Q+A With the New CEO of American Directions Research Group

We sat down with American Directions Research Group’s new Chief Executive Officer Kevin M. Kelly, for a candid conversation.  We talked about how a well-established research services provider like ADRG is evolving and positioning itself to succeed not only in today’s dynamic research environment, but also about how ADRG will continue their almost 40-year legacy of success long into the future.

Kevin joined American Directions in 2023 following a lengthy selection process both inside and outside of the research industry.  Since the company only had 2 other CEO’s in the 36 years prior to his joining the team, and with a veteran team of executives already in place, ADRG Founder and Chairman Walter Clinton knew the search process had to be deliberate and thorough.  According to Clinton, “The right candidate would have to be able to leverage our knowledge, experience and trust we’ve established with clients, while being very forward-looking in developing new and better ways of meeting clients’ needs.”

Q. Your Chairman Wally Clinton talked a lot about you being the right fit.  What made you see a new home with American Directions?

A. The ability to walk into an established company that has flourished for almost 4 decades, yet still knows it needs to continually evolve and is willing to make the investments and changes necessary is a rare and appealing combination for me.  Startups can be exciting, but to come in with such an established foundation of satisfied clients and an experienced team…to take something great and help make it even better…that is my passion.

Q.  You have only been with ADRG since the beginning of December, but we hear you have been very busy.  Where are you having an immediate impact?

A.  One of the areas I have focused on is making sure the great team of people we have has the tools to meet and exceed our clients’ needs every day.  We need to add value beyond data collection, and really be an extension of our clients’ teams.  I am leading the transition of all telephone, online and multimodal survey interviewing to the Forsta multimodal platform. 

Q.  What is so great about this new platform?

A. Forsta represents a best-in-class market research platform, putting the right tools in the hands of our team – from programmer to interviewer – so that we can put the right, and reliable, data in our clients' hands.

Adopting Forsta gives us a truly integrated infrastructure, improving efficiency and quality across the board – this is key to appropriate sample management and response rates in multimodal surveys.

With the implementation of Forsta, ADRG leaps forward in our capabilities, opening up new service and value-added offerings in online reporting, data aggregation, process automation, advanced analytics, and complex survey methodologies, among others.

Q. So does this immediate focus on tools and systems make you a “tech guy”, or are you a “research guy”?

A.  I would say that any experienced researcher is a little bit of both – it is such a technology-driven industry that it is hard to not live in both worlds.   For my part, I started out my market research career developing online surveys and customer portals at a time when that technology was still new. Gradually, I moved into research leadership and working with clients to design research programs to solve problems.

Regardless of where I was on that continuum, the focus was always – and remains to this day – applying technology as a means to deliver on and exceed the expectations of our clients. 

Technology has evolved immensely since those early days, but that means we have better and smarter tools at our fingertips to provide best-in-class research for our clients.

Q. What gets you excited about the future of ADRG?

A.  I was lucky enough to have inherited a great team, and I’ve really enjoyed working with them to envision the possibilities for ADRG and for our clients. Hardly a day goes by where  we don’t come up with new and exciting ideas to provide value for our clients.  The team is excited, and I’m confident that our  clients will be excited as well.  We have been honored to have earned their trust for 37 years now, and we are working to serve them better in the coming years.

American Directions Welcomes New Chief Executive Officer

American Directions Research Group (ADRG) today announced that its board of directors has appointed 23-year research industry leader Kevin M. Kelly as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Mr. Kelly will also join the American Directions board of directors upon assuming the role.

 Mr. Kelly is a highly respected CEO and industry veteran with more than two decades of survey insights, technology and leadership experience.

 “Kevin is a proven leader with a distinguished track record of technological innovation, talent development, and wide experience in the survey research insights business. He will continue the evolution of our services to clients with a focus on operational execution,” said Walter Clinton, Chairman of American Directions. “One of Kevin's key strengths is the ability to integrate his technological expertise into the product/service development process to expand offerings needed by our clients” Clinton added.

