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Archive for the ‘Nick Hague’ Category
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
Following on from the announcement last week that we had been shortlisted for an award at the Greater China Achievement in International Trade Awards 2010, we are thrilled to announce that, from a total of 14 entrants, B2B International was declared runner-up in the China Rising Star category.
Businesses, organisations and education institutions from all across the North West of England were honoured at the ceremony, organised by the Northwest Regional Development Agency and UKTI North West, and held on Friday 12th February 2010 at the Lowry Theatre, Salford Quays.
On receiving the accolade, Alaric Fairbanks, General Manager of B2B International in China, said: “We are delighted to receive recognition from our home region of North West England. The company sees this award as a reflection of the hard work and achievement in providing world class business-to-business market research, not just in China and Asia-Pacific but also around the world.”
Nick Hague, Managing Director at B2B International in the UK, added: “Establishing permanent operations in China three years ago was partly in response to demand from existing clients for high quality market research services covering mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, but at a strategic level was guided by recognition of the globalisation of the market research industry and its customers. Having a permanent presence in China and the wider Asia-Pacific market is seen as essential positioning internationally and is vital in gaining access to these growing markets – in particular to China as the world’s fastest growing large economy.”
Learn more about our China offering at: www.b2binternational.com/China
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Thursday, December 17th, 2009
In our last Thursday Night Insight of 2009, Nick Hague gives us all something to smile about.
Is it me or is it that this time of year brings out the misery in people?
As I tried to get on the tube on Monday, my joyful mood quickly turned for the worst after experiencing the cramped and squalid conditions of the London Underground with busy commuters pushing rudely past each other (I even caught an elbow in the rib cage from an elderly gentleman rushing for a train!).
That night I visited the dentist. Not the perfect end to a day but, as it turned out, it was the most enjoyable part of my day. Firstly, I was greeted by the receptionist who welcomed me in with a smile. Now dentists aren’t my favorite place in the world but as I sat in the waiting room surrounded by gleaming white smiles peering back from the glossy brochures, I realized how nice it was to be on the receiving end of a smile (especially since I had seen such a lack of them down in London). It then took me back to when I lived in the US during my student years and I remembered how the staple of American humor about the UK is the population’s bad teeth (just look at Austin Powers the movie).
I then thought back to the day I had just had and it got me thinking. I came to the conclusion that it isn’t the fact that the English have not learnt the art of smiling or are any ruder than our US cousins (have you ever visited New York?). It is just the fact that we are ashamed to smile because of our badly kept crowns and rotten teeth (I joke only slightly!).
A smile not only changes your mood but it also makes you look more attractive and it is contagious. We humans are wired to respond like for like; just think about it, if you smile at somebody in the street, you are more than likely to receive a smile in return. Although I acknowledge that we can’t all be happy all of the time, we do need to make more of an effort, especially because smiling is a social thing. I recently read about a fascinating experiment carried out in a bowling alley that showed that when people get a strike they do not smile as they watch the ball take down the pins at the end of the alley. It is only when they turn to face their competitors that their faces break into a smile. We smile to communicate a message.
In business, everything we do starts with the customer. Without customers, we would have no work, and with no sales, we would be bankrupt. What would a potential customer think if we solemnly entered a meeting and didn’t smile for the duration? I am pretty certain we wouldn’t win the job.
Earlier this year, the Japanese government took things to the extreme by testing railway workers’ curvaceousness of smiles at 15 railway stations in Tokyo. Workers had their smiles computer tested and those that didn’t meet the perfect smile criteria were directed on how to improve their smile.
Service with a smile is often used within the consumer industry but is that because the market is directly interacting, face to face with the customer and not down a protracted value chain as in business to business markets? Now I am not saying that we need to go as far as the Japanese government but what I am stressing is the importance of customer satisfaction tracking in b2b markets.
As we close the door on 2009 and open a fresh one to 2010, ask yourself one question – What are your customers feeling right now? Are they smiling? What if they aren’t? What can you or your company do to put the smile back on their faces?
