Data processing is a cornerstone of data quality in the marketing research industry, extending beyond simply providing tables for reports. Our data processing team plays a crucial role by ensuring your survey accurately captures your vision and goals, from initial design through data collection and final analysis.
Our project management team works closely with you to translate your goals into a tailored questionnaire, incorporating specific programming notes to guide survey functionality. This includes controlling the respondent's path, screening for eligibility, and other special survey
functions. This questionnaire is then sent to you for approval to ensure your vision is accurately captured.
Once approved, the questionnaire goes to our programming team to build the survey. Our project management team performs manual checks for each aspect of the survey, delving into individual points and fine details. This ensures logical flow, proper formatting, and the precise implementation of all programming notes, giving you confidence in the integrity of the survey. You then receive the programmed survey to experience it as a respondent would, allowing you to confirm that it reflects your content, goals, and vision before data collection begins.
Once you approve the programmed survey, our data processing team steps in. They interpret each aspect of the questionnaire and set up a "spec" using specialized tabulation software to program and simulate the questionnaire. This setup is independently created, without referencing the programmed survey initially, allowing for a direct comparison between the two.
While our project management team performs extensive manual checks, complex programming can be difficult to verify exhaustively. This is where data processing excels. Our data processing team writes code to run test data through their setup, which is then directly compared with the test data run through the programmed survey. This rigorous and automated check flags any discrepancies, such as:
These checks serve as a critical, independent validation layer, carefully catching any discrepancy that may have been missed. Though uncommon and typically minor, this process is crucial for ensuring the survey functions precisely as intended and preventing costly errors from reaching live respondents.
If any discrepancies are found, it typically indicates a differing interpretation of the questionnaire logic between the data processing and programming teams. These are immediately shared with the project management team to clarify the intended implementation. Either data processing or programming will then update their work to align with the clarified interpretation, ensuring the questionnaire and survey fully match before launch.
Before a full launch, surveys undergo a "soft launch" with a small sample of live respondents. This data is reviewed by the project management team and run through the data processing spec again, providing a final verification of functionality.
Even during the full launch phase, our teams work collaboratively to ensure ongoing data quality. While the project management team monitors field progress and performs any content updates and checks, the data processing team continues to be involved in important data quality measures.
While often recognized for delivering final data tables, the data processing team plays a vital, proactive role in validating your survey before launch and continuously throughout the data collection period. The collaborative and rigorous checking process from multiple teams ensures your goals are met, data quality is upheld, and the insights you receive are impactful and actionable.
