TThe team at Quorus Consulting has designed and managed countless surveys on behalf of private, public and not-for-profit clients. Let us work with your team as you plan your next study – we can take care of your project from beginning to end with our complete quantitative research consulting services:

Questionnaire Design

Most decision makers are familiar with the concept of a survey – what it generally looks like and what purpose it serves. However, overlooking small details can have a huge impact on the integrity of a study. Far too many decision makers are not intimately familiar with such things as the science of sampling, the hazards of the various biases that can creep into any study, and advanced analytical techniques. In fact, the process of crafting the questions themselves is fraught with all sorts of pitfalls. For instance, basic question wording, use of open-ended questions, the importance of randomized statements, the length of the survey itself, the selection of one answer scale over another – all of these will have an impact on how the respondent answers and ultimately how the results should be interpreted…and we haven’t even broached the data collection medium! 

Methodology Design

The surge in online research has many debating its virtues and its limitations in comparison to more traditional telephone and self-complete / mail surveys. And where do intercept surveys fit in? Needless to say, how the data is collected is as important a consideration as who is targeted for the study and which questions are asked.

Data Collection

Quorus can coordinate quantitative studies of any size, including, but not limited to:

ONLINE SURVEYS: Quorus can undertake a range of online studies in-house when defined lists can be obtained (e.g. employees, specific stakeholders, etc.). Additionally, online panel samples are available to us should the projects target audience depend on them.

TELEPHONE SURVEYS: Whether the target audience is in Canada or internationally, Quorus is able to coordinate data collection via telephone through our trusted research partners, regardless of the sample size required, or the target audience’s profile complexity.

OMNIBUS SURVEYS: There are a handful of companies that we turn to when our clients require general population telephone or online Omnibus services. Most are national in scope and operate a weekly schedule. Each week, the sample consists of 1,000 adult Canadians, with regional over samples, but weighted to be representative of the national, adult population as a whole. Gender quotas are also in place to obtain a 50/50 split from each region. The sampling approach has even started taking into consideration the significant use of cell phones among Canadians by ensuring a minimum number of completed interviews are done using cellular phone numbers.

ONSITE INTERCEPT SURVEYS: Quorus can coordinate onsite intercept studies for data collection/recruitment at locations such as malls, retail outlets, cultural, heritage and tourist sites and virtually any other type of site in Canada requiring surveying.

Data Analysis and Results Reporting

Quorus consultants have extensive experience analysing data sets, conducting statistical routines, and weighting data to provide an accurate measure of a study population and address the research objectives accurately. Results are provided to our clients in the format that best suits their needs, ranging from topline memos, to detailed data tables to a tabulated form as well as summary text reports with supporting graphicsa dynamic onsite presentation of the findings to your leadership team by one of our senior researchers

QQuorus Consulting Group Inc. (“Quorus”) is committed to maintaining the security and privacy of the information we collect from the public or that we receive from our clients in the context of any survey (telephone-based, Web-based, mail, or face-to-face), focus group, interview, or other type of study in which we are involved.

Our staff is trained to respect the rules of data integrity and confidentiality, and to abide by the terms of the federal Privacy Act, and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), as outlined on their website at: http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/P-8.6/.

Quorus is an accredited member of the Canadian Research Insights Council (CRIC), an organization that sets market research industry standards to which member companies must adhere, and which also protects your privacy.

We take privacy seriously.

When you participate in a Quorus study, your anonymity is assured. Any personal information we may have used to contact you, such as a phone number or an email address, is never included in the client deliverables, a client is never in a position to identify the respondent or connect responses to a specific individual. No individual information will ever be released, to protect anonymity, unless the following criteria are met:

• Information that would allow the client sponsor to specifically identify the respondent can only be shared if express consent has been obtained by said respondent. In obtaining the consent, the respondent will have been clearly explained which information will be shared and how that information would be used. When personal information that has been collected is to be used or disclosed for a purpose not previously identified, the new purpose shall be identified prior to use. Unless the new purpose is permitted or required by law, the consent of the respondent will be acquired before the information will be used or disclosed for the new purpose
• The only other circumstance under which personal information may be given to a third party is when the firm is obligated under the law to provide such information (e.g. court summons).

We will not, under any circumstances, share, sell, trade, or otherwise transfer any individual information collected by us to any third party, without a respondent’s express permission. Quorus is responsible for personal information in its possession or control and shall use contractual or other means to provide a comparable level of protection while information is being processed or used by a third party.

Quorus will limit the gathering of confidential information to that which is necessary to meet study objectives.

Quorus will never use email addresses provided to us by a client or from the respondent to send 'spam', or unsolicited commercial emails. We will NOT use any personal identifying information (name, telephone, email, address or postal code) to advertise, promote, or market goods or services directly to you.