For our final Thursday Night Insight of 2009 I want to leave our readers with something. We have all heard the adage ‘It takes a greater number of facial muscles to produce a frown than it does to generate a smile’. Now I am not sure if this is true but here are 10 things that we should all bear in mind as we move into 2010 (especially if you are travelling on the London Underground!):
- Smiling Makes Us Attractive
We are drawn to people who smile. There is an attraction factor. We want to know a smiling person and figure out what is so good. Frowns, scowls and grimaces all push people away — but a smile draws them in.
- Smiling Changes Our Mood
Next time you are feeling down, try putting on a smile. There’s a good chance you mood will change for the better. Smiling can trick the body into helping you change your mood.
- Smiling Is Contagious
When someone is smiling they lighten up the room, change the moods of others, and make things happier. A smiling person brings happiness with them. Smile lots and you will draw people to you.
- Smiling Relieves Stress
Stress can really show up in our faces. Smiling helps to prevent us from looking tired, worn down, and overwhelmed. When you are stressed, take time to put on a smile. The stress should be reduced and you’ll be better able to take action.
- Smiling Boosts Your Immune System
Smiling helps the immune system to work better. When you smile, immune function improves, possibly because you are more relaxed. Prevent the flu and colds by smiling.
- Smiling Lowers Your Blood Pressure
When you smile, there is a measurable reduction in your blood pressure. Give it a try if you have a blood pressure monitor at home. Sit for a few minutes, take a reading. Then smile for a minute and take another reading while still smiling. Do you notice a difference?
- Smiling Releases Endorphins, Natural Pain Killers and Serotonin
Studies have shown that smiling releases endorphins, natural pain killers, and serotonin. Together these three make us feel good. Smiling is a natural drug.
- Smiling Lifts the Face and Makes You Look Younger
The muscles we use to smile lift the face, making a person appear younger. Don’t go for a face lift, just try smiling your way through the day — you’ll look younger and feel better.
- Smiling Makes You Seem Successful
Smiling people appear more confident, are more likely to be promoted, and more likely to be approached. Put on a smile at meetings and appointments and people will react to you differently.
- Smiling Helps You Stay Positive
Try this test: Smile. Now try to think of something negative without losing the smile. It’s hard. When we smile our body is sending the rest of us a message that “Life is Good!” Stay away from depression, stress and worry by smiling.
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Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
Market research specialist B2B International appoints three new research executives globally, a positive indicator in light of the current economy, according to director Nick Hague
B2B International appoints three new research executives, two in the UK and another in America: Afshan Bhatti, who previously worked with the Prison Service as a forensic psychologist and member of their research team; Simi Dhawan who gained experience as an interviewer within both the Business and Medical divisions of B2B International in the UK; and Eve Lenkowsky in the New York office, a qualitative research specialist formerly with Maritz.
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Friday, September 11th, 2009
In this week’s Thursday Night Insight, Nick Hague explains why, in his opinion, there will always be a place for small businesses.
Every day, when working in the office, I walk through the precinct close to where our UK office is located to go to our local deli to get my lunchtime sandwich. I have been furrowing this same path for the last 12 years and it still fills me with joy every day as I am greeted and welcomed by the local shopkeepers as if I was part of the family.
I feel highly privileged to work in close proximity to such a thriving local community where the local precinct holds many such shops that vary from clothing, homeware, aromatherapy and shoe shops through to grocers, fishmongers and butchers (and I defy anybody to show me a better butchers than Corrys). However, as our towns and cities are continued to be overrun with the marauding retail giants of Tesco and Walmart, I think it is refreshing to see how our local community (in the face of adversity with the current economic climate) is utilising its owner-managed enthusiasm to deliver a passion and engagement that is now lost from many of the faceless giants of the corporate world.
We have recently completed a piece of research for Business Link in London, speaking to small business owners in the UK’s capital city to find out what impact the credit crunch has had on their business and their future business plans. As expected, a fifth of businesses have been extremely affected by the recession, with 4 in 10 respondents stating that their overall budgets and expenditures have been significantly affected, especially the adverse impact on cashflow, reduced investment and funding, and a decline in national sales. However, even though businesses have been affected, optimism still remains high for the next 12 months with a half of business owners looking to fuel growth through ramping up marketing activity, 4 out of 10 looking to diversify into new markets, and a third looking to launch new products.
