“It’s vital to keep listening to customers during this period. Continuous data collection will give companies a clearer path forward as the crisis resolves, allowing them to emerge faster with a confident strategy for growth and success as world economies recover.” – Jackie Lorch, Dynata

While some companies may feel compelled to shut everything down and check back when this crisis abates, many brands have voiced their desire to stay connected to their customers – especially at a time like this. To gauge their current mindset and mood. “After all,” one researcher observed. “that’s the only way to tell if they’re starting to level off and return to ‘normal’.

“Clients and suppliers are in the midst of dramatic business changes, leading to sharp revenue declines and layoffs. But it is precisely because of the turmoil that research is necessary, to help organizations understand this moment and react appropriately.” – Jeffrey Henning, Market Research Institute International

The Road Forward

Will certain behavior pattern shifts be sustained, even to a minor degree, with the resumption of “normal”? Will there emerge an entirely NEW normal? Some have hypothesized that there could be long term effects in such areas such as remote workplaces, real estate, social distancing, and healthcare. Examples of this can be seen in the Expected Change on Consumer Habits report that expects a drop in retail by up to 80 points due to the fact that ~74% of the Maltese  believe their finances will be impacted for more than 2 months due to the coronavirus situation

But we will need to measure repeatedly over time to see where things settle. If we measure now, and show it leveling off, the final data will be more believable. Looking specifically at the insights industry and how data is collected and consumer behaviour observed and logged, what could the fallout be?

In your efforts to predict the severity and duration of business disruption, be sure to look inward at demand – a number of projects initiated and completed – and outward – keep an eye on the spread of COVID-19 cases, enforced quarantines and restrictions by geographic area.

If there is a ray of light amid the growing clouds of gloom, it is that these events are rare. Those of us in the market research industry who have lived through these shocks before know that they present unique challenges for measurement and the conduct of our work. For the Coronavirus pandemic, these challenges are likely to affect us personally for a duration we cannot know. As researchers, however inconvenient or tricky these challenges maybe, they will oblige us to be thoughtful and to rely on our training, our methods, our intuition, our human understanding, and our data not just to tell the story but also to navigate our own personal journeys during this difficult time.