From time to time, Quorus conducts web-based surveys using a third-party platform. If any cookies are used by a specific Quorus web-based survey, respondents will be notified in the invitation to participate.

Security Safeguards

Quorus shall maintain reasonable and systematic controls, schedules and practices for information, recording (audio and/ or video) and records retention and destruction which apply to personal information that is no longer necessary or relevant for the identified purposes or required by law to be retained. Such information shall be destroyed, erased or made anonymous.

Quorus shall protect personal information by security safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information.

Quorus shall protect personal information against such risks as loss or theft, unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use, modification or destruction, through appropriate security measures, regardless of the format in which it is held.

All of Quorus’ employees with access to personal information shall be required to respect the confidentiality of that information.

All data that Quorus receives, collects and/ or stores are preserved on servers located in Canada. If a specific project requires the use of third party located in or outside Canada, we will provide information on the physical location of their data servers on an as-requested basis. That information is typically available in that specific third party’s privacy policy.

• We work with other companies for the purposes of data processing or market research product development purposes. They are contractually required to keep that information confidential and are not permitted to use this information for any other purpose except to carry out the services that they are performing for us.
• Quorus shall protect personal information disclosed to third parties by contractual agreements stipulating the confidentiality of the information and the purposes for which it is to be used.

Our Website

There are certain types of information about visitors to the Quorus website that are kept by user-logs on the web server. This information includes the pages visited, the IP address of visitors, time spent on the site, etc. This information is used by Quorus to improve our website and manage site traffic. No individual identifying information is collected.

Quorus will never use the email addresses of individuals or companies who contacted us through our website to send 'spam', or unsolicited commercial emails.

Complaints and Contact Information

Quorus shall investigate all complaints concerning compliance with its Privacy Policy. If a complaint is found to be justified, Quorus shall take appropriate measures to resolve the complaint including, if necessary, amending its policies and procedures. The respondent shall be informed of the outcome of the investigation regarding his or her complaint.

If you have any concerns about how your privacy is protected at Quorus, please contact our Privacy Officer by mail at 1937 Portobello Blvd., PO Box 17053, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Additional information regarding your privacy and our company’s legal obligations can also be found at the following websites:

• Privacy Commissioner of Canada's website at www.privcom.gc.ca.
• The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) website at http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/P-8.6/

Quorus will continue to review its Privacy Policy to make sure that it is relevant and remains current with changing industry standards, technologies and laws.

Last updated March 2, 2015

WWe provide all the services needed for the successful implementation of a qualitative project, including developing the moderation guide and the recruitment screener, moderating sessions / conducting executive interviews in both English and French, and delivering an insightful research report.

Our experience spans every form of qualitative research, including, but not limited to:

CONVENTIONAL (IN-PERSON) FOCUS GROUPS: Focus groups remain one of the most popular techniques in opinion research. The idea of convening a small group of customers, voters, teens or whatever may be your audience of interest, in the same room and having them openly discuss key dimensions of your product, service or policy is a very powerful proposition. While focus groups can be a tremendous opportunity for insight exploration, it is only by working with experienced qualitative researchers that you can extract the maximum value from this approach. Are you inviting the right types and number of participants in each session? Are you conducting too few (or too many!) groups for a given project? Are you effectively using visual and audio stimuli? What kind of drill-down techniques are in your moderation guide? Should you be doing one-on-one interviews, dyads, or triads instead? Is your moderator up to snuff? Should you even be doing focus groups to get at the answers you need? These are just some of the many quality control questions you should be asking yourself before each focus group project you undertake. You should also be using these types of questions to help you evaluate research firms you have worked with in the past.

Quorus Consulting can be your single point of contact for all your full-service focus group projects. Whether you are considering evaluating a billboard with youth in Toronto or conducting website usability with young parents in Whitehorse, Quorus Consulting is your focus group one-stop shop. We’ll make sure you are using the right methodology, we’ll design your moderation guide, we’ll moderate all your sessions (French and English!) and we’ll deliver an insightful report. Through its proven network of focus group recruitment and facility service providers, Quorus takes care of all aspects of participant recruitment, incentive disbursement, catering, and facility coordination.
Working with Quorus Consulting for your focus groups allows you to focus on what requires your undivided attention above all – let us take care of the rest!

ONLINE FOCUS GROUPS: State-of-the art real-time, multi-modal, online collaborative technology, such as WebEx, iTracks or GoToMeeting, enables Quorus consultants to conduct focus groups and other qualitative research over the Internet. Participants log into a website from the comfort of their own computers and dial into the voice portion of the virtual focus group by telephone on a toll-free voice teleconference bridge. This allows participants to interact both by voice and within the virtual collaborative web environment. Methodologically similar to traditional focus groups, the online format eliminates the cost, time and fatigue of travel for participants and can convene geographically dispersed respondents. Again, through its proven network of focus group recruitment and facility service providers, Quorus takes care of all aspects of participant recruitment and incentive disbursement.