Like the local shop keepers where our office is based, I see many smaller business owners putting in superhuman efforts to make their businesses stand out and succeed against the competition in this difficult climate. In these uncertain times, small companies do hold many advantages over larger organizations, with lower central costs and greater awareness of changing trends allowing new ideas to thrive, and flexibility to react quickly to shifting demands.
Over the last 12 years of running B2B International I have experienced the difficulties and tensions as a company rises from humble beginnings into an organization that now has a global presence on three continents. I remember very early on, speaking to one of our research executives, and her saying “Why do want to grow? It is nice to work for such an intimate, family run company.” The problem is, if you always do what you always have then you always get what you have always got – if you are lucky! From our inception through to our current position we have continually fought to be adaptable, innovative and personal as we believe that customer service prevails in today’s competitive environment and that the future belongs to the smaller company. Of course, larger corporations will always enjoy economies of scale along with greater brand awareness and only large companies can carry out industrial production in the industries of automotive, steel, pharmaceutical and utility provision but, as typified by the example of General Motors, even with their large resources, things can still go horribly wrong.
A contrast is the John Lewis Partnership, the British department store and grocery chain. Here the staff really do own the business, and behave like enlightened capitalists rather than bloody-minded union members. It offers world-class service and a lesson in how important it is to keep the customer happy, and herein I think lies the answer. Smaller companies are continually looking to innovate and deliver customer service. They punch above their weight and force larger companies to up their game. In these uncertain times, the smaller business owner will continue to succeed.
STOP THE PRESS! Calling All Small Business Owners In London
We want to know the challenges you are facing as an SME in the current market conditions. Take part in the Business Link in London SME survey and tell us your opinion.
Business Link in London along with B2B International is kicking off its second wave of surveys for its Diverse Business Confidence Index Project. This research will provide an in-depth analysis of how the recession is having an impact on London’s small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).
This survey will be the voice of over 3,000 small businesses in London and the Index will provide a timely and statistically significant insight into how different types of SMEs continue to be affected by the recession and what actions they have taken to combat its effects.
If you are a London business owner and would like to take part in the survey of the Diverse Business Confidence Index then please e-mail dbci@b2binternational.com and include your name, company name and London borough where your business is based.
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Friday, June 19th, 2009
Nick Hague this week takes us on a world tour, explaining why you should never be surprised to get such varied responses to your global customer satisfaction questions.
We tend to have a human instinct that ‘deep inside’ all people are the same – but they are not. Therefore, if we go into another country and make decisions based on how we operate in our own home country – the chances are we’ll make some very bad decisions – Geert Hofstede
After spending what seems like the last few months living out of a suitcase delivering research findings to a myriad of companies in countries ranging from Germany, Belgium, Spain and Ireland to the USA and China, it has hit home to me even more so, how important it is to understand individual country differences. These differences might be cultural, behavioural or attitudinal, but a researcher needs to know what lies behind a given score before making informed recommendations for action. Carrying out international research is all in a day’s work at B2B International!
Enquiries for customer satisfaction and loyalty research have risen in recent months as the global recession bites harder and companies are turning their attention towards retaining their existing customer base. We are often tasked with carrying out customer satisfaction studies that cover multiple geographies. Implementing and evaluating such research requires an understanding of the different cultures and infrastructures within a particular geography; for example will a Chinese respondent answer an unsolicited telephone call or will an e-survey alienate half your target market in Spain? Another complexity that comes up in multi-country studies is making sure a translated questionnaire has the same meaning across multiple geographies. However, one of the most important aspects of carrying out international research is having the insight to why individuals from different countries around the world convey such different ratings; especially customer satisfaction ratings, when receiving a similar if not identical service from the same global organisation.
So my Thursday Night Insight rant this week is about response styles and I pose the question: Why do customer satisfaction response styles differ between countries?
