Driving CX Forward: A Quick Guide to Medallia Market Research Services

Discover the types of market research services and solutions you need to meet your company’s CX objectives — and how Medallia can help.

Ready to harness the power of market research to drive growth and retention for your business? Looking to find the best market research partner and solutions for your business? 

Whether you’re looking to answer a single question, conduct a benchmarking study about your brand’s health, or launch an ongoing study to answer recurring organizational questions, we can help. Medallia’s Market Research Services help you uncover meaningful insights (quantitative, qualitative, or both) from your desired participants (customers, non-customers, or both) using your preferred format (surveys, focus groups, etc.) — and offer the level of support you need (self-serve, mid-service, or full-service). 

Which types of market research will meet your business needs?

Before we review the types of market research services and technologies Medallia offers, let’s review the most common types of market research and what you’re looking for to support your use case. 

Qualitative vs. quantitative market research

Depending on the specific business question(s) your company is looking to answer, you may be interested in conducting qualitative market research (to uncover the attributes of something), quantitative market research (to determine the quantity or amount of something or range of outcomes), or a mix of both. 

“Typically, the most effective market research analysis results from combining different insights,” says Margaryta Rashev, VP of Product, Market Research at Medallia. “Taking a more holistic approach helps you better understand exactly what the drivers are behind a specific issue, and how to best inform your strategy,” she explains. 

Self-serve vs. white glove market research services

Depending on the complexity of your study design, you may be looking for a market research capability that your team can get up and running quickly, all on your own or with the support of a service team that takes care of the end-to-end process for you.

“Self-service tools like Medallia’s Agile Research are wonderful if you want a solution that you can launch quickly and get results from right away,” says Cassie Wilcox, VP of Global Research and Insights at Medallia.

“On the other end of the spectrum, where brands want more advanced methodologies to conduct a more robust study, white-glove services will take a question that you’re trying to answer and help you build out and design an entire program,” she adds. “For example, the Medallia research team will execute it for you. We’ll use different platforms to program the survey. We’ll tap into different panels to execute and get the analysis and insights and take care of all of the necessary reporting.”

Ad-hoc, foundational, and ongoing market research studies

One-time questions, questions that are foundational to your business and customers, and recurring questions are the three main types of questions companies tend to explore using market research. The provider you choose should be able to support your type of inquiry. 

Types of market research study formats

While surveys are one of the most common ways to collect market research insights, advanced market research companies offer a range of formats you can use to gather robust insights. For example, if you’re interested in gathering rich qualitative insights, you may be looking to capture a mix of written responses, video feedback, or verbal insights through focus groups or one-on-one interviews. 

Third-party panels can also offer quantitative data from non-survey sources, including real-time consumer behavior tracked via transactions and more. 

“Medallia goes beyond common approaches of survey-based quantitative market research by also incorporating qualitative responses via video capture and incorporating consumer behavior data from a transaction panel of millions of US debit and credit users to understand not just consumer attitudes, but unblinded trends in their spend across specific brands, and entire industries and channels,” says Andrew Custage, Sr. Director, Head of Research Insights at Medallia. 

Types of market research participants — customers vs. non-customer participants

While some tools can be used to survey customers only, certain market research providers like Medallia are also able to connect companies with independent panels of consumers to learn more about the industry as a whole and what’s driving non-customer behavior.

Criteria for evaluating potential market research services partners

Use these questions to evaluate your potential market research service partners. 

Will the company you’re considering…?

• Offer the methodologies you’re looking for — quantitative research, qualitative research, or a mix of both.
• Help you reach your desired audience — customers, non-customers, or both.
• Ensure your participants match your preferred demographic and behavioral criteria. For instance, can they help you reach your non-customers within key segments, if desired?
• Enable you to gather a rich set of data via your preferred touchpoints — surveys, focus groups, etc.
• Tailor the level of support offered based on your needs — self-service solutions as well as white-glove services.
• Help you launch your study on your timeline — i.e. within days, not weeks or months.

Types of market research capabilities and solutions Medallia offers

Medallia’s market research team combines in-house expertise from industry-leading professionals who bring years of experience using advanced market research techniques, along with Medallia’s proprietary suite of advanced market research solutions that help support the world’s leading brands based in over 150 countries. 

Quantitative market research solutions

• Capture feedback on your most pressing questions: An extension of Medallia’s customer experience platform, Ask Now lets brands quickly self-serve adding temporary questions to existing surveys  in just minutes and collect responses in real time on your businesses most pressing questions. 

• DIY your market research efforts: Agile Research is an easy-to-use, self-service tool that offers advanced question types customizable reporting and more! Our DIY research solution  provides sophisticated features made for complex market research methodologies,advanced statistical analysis and access to millions of potential respondents via a third-party panel. With Agile Research, you can build your survey from scratch or leverage pre-built survey templates designed by research experts. 

Qualitative market research solutions

While Agile Research and Ask Now both support the collection of qualitative insights, Medallia also offers two specialized qualitative market research technologies that can be used for conducting in-depth interviews, focus groups, and more.

• Medallia Video: This video feedback solution enables brands to gather opinions, motivations, and feelings from customers and non-customers with AI-powered analysis capabilities that instantly interpret expressions and emotions and organize responses by key themes and topics.

• Deeply understand employee needs: Medallia’s crowdsourcing capability lets you get group feedback, opinions, and more from employees and customers in a social environment. 

A range of market research services, from self-service to full-service

Medallia’s research services team has designed and executed global research efforts for some of the world’s largest brands. These projects have included both qualitative and quantitative

research methodologies across North and South America, Europe, Australia, and Asia, leveraging Medallia’s suite of best-in-class research technologies. We offer research strategy, design, and analysis services and work collaboratively as an extension of your team. Our research experts partner with you to adopt a strategy that suits your needs and accomplishes your goals.

“We provide a really flexible approach,” explains Wilcox. “We can be full-service, we can be mid-service, and we can be enablers of self-service.”

Go from Insights to Action — Fast — with Medallia Market Research

Our suite of advanced market research technologies and industry-leading, in-house experts are here to help your company stay ahead of changing dynamics and harness richer insights at scale so you can take action with confidence to improve experiences.