 “I am honored to join American Directions Research Group as its next CEO,” says Mr. Kelly. “ADRG is a respected brand with an exceptional commitment to  innovation and quality service delivery, and I look forward to building on this foundation  to guide the company into its next era of evolution and business success. "

 Most recently, Mr. Kelly served as the U.S. Chief Operating Officer for global healthcare research firm APLUSA.  Prior to that, Kelly held leadership roles with research firms RG+A, Healthcare Research and Analytics as well as Buzzback and Macro International. 

 Serving clients for 36 years, American Directions Research Group has conducted telephone, online, mail and in-person surveys for a wide variety of businesses, Federal government agencies and other organizations seeking critical information needed to make decisions, grow or retain customers or accomplish their mission. All operations are completely and exclusively based in the United States.

Why Telephone Interviewers Are So Important to Your Project (And How We Recruit Great Ones)

Telephone interviewers are truly the unsung heroes in market research projects. This type of interviewing is much more than making calls and collecting answers, especially today when respondents have so little patience and so many demands for their attention. From putting the respondent at ease to controlling the pace of the interview to effortlessly probing for more in-depth insights, there's an art to the role. And it's just the right blend of natural skills and training that enables great telephone interviewers to collect quality data that will help inform business decisions. That's what makes them so essential to market research projects and, at the same time, so hard to find. Here are our tips for recruiting and retaining great telephone interviewers at ADRG.

Qualities of a Great Telephone Interviewer

As mentioned above, when it comes to the qualities of a great telephone interviewer, we believe it's a mix of natural ability and training. Theresa Anderson, ADRG's National Director of Operations, shares, "When I'm looking at people for this job, I know this sounds so simple, but do they have a friendly voice? Also, do they know how to use their voice with inflection? For example, when they get to scale questions, or they're going to have to prompt at different times, can they use inflection to get respondents to understand what we're going to be asking them to do? Then, being able to enunciate anything that we have to pronounce to make sure we're clear is really a key there."

While Anderson notes that prior experience on the phone, like in customer service, helps, it's not a prerequisite because you can "certainly train on the rules, accessing the system, navigating scripts, respectfully controlling the tempo of interviews, entering verbatims, and diffusing challenging interactions, whereas with those natural abilities, you have them, or you don't."

What's more, "People laugh when I say this, but it's so true; you have to like talking to people and be interested in what they say for a telephone interviewer to be successful and come across as genuine," states Anderson.

How to Find Telephone Interviewers

In the market research industry today, it may seem like finding people with the qualities above who want to be telephone interviewers is like finding that ‘needle in a haystack.’ We certainly experience the challenge ourselves, but ADRG has successfully recruited the right people for the role by focusing on people who need part-time, supplemental income, and flexible schedules, specifically among audiences that include college students and retirees.

Anderson states, "College students, to me, are fantastic. They need flexibility because schedules change every semester, and we can accommodate that with them. Plus, as a telephone interviewer, you'll learn skills you can take into your life and other jobs; that's a selling point for them."

"Retirees are another good option," she continues. "So many people want to work remotely today, but retirees love to come into the office. It gives them purpose and connection. At break time, they talk to colleagues or meet up for breakfast or after work, and that's important to them. And they're just great employees: intelligent, hard-working, and more tech-savvy than you would think.”

For recruiting, we use traditional methods like employee referrals, job boards like Indeed, and the company website. But, to reach potential college students and retiree candidates, we also take a more "boots on the ground approach." Anderson shares, "We'll go into the community where they live or spend time. For example, I've actually advertised in subdivision newsletters. We'll form relationships with local colleges and work with them to get the word out about telephone interviewing positions. And, of course, for college students, whenever we can use social media to connect, we do."

But when it comes down to it, to consistently find great telephone interviewers, "We have to constantly evolve and optimize our recruiting strategy whether it's the audiences we go after or how we reach them," Anderson says.