ONE-ON-ONE ELITE INTERVIEWING: Research assignments and program evaluations often require one-on-one interviews with key decision-makers, influencers, customers / end-users or employees. The objective of these interviews is to elicit the opinions of respondents through open-ended questioning and drill-downs. Unless enough are conducted in one project, results from this type of research should not be used for quantitative analysis. As well, the interviewing scripts are more often than not used as guides rather than as rigid questionnaires typically used for surveys. Given their free flowing nature, one-on-one interviews require an experienced researcher asking the questions – one who knows how to make the most out of the limited time the respondent has allowed us to have.

If you are considering one-on-one interviews, Quorus Consulting can make sure your special respondents are speaking with an experienced researcher and given the attention they deserve, whether they are C-suite executives, members of Parliament or consumers dealing with a sensitive issue. We’ll custom-schedule all the interviews, we’ll design your interview guide, we’ll conduct all the interviews, French and English, and we’ll deliver an insightful report. If your team needs to view some of the interviews, we can coordinate a convenient facility with a one-way mirror using our proven network of focus group facility service providers.
For your one-on-one interviews, you’ll get one-on-one service from Quorus Consulting!

BULLETIN BOARDS: Online bulletin boards provide more depth of insight from a longer period of evaluation. They allow respondents more time to mull over questions/implications (moderator guides are designed in this way), and each participant has time to articulate their responses and provide detailed answers. Also, each participant replies to each question and can provide the breadth of response delivered by 15-20 participants (equivalent to that of 15-20 in-depth interviews). This approach allows both an in-depth interview response and also an element of the dynamic provided in traditional focus groups. It combines one-on-one and group approaches using influenced/uninfluenced questions (e.g., option to answer prior to seeing others responses). We recruit participants, design the discussion guide, host and monitor the bulletin board, and deliver an insightful report. We typically use iTracks for this type of research project.

MODERATION SERVICES:

MODERATOR PROFILE Rick Nadeau, MBA, CAIP

Rick Nadeau is one of our leading qualitative researchers. His bilingual capabilities and his many years of experience make him a valued asset to any qualitative assignment. Whether he is managing qualitative research projects as an executive interviewer or a focus group moderator, Rick fully understands the benefits and limitations of this research approach.

Since his first focus group in 1999, he has been involved in countless consultation initiatives involving every type of audience, ranging from standard general population and consumer focus groups to interviews with select audiences like C-suite executives, senior public servants, business owners and operators, and healthcare professionals.

Rick has also developed a number of strategies and techniques for managing challenging projects that involve focus groups or interviews with unique participants in unique settings – from logistically complex assignments like website usability projects with youth in Whitehorse to sensitive topics like understanding the cancer patient’s journey.

You need to do research in English and in French? No problem. More often than not, it makes sense to have one moderator for ALL your English and French sessions – with Quorus, this is an easy requirement to meet. As a testament to our bilingual capabilities, Quorus is involved in a bilingual capacity in nearly all of our assignments with the Canadian Federal Government. Even other market research firms partner with us on an ad hoc basis to balance out their qualitative team and make sure their end clients benefit from a truly bilingual consulting experience.
As well, members of our team can also support your research needs in Spanish!

TThe team at Quorus has developed deep knowledge and experience in a number of sectors – the following is a sample of the sectors in which we have been the most active over the years:

Government and Public Affairs

As a longstanding supplier to the Government of Canada, Quorus has worked with a number of departments, agencies and related organizations to help them understand how the public and their various other stakeholders feel about public policy issues. More information on Quorus as a Government of Canada Public Opinion Research services supplier can be found here: http://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/rop-por/fournisseurs-firms-eng.html

Telecommunications, Television and Internet Services

We have provided research services to some of the largest service providers in Canada, industry associations, think-tanks and the CRTC, leveraging our intimate familiarity with the constantly evolving technology and service provider landscape to ensure our clients are getting the most accurate read of the market place.

Museums and Tourism

Over the years we have worked with the likes of the National Gallery of Canada, Canadian Museum of Nature, the Canadian Museum of History, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and the Canadian War Museum on research issues related to:

• Exhibit concept testing
• Communications and advertising evaluations
• Content development / Exhibit development
• Website and information architecture evaluations
• Educator program development
• Interactive digital tool development
• Visitor satisfaction.

We like museums so much, we pay for annual memberships to museums to all our staff!

Automotive Industry

Our team has developed a unique understanding of the vehicle servicing industry and has been regularly featured at conferences and knowledge exchange events for the Automotive Industries Association where we have shared our thoughts on our studies: https://www.autoserviceworld.com/change-ahead-unavoidable-attendees-told/

Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Industry

Our team has been involved in numerous studies involving healthcare professionals, patients, caregivers and regular citizens regarding their opinions on healthcare issues, patient journeys, and treatments.