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Switchers and taggers provide insight about Gridlock
Moving people around Australia's capital cities is an increasingly difficult and contentious undertaking. The mobility of a city's residents impacts on the economic, social and cultural cohesion of the whole. Questions about the best ways that public transport providers can serve (and satisfy) their customers, while at the same time supporting the larger economic structure, are critical. So what role does social and market research play in shaping the way these questions are being asked?

Public transport and, in particular, rail networks have emerged as politically sensitive topics that state governments have been forced to deal with. For example, the NSW Government's new congestion tolls in Sydney and the cancelling of long-planned rail construction projects have caused considerable public debate of late.

The role of research is critical in assisting public authorities manage their assets and measure their successes with the public. But how do we conduct research effectively if our participants are, at best, sceptical and, at worst, openly antagonistic towards the client agency?

How do we engage a harried peak-period commuter to complete a survey objectively and honestly?

How do we gain the trust and confidence of graffiti writers?

Through a number of methods, we've found new ways to engage different respondent groups who would otherwise be disenfranchised or misrepresented by conventional research methods.

Survey with your latte? Engaging commuters on the margin
When CityRail, Sydney's rail provider, needed to evaluate campaigns (its Dwell Management Program and the SmartSaver trial) the challenges laid in the difficulty of finding participants that were hard to reach and potentially antagonistic.

To research the Dwell Management Program, an initiative to reduce the dwell time of trains (ensuring they wait on platforms no longer than 60 seconds) and to minimise these without compromising the safety of customers, we needed to recruit commuters using the platform very early in the morning or when they were extremely crowded. Our aim was to take them out of this environment when completing the survey to gain a more objective response.

The SmartSaver trial offered discounted tickets to passengers travelling either side of the peak AM and PM periods, to encourage passengers to change their travel time, alleviating the pressure on the network during this critical period. Again, a scarce group of respondents were needed, the rarest being those who had taken up the SmartSaver offer and changed their travel behaviours (affectionately known as ‘switchers').

In both studies we needed a representative sample of commuters (approximately 1500 commuters per study). We also needed participants in both programs, as well as a control sample (evaluation does not occur in a vacuum, and we were keen to avoid superficial public opinion-style measures). It was achieved in two ways.

Firstly, a face-to-face recruitment strategy was initiated using interviewers in situ who could simply and effectively pre-screen respondents, collect their contact details and encourage participation in a personalised and enthusiastic manner.

Respondents were invited to participate in the online survey in their own time. A prize draw incentive ($500 Westfield gift card) maximised response rates (achieving 32 per cent) and the online method ensured a greater degree of objectivity in our respondents' answers by taking them out of the commuter environment, allowing them to reflect on their experience.

Rainer Koenig, manager of marketing and market development at RailCorp says:  ‘We gave TNS a challenging brief because we needed to target very specific customers with too many questions for a face-to-face interview. The combination of in situ recruitment and online survey proved to be an effective methodology in meeting our needs.'

Art crimes? Engaging graffiti writers
Identifying and recruiting participants involved in illegal behaviour is inherently difficult, and requires a multi-faceted recruitment strategy. Trust needs to be gained and confidentiality assured.

Graffiti is a major problem for public administrators globally and an issue that Queensland Rail (QR) is taking action against. TNS was commissioned to provide information to help QR evaluate current graffiti management strategies and refine and incorporate new measures to prevent graffiti offences.  

The approach adopted involved an initial online poll to identify graffiti writers, providing a pool of participants for the research.  This poll was supplemented with targeted advertising at strategically chosen central locations: music stores specialising in hip-hop, skateboard suppliers, paint stores and other graffiti culture hotspots. In addition we trawled online groups from social networking sites like Facebook. The combined recruitment approach delivered a group of high quality participants.

Focus groups were conducted with current and past graffiti writers, bringing together the opinions and experiences of those actively involved in graffiti and those who have chosen to stop. Trust was achieved by reassuring participants that no clients were viewing and no video recordings taken, and by having an empathetic approach to the experiences and motivations raised. We took a pointedly neutral stance that gained our participants' trust - at no point did participants feel they had ‘offended' or had done something ‘illegal', allowing them to reveal their true experiences and opinions.

The use of a customised social network-style web site augmented the insights derived from more conventional research techniques.  We set up a site similar to Facebook for participants, by invite only, to network with each other, profile themselves, and respond to discussion topics.  The anonymous online approach removed all fear of incrimination for participants and resulted in free flowing conversations on sensitive issues around the topic.  Consequently, we were privy to an insider's view of the culture.

By honestly engaging respondents, and by acknowledging the realities of their experiences when using rail services in their cities, research can engender trust and real engagement. That trust and engagement is rewarded with research participants who respond openly, candidly and wholeheartedly to the research process.

Brian Walker-Catchpole and Chris Byrne, TNS Social Research

Put yourself on the customer' seat

Research that engages directly with public transport travellers does not always tell the full story.  As survey respondents, public transport travellers are quick to focus on the negative aspects of their travel and detailed operational information is often lost in the ?big issues? of the day such as delays, cancellations and over crowding.  These perception surveys are important in conveying public sentiment about the customer experience on public transport but lack operational objectivity.

With palm pilot in hand, Market Solutions observers ride the train and tram networks of Melbourne to assess the customer experience against a strict set of guidelines that aim to obtain objective measures of the customer experience.

This information provides the detail that the train and tram operators require in their day to day management of the public transport system in Melbourne.




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Other Articles in this edition

  • 2009 conference dates and venue announced
  • Polls predicted President Obama
  • Using the mobile phone to understand consumers
  • Cover to cover: Preserving the scientific method in the world of change
  • HR & leadership: Jumping off the corporate treadmill and into the sea (or up a tree)
  • AMSRO news
  • Achieving Balance shortlisted for EOWA Award
  • An ethical question: No. 166
  • Call for reviewers
  • Career moves
  • Client's point of view: So what?
  • Continuum: Success comes from fun
  • Digital Edge launches with new mobile phone survey technology
  • Galaxy Research hosts breakfast featuring Milne
  • Gizmos and gadgets: Impressive productivity benefits for quant researchers
  • LMAA chooses Nielsen
  • Monash Sport commissions Comperio
  • President's point of view: Research in 2020? Let's just concentrate on 2009...
  • Research News over the decade
  • SSI adds wireless / mobile telephone sampling capability
  • Society news
  • Statistics: When less is more
  • Topline
  • WPP/TNS merger update

    Research News   Edition index (December 2008)


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