A truly global workplace offering a great opportunity to gather work experience for our international academic talents!

Why are consumers still not seeing green when they think of forest products? And more importantly, what can you do to change it?

Jessica was already part of the Opticom Family in 2017 and after a few years in the aviation industry, she decided to come back.

A customer survey is a useful tool to gather feedback and develop a greater understanding of your customers, but what really counts is what you do with the results.

At Opticom, we identify trends and educate ourselves constantly. We love learning about different developments both in Sweden and abroad.

To keep broadening our knowledge, we continue with our Learn@Lunch-sessions here at Opticom. These are sessions where anyone in the office can educate all of us on their topic of interest.

It can be easy to think market research or customer satisfaction surveys are best done in house, especially during times of budget constraint. Why pay an external party to do something you can just as easily do yourself? Perhaps because not all surveys are equal…

We’ve discussed the importance of asking the right questions, but the way in which you ask them also counts.

Listen and learn is the first step for understanding needs, challenges, threats, opportunities and success. With years of an ear to the ground on your behalf, you can rely on Opticom to provide the customer perspective you need to make better business.

Unlike many in our line of business, we have our own in-house resources. We don’t outsource interviews, not even locally, let alone remotely. And this is important, providing a level of accountability and quality that can be lost during outsourcing, as Project Manager David Weller explains:

When is a question more than a question? A yes/no answer may help tick the customer-survey-done-box, but true customer insight requires more. That’s why we specialise in asking the right questions and reading between the lines of the answers. 

Maria Isaksson is no stranger to Opticom, having worked with us for almost a decade during her 20 plus years with Stora Enso.

Experience has taught us that the most meaningful interviews are those conducted in the respondent’s native tongue, so at Opticom, we don’t do it any other way. It does mean that when we win a project in Germany, for example, we need native German speakers. Niklas Schulz, Research Supervisor, is an Austrian living in Sweden and began his career with Opticom on just that premise.

When it comes to qualitative research, it’s not just a question of speaking the language. Understanding the respondent’s culture is also key. This can be challenging even within Europe, for example, but crossing continents especially so.

Both the Net Promoter Score (NPS) and a customized barometer using attitude, loyalty, and relative performance ratings can be valuable for measuring customer satisfaction in a B2B setting. However, their usefulness depends on the specific goals and context of your business. Some quick food for thought if you’re wondering which path to choose:

Our latest edition of Forest Insights contains a wealth of valuable information. Discover the perspective of Stora Enso regarding our work and gain an in-depth understanding of our team members and their contributions to market research. Additionally, the selection between the Net Promoter Score(NPS) and a customized barometer for customer satisfaction measure.

In an era dominated by artificial intelligence (AI) and data-driven decision-making, it is crucial to explore the advantages of qualitative interviews as a valuable market research tool. This white paper explains the drawbacks of traditional survey methods, the problems associated with smart cheaters and “AI washing”, while shedding light on the manifold benefits of qualitative interviews, including improved data quality, profound insights, and risk mitigation. It addresses concerns related to data quality in AI-driven approaches and emphasizes the power of qualitative interviews in providing in-depth insights. By embracing imperfection and recognizing the power and limitations of AI, organizations can leverage qualitative interviews to make better decisions.

It’s been a busy six months and as we edge towards Midsummer here in Sweden, I was reflecting on some common threads from recent and ongoing projects. Whatever the subject, one question that often comes up is about our use of the phrase “better decisions”: What do we mean in practice? The term is subjective and depends on the context, but put simply, we’re talking about making choices that result in a better outcome than staying on your current path or one that you might choose without being well informed.

The global research, consulting and communication company Opticom Group is launching Opticom International Talents, a company that will offer staffing and recruitment of talented and qualified professionals with an international background and expertise.

As the world transitions to decarbonized energy systems, emerging long-duration energy storage technologies will be critical for supporting the widescale deployment of renewable energy sources.