Other Technical Services
Alongside our primary research and technical
services, M·E·L Research is able to provide a number of
other research support services to help clients build their
evidence base.
Field and Tab Data Agency Services
Many organisations do not have their own in-house
fieldwork, data entry or data analysis capability. At M·E·L
Research, we have a retained Field and Data team, which we are able
to offer these capabilities as a resource to other organisations.
Field and Tab services, or contracted data entry and analysis, can
be carried out through our data agency service.
Clients can use our FAD team to undertake the fieldwork aspect
of their project, saving them the costs of having to employ and
train temporary staff to provide this function. Others employ a
highly skilled research team but have no data entry capacity,
therefore FAD can fill this gap.
Analysis and Statistical Advice
Advice on sampling, sample design, error bands and confidence
intervals can be obtained from our social statisticians. It is not
always easy to decide on the right analytical technique - using
parametric or non-parametric tests? Significance testing?
Multivariate analysis to create segments, group data and identify
key drivers? We can advise or perform these routines on your
in-house data.
Community Research Training and Support: make an impact with
E:CAT
Increasingly, clients are looking to develop community research
skills amongst their residents, clients or service users. We have
developed a unique training support package to skill up volunteers
and community members in the skills of collecting evidence
specifically to bring about action and service improvement. Under
the title E:CAT, our Empowering Communities Action Team involves a
cross-cutting group across the company, helping residents learn how
to do field research, community audit and practical action planning
- on neighbourhood management, service redesign, audit and quality
improvement. The emphasis is on achieving results and
community impact, not simply a conventional training course in
skills, competencies and qualifications.
Panel and survey recruitment services
Research is only as good as the respondents who are being
'researched'. If we talk to unrepresentative types of
consumer, the findings can be skewed and we won't have done our job
properly. Agreeing a robust recruitment specification and
screener questionnaire is often overlooked in the haste of a
challenging project, but at M·E·L Research we feel strongly that
this should be made a top priority.
Through the wide social and ethnic diversity of our in-house FAD
team, we are able to recruit the correct target groups to attend a
research session - either through on street, telephone or postal
methods. All candidates are validated and then they receive a
reminder telephone call 24 hours before the session is due to
commence.
We are also highly specialised in accessing the social
groups who tend to engage least with conventional social
research. We use our creativity, insight and persistence
to recruit consumers who might appear to be 'out of reach'.
All of our recruitment work is carried out to the same standards as
our quantitative interviewing, underpinned with the reassurance
that comes with following the Market Research Society's Code of
Conduct.
For further information about any of our other technical
services, contact Dave Ruston on 0121 604 4664 or email dave.ruston@m-e-l.co.uk