Typically, in any customer satisfaction survey the norm is to use a 10 point scale where 1 means totally unsatisfied and 10 means totally satisfied. When asking this question to customers across different countries I can definitely make the following general observations:
- Anglo respondents e.g. UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Nordic and a number of Western European cultures tend to use all points on the scale
- Across Asia and especially in countries such as China, Hong Kong and Japan, respondents tend to use the middle of the scale and not the extremities of very satisfied or not very satisfied
- Respondents from Latin countries e.g. Italy, Spain, Brazil, Argentina tend to use the end of the scales and are more likely to register higher satisfaction scores overall
However, one point that should be made clear is that these observations are generalizations and what we do see is that respondents from North America typically give higher satisfaction scores than their UK or Western European counterparts. One reason, I personally believe, is down to cultural differences. For example, I have an American colleague who works within our European HQ and on his first day at B2B International he greeted me with the question ‘how are you today?’ to which I replied ‘OK’. He looked aghast and said ‘why, what’s the matter?’ There was no problem or issue but my typical English response led my colleague to think that something was wrong based on our different cultural backgrounds. Therefore, based on these differences, Americans would typically rate a product or service as a 9 or 10 (totally satisfied or excellent) while Europeans would rate a similar issue as a 7 or 8 (an okay, acceptable, satisfactory score). Another reason for higher satisfaction scores in the US could be that Americans are more likely to respond to a survey even when service levels are good and expectations are being met whilst Europeans only respond if the service is poor or they have a gripe to bear – however, this is a personal point of view and so like any good researcher I wanted to know if any external research has been carried out looking at geographical scoring differences.
Supporting the internal B2B viewpoint is a piece of research I came across carried out with 116,000 employees of IBM Corporation operating in more than 40 countries. Using these findings, Geert Hofstede from Maastricht University developed a framework that identified four different typologies based on national culture that impacted on response styles. These typologies were:
Power distance: The degree to which people in a country accept a hierarchical or unequal distribution of power in organizations. Therefore respondents would typically score mid-response ratings and countries showing this type of response style include Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, India, Philippines, China, Brazil, Chile and Mexico
Uncertainty avoidance: The degree to which people prefer structured vs. unstructured situations. Cultures high in uncertainty avoidance prefer unambiguous situations and are therefore more likely to use the endpoints of the scale as opposed to the middle, thus exhibiting an extreme response style. Countries showing this type of response include Belgium, Poland, France, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Korea and Japan
Individualism: The degree to which people in a country focus on working as individuals vs. working together. Cultures high in individualism are less likely to exhibit a middle satisfaction score because they would emphasize their individual opinion as opposed to their perception of the group opinion. Among all the response styles, individualistic cultures may exhibit extreme response styles and include countries such as US, Canada, Australia, UK, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Italy, Hungary and France.
Assertiveness: The degree to which people in a country emphasize traits such as assertiveness and insensitivity to feelings. One could hypothesize that individuals in these cultures would favour more extreme response styles and that “softer,” more “sensitive” cultures exhibit more modesty or middle response styles. Countries that have been categorized as assertive are the UK, Germany, Italy, Hungary and Japan. However, it should be pointed out that Geert’s research is inconclusive with regards to the impact of this dimension on response scores.
In conclusion, the key takeaways are thus. Every business needs a feedback loop to assess their performance and provide an ongoing measurement and benchmark for future progress. Customer satisfaction surveys are excellent at delivering this feedback, but different country cultures do impact on responses and response rates and so, when analyzing international research findings, a researcher needs to use their knowledge and judgement to whether a response is based on different levels of performance, or simply because of a result of cultural difference.
In the future, when comparing international customer satisfaction research findings, it might be useful to take the following three steps:
- Compare internal satisfaction scores for a particular country and avoid cross-country comparisons; for example, comparing county or state satisfaction scores within your country
- Compare same country results relative to previous waves of research and so benchmarking changes and improvements
- Make sure that your customer satisfaction survey is not just quantitative in design. The customer satisfaction toolbox is wide and varied and it is just as important to find out qualitatively what a customer does and doesn’t like and any future changes that need to be made over and above a scalar response to ‘overall, how satisfied are you with the service delivered?’
Finally, to wrap up this week’s ramblings I should point out that when it comes to customer service and customer satisfaction, one issue that transcends all geographies is that it is imperative that the customer is listened to, and feels valued and cared for. Relationships are key in any business to business market throughout the world, and so invest in your people as they are the face of your business and typically are the driving force behind excellent satisfaction scores whether you are based in Torquay, Tokyo or Timbuktu.
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