Peter Abramov

Creating Complex Reports Quickly & Easily

Surveying is a valuable way to communicate with customers and employees, while providing insight into their thought processes. But while most companies can easily collect survey data, it’s much more of a challenge to make sense of all the responses and ultimately create powerful reports.

Before 2009, most businesses simply didn’t have the expertise and time to properly filter and quantify survey data. Therefore, it was nearly impossible to use that data in strategic decision-making.

Over the past few years, Zarca Interactive has refined tools to address the painstaking process of creating reports, charts and analyses, with particular emphasis on minimizing the steps required to create complex reports. This means that reporting can be done by any employee in your company, not only those in your research department.

In just a few moments, you can easily create complex pivot tables, pie charts, statistical analysis, segmentation reports and much more — all via Zarca’s wizard-driven, point-and-click reporting tool. And, once you’ve generated those reports, you can easily email or share them in nearly every major format or on any website.

Zarca helps you quickly and easily create and generate complex reports — allowing you to use those reports to make informed, strategic business.

What is a Strategic Account Manager?

At Zarca Interactive, we take pride in our robust, user-friendly platform. Our clients tell us how easy our system is to navigate and how much they enjoy the ability to create complex reports in very little time. Features such as real-time feedback, social media integration, point and click multi-level pivot tables, and wizard-driven SPSS import/export are just a handful of complex tools offered by Zarca.

However, much like any software system, the power of Zarca’s features is dependent upon user expertise.

If you need to gain crucial insight from your employees or customers, but don’t know how to go about wording your survey, whom to survey, or even the type of survey to deploy, call our Client Support Team. If you want to incorporate media into your surveys or collect complex information, but you’re having difficulty applying these features, just call. If you have collected data successfully, and now you want to create complex reports, share reports selectively with coworkers or post charts on social networks, but are overwhelmed by the options, please call us.

Every one of our clients is assigned a Strategic Account Manager (SAM). This person gets to know you and your survey goals, becoming an invaluable member of your team. SAM team members work with clients in various industries including retail, finance, healthcare and higher education. Our SAMs provide guidance and expertise for everything from proper question types to assessing strategic survey deployments.

No matter what kind of assistance you need, we are here to support you in all aspects of your survey project.

How Effective is Your Social Media Strategy?

According to several new studies, companies are not communicating effectively with their customers through Twitter or Facebook. Jan Rezab with Econsultancy Digital Marketers United writes about a study that clearly shows, on average, businesses respond just 5% of the time when customers pose questions on popular social media sites.

Maintaining active communication not only strengthens the relationship between consumer and retailer, it also improves brand equity in the public eye. Nothing sends a stronger message to the consumer than a company willing to stand behind their product and provide an open channel of communication and feedback. There’s a common misconception that all a company needs to be social in the digital age is a Facebook page and a Twitter account. Not so, say many researchers. The truth is that companies have to go beyond that first step and begin responding to those who show interest in their brand.

Nowadays, companies spend a lot of money attracting and luring new customers. Interestingly, consumers have actually become companies’ biggest brand ambassadors. I remember a time when identifying with a top retailer was considered selling out. This paradigm shift has put companies in a position that most do not seem to be managing well.

As business owners, some of the most valuable information we can glean from social media is consumer perception of our brand, products or services. The advent of technology has given us a platform to not only gauge feedback, but to have a direct line of communication with our end users. The moment our constituents feel wronged, technology allows us to instantly and immediately reach out.

Maritz Research surveyed an online panel of just under 1,300 U.S. consumers who use their Twitter accounts to communicate about products, services and companies. Nearly half of the respondents expected the companies to read their tweets, but only one-third received a company response to a tweeted complaint. Of the remaining two-thirds who did not receive feedback, an overwhelming 86% would have “liked or loved” to get some type of company response.

The message is clear and well-received by forward-thinking organizations such as Dell. The result is a stronger allegiance to brands, increased sales and the best kind of marketing a company can buy — an army of brand ambassadors.

Show Them You’re Listening

On any given day, I have more survey requests in my inbox than I know what to do with. As a consumer, if I can offer my opinion to a company that I do business with, I will. I look at it as a way to improve my future experiences, plus it sends me a clear message — help us help you.

Businesses are interacting with consumers like never before. Software and technology have evolved to the point where businesses can reach out to their consumers in an instant and direct way. Social networking, Twitter, email and text messaging all give your business the unprecedented access of having your finger on the pulse of a target audience.

Unfortunately, as a consumer, I rarely hear about the findings or conclusions from the many surveys I complete. How do I know if the valuable feedback I’m providing is read by anyone or even taken seriously? If I knew that my feedback would lead to a better customer experience, I would be much more motivated to participate in these surveys.

Well, smart companies are beginning to address these concerns. Survey software has advanced so much that we can easily highlight intricate trends and details. No longer do you have to be an Excel or SPSS savant to create a quality report. The hours spent on Excel, or your enterprise system, are not necessary anymore; that onerous work is obsolete, expensive and resource-heavy. Companies can now easily manage their image, message and brand through direct customer feedback.

Survey software has made it possible for companies to demonstrate an appreciation for their most precious asset of all — their consumers. Do you consider your company a good listener? Tell me how you express an appreciation for customers.