Retaining Great Interviewers

Realistically, there will be turnover, given the nature of the role and who we recruit. But we minimize it as best we can in several ways. Anderson states, "I make sure that candidates really understand the job upfront. Also, you have to have good training. I don't mean by the lengths of days; you have to have good support. Continuing training is key, too, making sure they feel supported so they keep growing. But often, what tips the scale in our favor is the great environment at ADRG. When people are happy, fulfilled, and the role fits their lifestyle, they'll stay."

What Our Telephone Interviewers Have To Say

Perhaps the best way to communicate the importance of the role in market research projects and to the respondents and interviewers is to go straight to the source. Here's what some of ADRG's interviewers had to say about what makes them great telephone interviewers.

"I believe that what makes me a good interviewer is my willingness and ability to talk to people. I enjoy speaking with different people and try to be sure and keep the tone of my voice upbeat. If people truly think you are interested in what they say, they are more apt to talk with you. I also make sure to thank them several times during an interview, which I believe makes them feel as if they are doing something good for their community or country."
-Kellie M.

"I think what helps my interviewing skills is that I enjoy talking with people I encounter daily, whether during my daily walk or at the stores, businesses, or professional offices I visit. I try to smile at people and make "small talk" whenever appropriate. This sharpens my "people" skills for when I am interviewing on the phone."
-Mark S.

"When I call respondents, I really try to make a human connection with them. They are sharing their time with me, and I try to show them how much I appreciate that. First and foremost, I try to be pleasant, engaging, and personable. For example, when a respondent is juggling a baby while being interviewed, I will tell them at the end that it was a pleasure listening to their little one."
-Jacqueline S.

"When I walk into "my office," I leave everything else at the door. At this point, nothing else matters. Even if I've had the worst day ever, I know I will eventually get someone on the phone who will make me smile."
-Tana G.

"I don't know if it's anything specific I am doing besides being professional and polite. I have had people say to me many times it's my voice ¾ the sound or tone. They feel it's calming or trusting.
-Heather S.

"No matter how good or bad my last call was, I go into EACH call as if it's my first, with the same energy right up until the last call."
- Ebonee B.

"I am always nice. A friendly voice or a kind word can go a long way. I always thank the respondent a few times during calls (especially long ones) and move quickly but accurately. I smile when I dial! I always try my best, take my job seriously, and remember to have fun while dialing.
-Jamie B.

While we are proud of our size and systems, our clients tell us that what sets us apart from other data collectors is our people, of which our telephone interviewers are a large part, and we wholeheartedly agree!

For over 35 years, ADRG has prided itself on having the best telephone interviewers in the industry. We employ hundreds of personnel from coast to coast and maintain numerous interviewing centers, as well as a large team of remote agents, throughout the United States. These facilities house hundreds of interviewing stations, each equipped with the latest in multimodal survey technologies.

For more information on how we could put our telephone interviewing expertise to work for you, contact ADRG today at (866) 968-7224 or info@americandirections.com

How Survey Research Is Helping to Improve Mental Health and Reduce Suicide Among Veterans

As suicide rates and mental health struggles continue to plague veterans after returning home, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) works to improve its programs to help them transition. Part of that effort is the Veterans Outcome Assessment (VOA), a survey that has been conducted annually since 2017. American Directions Research Group (ADRG) has conducted telephone data collection for this survey since its beginning. Here’s why the insights found from speaking to veterans about their mental health care experience are so important.

Clay Hunt’s Story

Clay Hunt joined the Marine Corps in 2005 and deployed to Fallujah, Afghanistan, in January of 2007. During that deployment, Clay was shot in the wrist by a sniper’s bullet. During that same deployment, he watched a fellow Marine sustain a mortal gunshot wound.

He recovered, went to sniper school, and then re-deployed with the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, to Afghanistan in 2008, before the troop “surge,” and was spread across 10,000 square miles in Helmand and Farah provinces. Sixteen Marines and a Navy corpsman were killed in combat there, and scores more were wounded.

