Tnsrms develops solution for consumer quick response to products, services

TNS RMS, a foremost global market research company, has introduced Computer Aided Telephone Interview (CATI) research method in Nigeria as part of its efforts to assist clients obtain quick consumer response to business projects, including product launches and campaigns that would enable clients to adjust operations quickly.

The investment in the research system, which is informed by the penetration of mobile phones in Nigeria and market demand for consumer quick response, is cost effective and quicker due to the ability to reach a large number of consumers. It also ensures vast geographical coverage and guarantees quality control.

Explaining the investment, Adeola Tejumola, CEO, West, East and Central Africa for TNSRMS, says CATI is an IT system centre that provides full management of the interviewing process and encompasses a dialler. It is a call-centre with computers that can capture the data as operator talks to consumers and ask questions. The computer selects numbers randomly and dials.

The system enables TNS RMS to handle huge databases of phone numbers for optimal productivity, Tejumola says, other benefits to this capability include the ability to monitor fieldwork progress in real time and faster turn-around on reporting than other methodologies.

The computer aided information gathering method is a an improvement on the historical pen and paper based methodology (PAPI), which can be slow to execute due to the nature of mobilising field teams and the process involved in printing questionnaires and issues of quality.

Attributing the innovation as part of the benefits of the merger with TNS global last three years, Tejumola further explains that CATI is not a replacement of the other forms of interviewing methods, it is a supplement. Based on the need of the client, “we decide which of these methods to use.”

Further appreciating the company’s understanding of the market and determination to serve clients better, Tyson McKeown, the regional operations director, Africa and Middle East for TNSRMS, says three years ago, the company set out on a drive for electronic digital agenda for the business.

“Today, we utilise mobile phones and tablet devices in over 75 percent of our face-to-face fieldwork (also known as Computer Aided Personal Interviewing – CAPI). Now, we have added telephonic interviewing to its capability, extending the ability to reach over a 100 million Nigerian consumers and those in neighbouring West African markets,” McKeown says.

On how the computer generates the numbers for dialling, Dorota Binmoeller, head of fieldwork efficiency, TNS Global Operations, who notes that though CATI may not be in every project, says the numbers could be generated through telecom operators, directories and random digital dialling.

By: Daniel Obi