How Can We Learn Whether the Listeners are Still Happy?

Here is a good example of how you might take one of several approaches to asking a research question.

Listening More or Less

A lot of researchers ask something like "Compared to six months ago, are you listening more, less or the same to KXXX?"

This isn't a great question, because people don't pay that much attention to the amount of time they spend with a station. And they rarely remember accurately how much they listened, in general, several months ago.

What we're really trying to find out is whether they are happier with us or not. And if we've really irritated them, we'd like to know why.

Enjoying More or Less

So we can get closer to this with "Compared to six months ago, do you enjoy listening to KXXX more, less, or the same?"

Sounding Better or Worse

Some researchers use a slightly different question, "Compared to six months ago, has KXXX's programming gotten better, worse, or the same?"

This may be a typical example of left brain versus right brain. In the first version, we're asking for feelings. In the second, we're asking for an intellectual evaluation. In fact, both are probably useful, and if there is a way to include both, you may learn more.

And then, be sure and ask "Why?"

Changes in Preference

If you want to ask about listening more or less, you can, in a limited way. Ask "Thinking back to about six months ago, at that time what radio station did you listen to most?" If the survey participant is going to remember anything, it will which station was in first place in their hierarchy. Needless to say, that is still far from perfect. But it can be instructive, particularly if your "Why?" question yields a coherent reason as to why their #1 choice has changed.

A System for Tracking Popularity Shifts

The best way to track churn is to make it a discipline:

1. Create an in-house tracking effort. Often done in order to provide a screening opportunity for call-out music research, conduct an ongoing telephone survey of station listening and preference.

2. After six months (or perhaps 3 would be more timely and useful) do a follow-up call to respondents to thank them for their participation in the survey and ask them which stations they currently listen to and prefer.

3. After you have accumulated a reasonable number of these interviews, tabulate the changes in listening that have occurred.

An example of how this last technique was very useful:

Because it is, in effect, a panel, we can create a "second opinion" when the ratings don't go our way. A radio station was considering whether to renew the contract of the morning show. A recent Arbitron ratings trend was not very good. However, this tracking technique showed a 15% net increase in "Most"  for the station, and the station chose not to panic. The next Arbitron trend bounced up higher than the first trend had bounced down. And everybody lived happily ever after.

Had the station's own tracking panel found a loss of preference, we would have invited (and paid) people who had abandoned the station in for a focus group. We would have probed for any common reasons for the loss of excitement about the station. And if the common thread had been the morning show, then the outcome could have been very different.