Many transportation agencies use syndicated or general research solutions to assess the needs and requests of the communities they serve. However, once in a while, you will encounter a specific issue or problem that requires a unique, ad-hoc research solution.
Custom research solutions provide targeted community and market research to help you make strategic decisions that support the community. This article highlights why your organization requires custom research solutions to deliver better results.
What Are Custom Research Solutions?
General research solutions can provide organizations with insights into general aspects of a particular demographic, such as their overall size, average income, interests, concerns, etc. This type of research methodology can answer some of your fundamental research questions but may not necessarily help you meet your exact goals and needs.
Custom research solutions often include in-depth primary research, more expansive and specific survey questions, ongoing discussions, and other research tools to help you obtain meaningful insights into your community. They are tailor-made for exclusive use by you. This type of targeted research can help you make key decisions with regard to policies and community projects.
It is important for any institution to adopt custom research solutions as part of its decision-making strategy. These solutions can help you understand key segments of a particular demographic and help you make pivotal data-driven decisions that support and engage with the community.
How Custom Research Solutions Help Transportation Agencies
You cannot afford to make mistakes in today’s digitally connected world. Whether you’re planning a new community initiative or an employee training program, the costs of making the wrong decisions are quite high. You need custom research solutions to help you successfully navigate various decision-making obstacles that are bound to come your way. Here are some ways your organization can benefit from research solutions tailored to your objectives.
1. They Offer a Data-Driven Approach to Meet Objectives
Institutions that utilize custom research solutions have a significant advantage in optimizing decision-making and improving customer experience. While general or syndicated research solutions offer an overview of a situation, custom research solutions provide the specific insights and data you need to take confident action.
Custom research solutions are not abstract or speculative. They provide practical, data-driven answers to your questions. They can factor in all your organizational strengths, limitations, values, and goals and provide actionable choices that are within your skill and power to execute.
This data-driven research approach also helps minimize potential financial risks. Using various research methodologies, custom research solutions can help identify plausible threats and opportunities.
2. They Help Identify Your Target Demographic
Custom research solutions do not focus on a general demographic of people but focus on specifications within a broader demographic. For example, an initiative could garner support from a certain segment of commuters in one city but may not provide benefits to a similar segment in another town or city.
Effectively utilizing custom research solutions can help you identify key demographics that express interest in your organization and its objectives. You can accordingly design and alter your decision-making and development efforts to appeal to a specific set of people. Your custom research reports can also help you determine efficient ways of appealing to a new demographic.
3. It’s Research Catered to Your Unique Needs
Generic research solutions cannot cater to your organization’s specific needs. For example, suppose you want to assess why a particular section of your key demographic as opposed to a new project you’re proposing. In that case, a general research solution could answer your question for you. It could even offer a potential way to tackle disinterest and opposition to your project.
On the other hand, custom research solutions can break down people’s various objections, offer multiple solutions, and, most importantly, provide solutions that you’re capable of executing. You deliver superior results to your community when you customize research tools and methodologies to reflect your organizational brand and objectives.
4. They Help Build Community Goodwill
If you’d like to know your target audience’s thoughts on your agency, custom research solutions could help you out. What do people associate with your brand? How do different demographics feel about your services? What do you need to do to improve the passenger experience? These are all questions that effective custom research solutions could help you answer.
You can conduct interviews and surveys, organize group discussions to understand the needs of your community and determine the best ways for your organization to fulfill those needs. To increase support for your brand and expand into untapped sections of your community, you need to work based on bespoke reports that answer specific questions you have.
Let your community know you’re here to serve them by building a brand image and story that caters to their needs and concerns.
What Does ComEngage Offer You?
ComEngage offers a range of research solutions to fit your organizational needs. However, we understand that sometimes you will need custom research solutions to provide data-driven insights for a specific issue.
Custom research solutions have been our bread and butter for decades. We can design solutions to help you measure potential support for planned ballot initiatives or if you require a human needs assessment. We also offer surveys for business community development, department-specific long-range planning, and employee research efforts.
Our work has been peer reviewed and supported by various government regulators, so be rest assured that we strive to provide the best solutions for our clients.
ComEngage offers a range of qualitative and quantitative research solutions using current best practices in research methods and technologies to help better inform your critical decisions. We have worked extensively with local governments and transportation agencies and have a wealth of experience with different research methodologies and analytical tools. Contact us through our website today to engage with us!
