To research or not to research; that is the question!

With the current economic climate, organisations are often left to wonder where they can save money and how they can cut costs. But can research really help organisations to save money? Albert Szent-Györgi, a Nobel Prize winner, famously said: “Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.” Research enables an organisation to accumulate facts, critical information and insights as well as reach new conclusions. As we all know, you cannot fix something if you don’t know it is broken. The same goes for saving money. You can’t save money within an organisation if you do not know how to save it.

“At Reputation Matters we believe that if you treasure it, you’ll measure it,” says Chanell Kemp, reputation specialist at Reputation Matters, specialists in reputation measurement and management. The Repudometer® is their proprietary reputation model which allows them to quantify an organisation’s reputation by gauging stakeholder perceptions.

There are three clear advantages to measuring your reputation:

1. Quantification: The percentage rating proves the extent to which people want to do business with your business and how much they trust your offering. “If your organisation has an excellent reputation score, it shows that you have a good relationship with your stakeholders and that people want to be associated with you and do business with you,” explains Kemp.
2. Identification: “We help businesses to measure the strength of the relationship with their stakeholders and help them to identify what is building or hindering current relationships. Through this research process we find ways for the business to build even closer connections with their stakeholders. Our research has proved that there is a clear relationship between a positive reputation score and a healthy bottom line,” adds Kemp.
3. Recommendation: “‘Data dumping’ isn’t what we do. We will provide you with practical solutions to take your reputation to the next level,” shares Kemp.

Before saying ‘No’ to research, consider the following analogy: would you say ‘No’ to servicing your car? Taking your car in for its annual service is key to identifying possible problem areas before they occur in order to have a safe journey, save you money and to prevent you from incurring unwanted costs. The same goes for your organisation: don’t wait until your reputation is broken beyond repair before trying to fix it. “Conducting research not only assists organisations with identifying possible problem areas, but helps build on the strengths that already exists within the organisation,” concludes Kemp. Conducting research on an annual basis can drive your reputation forward.

For more information on Reputation Matters and to measure your reputation, contact research@reputationmatters.co.za or visit www.reputationmatters.co.za. Follow Reputation Matters on Facebook (@yourreputationmatters) or Twitter (@ReputationIsKey).