Clay left the Marine Corps shortly afterward. He struggled with depression, panic attacks, and posttraumatic stress but threw himself into veteran’s advocacy and humanitarian work, even traveling to Haiti in 2010 with other Marine veterans to help after a devastating earthquake. He focused on helping other veterans who, like himself, were struggling with mental health conditions.

Then it was over. Clay died by suicide in Houston in 2011. Family and friends said he had been battling the VA to get help as he struggled to find employment and his marriage unraveled.

Clay Hunt’s story exemplifies how men and women often return from war without sufficient support to help them transition from combat to life back home. Many were unable to cope and lost their lives as a result. Clay’s story also brought to light the urgency that was needed to address these issues. The Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act was passed in 2015 to do just that. It helps veterans experiencing mental health issues such as PTSD or depression and improves the VA’s mental health care and suicide prevention programs.

The Veterans Outcome Assessment Survey

Beginning in 2017, ADRG was awarded the first contract to conduct telephone survey data collection for the Veterans Outcome Assessment Survey (VOA). ADRG has conducted a new wave of this survey annually since then. ADRG’s superior execution of the initial contract led to a sole-source award for the next period of performance. Annually, ADRG contacts a random sample of veterans to inquire about their experience with mental health care. The survey is administered by telephone to tens of thousands of veterans each year at the time when they are beginning treatment in a mental health program and again after three months.

During the course of the telephone interviews, specific questionnaire modules help identify veterans who may be at risk of suicide. In these cases, ADRG interviewers (all of whom have undergone Human Subjects Testing training and are under the supervision of a Ph.D.-level Clinical Director) will transfer the veteran to intervention personnel staffing the Veterans Crisis Line.

Impact of the Survey on Mental Health Among Veterans

This survey complements VA's evolving program in measurement-based care by providing additional data that can be useful for program evaluation, including assessments of patients who have not been seen for ongoing mental health care. VOA findings confirm differences in outcomes between patients who have continued to be seen for treatment and those who have not.

For example, patients who reported discontinuing care because they did not want or need treatment improved more. Those who discontinued due to problems improved less than those who remained in treatment. The VA has since used this data to consider strategies needed to improve veteran satisfaction.

Supporting Veterans Is Part of Who We Are

American Directions Research Group has been a veteran-owned business since its founding in 1987. While all of our clients are meaningful to our team, the work we do on behalf of our nation's heroes means the most. We look forward to continuing this important work.

For additional information on this survey or our telephone data collection capabilities, contact ADRG today.

If you are a Veteran in a mental health crisis and you’re thinking about hurting yourself—or you know a Veteran who’s considering this—get help right away. You’re not alone.

The ‘Almost’ Silver Bullet of Market Research Methodology

What’s the best method in which to survey respondents? For years the consensus was telephone, then online became the go-to method with intercepts or in-person interviewing somewhere in between. But the truth is there’s no silver bullet methodology. Never has been, never will be. The fact is that each method has its pros and cons, which is why we assert the next best thing to a silver bullet is multi-modal research. Here’s how it can give you more robust insight than any stand-alone method.

Why Live Phone Interviewing Is Still Relevant

Before we get to the benefits of a multi-modal approach, let’s address what some would call the dinosaur in the roomtelephone research. Many have been claiming its extinction for years, but the method is still very much relevant today. Why? Because the context and nuances found in spoken words cannot be matched online. Yes, your questions will be answered, but the tone can be too easily misinterpreted in written words, not to mention there’s often much left unsaid in the interest of brevity. What’s more, you miss the chance to probe, clarify, and expand on those open-ended responses like you can in a live phone interview leaving potential insights untapped.

Comparing Online and Telephone Research

Now let’s compare additional pros and cons between online and telephone research methods.

