Many companies are experiencing surges in the number of employees conducting their own surveys, customer interviews and other forms of market research. The catch? These colleagues are not trained researchers, which can spell trouble for research quality and customer confidentiality.

That said, many of the employees doing unsanctioned research are really acting as market research volunteers; they are taking the initiative to conduct market research without it being part of their official job descriptions. So now that so many people have become interested in gathering market insights, what can we do to leverage their passion while ensuring quality?

To help concerned managers determine how best to assess this situation, evaluate its risks, and create a realistic course of action, Research Rockstar has developed its newest online course, “Embracing Rogue Research: Turning Unsanctioned Market Research into Market Insight Gold.” This one hour, self-paced course covers:

• What activities might be going on, and what are their risk factors?
• How can our company leverage the unsanctioned research in ways that make sense?
• What sensible policies can we use to help manage this situation?
• What training should we provide to volunteer researchers, to help them be more effective?

“Thanks to the proliferation of amazingly easy and free-to-low cost tools like SurveyMonkey, Zoomerang, Wufoo and many more, lots of people are taking market research into their own hands.” says Kathryn Korostoff, President of Research Rockstar. “These unsanctioned surveys are proliferating, and without proper controls can really damage a company’s customer relationships, not to mention potentially leak confidential information.”

The initial reaction of some market research professionals is to try and stop rogue research. But with some planning, policies and training, the major risk factors can be addressed:

• Making sure valued customers are not over-surveyed, or subjected to bad questionnaire designs.
• Coordinating research efforts to avoid redundancies.
• Helping people understand what results are anecdotal versus reliably conclusive.
• Protecting confidential information (the company’s and the customers’).
• Ensuring suitable insights are shared, and shared appropriately

The program is available online, as a downloadable Flash file, for $180. Further details are here.

For organization’s seeking a more in-depth learning experience, on-site presentations of the material are also available, starting at $1,600.

Press