Surveys: Mail surveys are effective in a variety of settings, most notably when contacting named respondents, when contacting respondents who are unlikely or unwilling to respond by telephone or other media, or when delivering some sort of stimulus about which a response will be measured.
Multimodal Surveys: Multimodal surveys can be conducted using a combination of telephone, mail, and online questionnaires. For multimodal surveys, a random sample of respondents is selected prior to the implementation of any data collection technique. Only after being selected for the sample are respondents contacted and given a choice of survey modes.
Focus Groups: Focus groups entail in-depth, structured discussions with small groups of participants (generally 10 to 12 individuals) about select subjects. The use of focus groups is an accepted research technique for qualitative explorations of attitudes, opinions, perceptions, motivations, constraints, participation, and behaviors. Focus groups provide researchers with new insights, hypotheses, and understanding through the process of group interaction.
Personal Interviews: Personal interviews are an excellent research method when there are highly knowledgeable individuals whose expertise is needed for the understanding of an issue. Personal interviews can also be used prior to survey design, prior to focus group design, or as a method of understanding the specific technical nature of a project. Personal interviews allow for open conversation between the researcher and individuals in a one-on-one setting.
Needs Assessments: A needs assessment is a systematic exploration and analysis of “the way things are” and “the way things ought to be.” A need is not a want or desire, but rather a gap between the current situation and the optimal situation. Using both qualitative and quantitative research, a needs assessment identifies gaps in training, programs, services and/or outreach efforts. Needs assessments can be used to identify and solve performance problems in order to direct an agency or organization’s future planning efforts.
Program Evaluations: Programmatic evaluations measure the effectiveness and success of programs, policies, services, or organizations, and identify areas of potential improvement. A programmatic evaluation can be used to measure what is working and what is not.
Literature Reviews: Literature reviews are a research method of examining data from a variety of sources that ultimately results in the compilation of known information on a subject. Useful and pertinent information can be extracted from a variety of sources ranging from journal articles to internal agency/organization reports and databases. Literature reviews are often used when a plethora of information already exists on a topic. By compiling information that already exists on a topic into a single source, literature reviews can synthesize information into a concise and highly informative report.
Public Meetings: To supplement findings from standardized research techniques such as surveys and focus groups, Water Opinions could assist agencies and organizations to conduct public meetings. Public meetings provide a forum for input and feedback, an opportunity for two-way dialogue between agencies/organizations and the general public, and a means of identifying further issues of interest or concern. Public meetings help to reinforce transparency and encourage public investment in decision-making.
Stakeholder Processes: Stakeholder engagement is the process by which an organization involves people who may be affected by the decisions it makes or can influence the implementation of its decisions. An underlying principle of stakeholder engagement is that stakeholders have the chance to influence the decision-making process.
Online Public Input Forums: Online public input forums are commonly used as a supplemental data collection technique to generate feedback from as many members of a study population as possible—while not a scientific sampling technique, online public input forums can be an important mechanism for collecting information from those who are not randomly selected to take part in a survey.
Message Development and Testing: A specific aspect of marketing and communications research entails the development of messages for specific target audiences. Water Opinions could develop and test messages through both surveys and focus groups.