Telephone Research

Pros

• Accessibility – Most people have access to a phone, whether mobile or landline.

• Quality control – Trained interviewers help ensure the validity and reliability of the responses, and CATI software improves sample and quota management in addition to eliminating the need for additional data processing, thereby reducing the chance of error.

• In-depth insights – Again, the ability to have a live discussion that often results in deeper insights.

• Cost – Less expensive than in-person interviewing.

Cons

• Response rate – People don’t like to be interrupted by phone calls, and response rates have declined over time when calls from unanswered numbers are ignored.

• Restrictions – There are increasingly stringent restrictions on contacting consumers, particularly using predictive dialers.

• Lack of visual cues – Body language adds additional context and is missing in telephone research.

Online Research

Pros

• Cost – Typically lower cost than telephone and in-person interviewing.

• Response rate – The convenience of online surveys often improves response rates.

• More honest feedback – Anonymity provided online can result in more honest feedback.

• Time savings – Online surveys can be created and data collected in less time than other methods.

Cons

• Lack of non-verbal cues – Not only do you miss body language cues online, but voice cues as well.

• Lack of in-depth insights - Responses are often limited by a preselected list of answers, which provides little flexibility for the open-ended questions.

• Fraud – More likely for unscrupulous respondents to speed through surveys, repeatedly take surveys, etc., in order to receive the incentive.

• Accessibility – Some population groups may not have internet access, although that is becoming less of an issue over time.

When it comes to in-depth interviews, the most significant advantage is the deep insights that can be gained. However, they are often restrictive due to cost, as travel and interviewer time can add up quickly.

Multi-Modal Brings the Best of All Methods

With a multi-modal research approach, you can bring several data collection methods together. This allows you to overcome where online, telephone, and/or intercepts lack while capitalizing on their strengths to achieve your research objectives. The result is deeper, more holistic insights within the most cost-effective budget and most efficient timeline.

We have extensive experience in this research approach and maintain numerous interviewing centers with hundreds of stations, each with full multi-modal (phone/online/text) integration as well as a large team of remote agents throughout the United States.

For more information on how we could put our multi-modal research expertise to work for you, contact ADRG today at (866) 968-7224 info@americandirections.com !

Voice of the Customer Research Is Better When You Actually Hear the Customer’s Voice

There’s no question that brands face more fierce competition today than ever before, but they also face consumers who demand more from the products and services they choose. As such, it’s crucial to understand customer satisfaction (or lack thereof), and voice of the customer (VOC) research has become the go-to method in which to do so. However, over the years, much of this research has moved online. But is there still a place for live telephone interviews in VOC? Yes! And in this post, we’ll explore how live discussion can bring invaluable insights to the table that might otherwise go unnoticed and why you should use it to augment other types of data collection in your VOC research.

Evolution of VOC Research from Telephone to Online Data Collection

There are a few of us in the research industry still around who remember the days when online data collection came on the scene. In the early 2000s, online data collection was still a bit of a novelty. The benefits were enticing potential cost savings, time savings, and better response rates were some of the big ones touted but the jury was still out. However, by 2017, for the first time, online surveys constituted the majority of all quantitative survey modes implemented worldwide, according to ESOMAR’s 2018 Global Market Research Report, as reported in AAPOR’s Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology. VOC research reaped those online data collection benefits, sure, but what was often missing when the surveys were only done online was the context and nuances of the customer and their experience behind the written word.

What Voice Can Tell You That Text Can’t

We all know how easy it can be to misinterpret the tone of an email or text, and in the interest of brevity, there’s often much left unsaid. The same holds true for online surveys; your questions may be answered but were there more you should have asked or would have asked if you’d had additional context?

This is where live telephone data collection can add tremendous value. Not even necessarily as a replacement for online, but instead to augment it. For example, if you uncover trends or if customer satisfaction scores are declining, being able to ask open-ended questions – where you can probe, explore and clarify - can help you understand the ‘why’ behind the data.

