Research

Research that answers the question you’re actually asking

Customer and employee research, market assessments, and satisfaction studies for broadband providers and electric cooperatives.

Start a research project

Research

Research that answers the question you’re actually asking

Customer and employee research, market assessments, and satisfaction studies for broadband providers and electric cooperatives.

Start a research project
Years in the industry
Research projects completed
Product launches supported
States

What research and insights tell you

You know what people say when they call. You don’t know what the rest of them think. Complaints sample one group: the people annoyed enough to pick up the phone. Everybody else pays the bill and says nothing, right up until a competitor asks them a question you never did.

Then the board asks how members feel, and nobody’s checked in four years. Somebody has to ask. That’s us.

Six reasons providers come to us for research

Besides our kickin’ attitudes

“We think people are pretty satisfied” is not a board presentation. A benchmarked score with trend data and a plain explanation of what moved is. One of those makes you look prepared and the other makes the next question harder.

Where we begin

  • Measure it properly, once, so you have a baseline
  • Benchmark it against providers like you
  • Explain what’s driving the number
  • Build a slide your board can follow

CSAT dropped four points last quarter. Or went up six, which is somehow worse, because now you have to keep doing whatever it was. Numbers without context tell you something happened and nothing about what to do next.

Where we begin

  • Find what’s actually driving the score
  • Separate the noise from the signal
  • Talk to people, not just tally them
  • Rank what to fix first

Expanding the build into the next county, or looking at a service you’ve never offered. The spreadsheet says it works. The spreadsheet has never met anyone who lives there.

Where we begin

  • Map the competitive landscape as it is now
  • Find out what people there actually need
  • Test the price and the offer before you commit
  • Give you a number you can take to the lender

Everyone you can easily reach is already a customer, which means every survey you run confirms what the loyal already believe. The households you actually need are the ones you’ve never had a reason to contact.

Where we begin

  • Define the geography that matters
  • Reach people outside your customer list
  • Find out what they’re using and why
  • Size what’s actually available to you

Somebody new filed, or broke ground, or is rumored to be looking. You’ve had these customers for thirty years and you’d like to believe that counts for something. It probably does. Probably isn’t a strategy.

Where we begin

  • Find out who’s loyal and who’s just settled
  • Learn what would make them switch
  • See how you’re perceived against the newcomer
  • Fix the gaps while there’s time

A rate change, a rebrand, a new program, a bond vote. The messaging gets written by people who already understand it, tested on people who already agree, and then meets several thousand people who have neither advantage.

Where we begin

  • Test the message before it goes out
  • Find the words that land and the ones that don’t
  • Watch for the objection nobody in the room anticipated
  • Adjust while adjusting is still cheap

Whatever your market,
whatever your size

01

Market needs assessment

Sniffing around a new market? We identify who’s underserved, how many of them there are, and what they’d actually pay. Plus how the current players are really doing.

02

Customer satisfaction and loyalty

What makes people stay with you instead of the alternative. We find what you do better than anyone else, and where you’re most exposed.

03

Brand awareness and perception

What people think of you, what they think of the competition, and whether that’s moving. Tracking studies show the shift over time against what your marketing has been saying.

04

Segmentation and personas

Who your customers actually are, what they do, where they live, and how they think. So the right message reaches the right people instead of everybody at once.

Where we start depends on the decision you’re trying to make. Surveys, in-depth interviews, and focus groups, online, by phone, or in person.

Research in the field

Rainbow Communications

Rainbow was looking at a Kansas market they suspected was underserved. The question was whether that suspicion would hold up against a build cost.

We ran 140 phone surveys among household and business decision makers who were not their customers. The findings showed unusually low value perceptions of the incumbents, and the take rate forecast supported a decision to build.

Within eighteen months, actual take rates came in above the forecast.

Heard elsewhere

“Pivot provided not just data, but direction.”

Nathan Means

Twin Lakes

We take the work personally.
It’s the only way we know.

See all our work

  • Inland Power

    Spokane, WA

    Branding

    CX

    Employee Experience

    Marketing

    Training

  • Cablelynx

    Longview, TX

    Branding

    Marketing

    Video

  • Jade Communications

    Alamosa, CO

    Branding

    Marketing

    Video

    Web

    Digital

  • West Carolina

    Abbeville, South Carolina

    Branding

    CX

    Digital

    Marketing

    Training

    Video

    Web

  • GVEC

    Gonzales, TX

    Branding

    Marketing

    Web

  • Totelcom

    De Leon, TX

    Branding

    CX

    Web

Questions we get about research

Depends what you need. Online surveys are the most economical way to represent a large population, provided you have email addresses. Phone works when you don’t, or when answers need probing. Focus groups are for exploring something, where a group discussion surfaces what you didn’t think to ask.

Once we know the geography, we pull contact information for people inside it. Phone, email, or address. That’s how a market assessment gets built, and it’s the part most providers can’t do on their own.

Depends on the population. We’ve run studies at 60 respondents and at 2,000, and both were right for what was being asked. Bigger is more accurate. Smaller is sometimes all that’s feasible, and we’ll tell you what that costs you in confidence.

Four to twelve weeks. Online customer surveys are fastest. Anything with recruiting in it, focus groups or phone interviews with non-customers, sits at the longer end.

Yes. A 78 on its own means little. A 78 for a co-op your size, trending up two points, is a board slide.

Both, and we use whichever word your organization uses. Co-ops have members, telcos have customers, and a few have both under one roof.

A presentation to your leadership team with findings, what they mean, and what we’d do about it. The full data comes with it. The presentation is the part you’ll use.

Ask\-Ben\-Circle

Replace your assumptions with the answer

Tell us what’s going on. Ben has spent years connecting broadband and electric providers with the right people at Pivot. Let’s set up a call.

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Pssst! We believe in the work you are doing, and are happy to talk with you about your needs even if it doesn’t put $$ in our pocket.