Best Practices for VOC Research

We recommend a multi-modal approach for VOC research that includes telephone, online, and perhaps intercepts, as well, to gain the most insight from your customers. ADRG maintains numerous interviewing centers with hundreds of stations, each equipped with the latest in multimodal survey technology as well as a large team of remote agents throughout the United States.

With deep experience in industries such as advertising, non-profits, banking, finance, fast-moving consumer goods, education, government, retail and supermarket, technology, travel and tourism, transportation, and utilities, we survey millions of Americans each year.

Whether it’s serving as a reality check to validate or calibrate what you’re seeing in your VOC research or to more thoroughly investigate customers' expectations, wants, and preferences, telephone data collection is here to stay. We can’t tell you how often a client has hired us to look at one problem, but when we talk to their customers, we find other challenges or opportunities we didn’t intend to discover. As the saying goes, “And that’s why they call it research.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW WE COULD PUT OUR SURVEY DATA COLLECTION CAPABILITIES TO WORK FOR YOU, CONTACT ADRG TODAY AT (866) 968-7224 OR EMAIL INFO@AMERICANDIRECTIONS.COM

The Biggest Data Collection Company…You’ve Probably Never Heard Of (The Story of ADRG)

Like any industry, market research has some key players. Some are household names, while others, even after conducting millions of survey interviews, have remained relatively unknown. American Directions Research Group (ADRG) has been one of the key data collection providers in the industry, quietly plugging along in the background, and providing businesses with critical information needed to make decisions for over 35 years. While ADRG is a name you may not recognize (it’s OK, we won’t tell), there’s a good chance you’ve benefitted from our insights in the past or could yet today.

How does a company succeed for so long?  Let’s start at the beginning…

History of ADRG

Our founder, Wally Clinton, is a long-time (Hall of Fame) political consultant and in the course of his work, often relied on survey data collection from other companies.

Over time, he realized he needed a higher level of attention to detail, project service, and in general, better data collection project execution. A perfectionist, he took the adage, “If you need something done right, you gotta do it yourself,” to heart and built an integrated survey research data collection division as a part of his business.

That was way back in 1987…since then, American Directions grew from our home in Washington DC into a nationwide survey research data-gathering network. This evolution of survey research eventually eclipsed political consulting, and today ADRG is focused exclusively on providing the actionable data our clients need to solve critical business problems, make decisions, or better understand their targets (voters, members, or customers).

We employ hundreds of personnel from coast to coast in multiple interviewing centers, as well as a large team of remote agents, proudly and exclusively here in the United States. The interviewing stations are each equipped to handle the latest in multimodal survey technologies.

While we are proud of our size and systems, our clients tell us that what sets us apart from other data collectors is our people…in particular our Project Managers. These are the folks who make sure our clients’ projects get done the way they expect, on time and on budget. Our unique long-tenured team of project managers knows that this means watching projects late into the evening and poring over quotas and sample reports. The pleasantly “unique” part is, they really take pride in and enjoy this difficult work and long hours. They are acutely aware of the impact data collection can have on a project’s outcome.

Our Client Focus Continued After We Hired a client…

At least that’s the case with Jerry Karson, our Chief Marketing Officer. He was initially a client of ours. For years, Jerry was a VP of Operations for a major multinational, full-service research company overseeing hundreds of thousands of hours of data collection at their own facilities, but often during busy periods, he had to outsource data collection work to outside firms.  As a result, Jerry had the opportunity to work with just about every survey vendor in the industry.

As a customer of data collection, he heard all the excuses and unrealistic promises that made his job even more challenging, and after working with so many, “ADRG became the vendor that I trusted most. They were realistic about capabilities, delivered what they said when they said, the Project Managers were great and I knew I could count on them, which meant I was finally able to focus on my other project priorities”.

When an opportunity to partner with ADRG full-time arose, he came on board. Over the last 20 years, Jerry has continued to carry that client-focused vision forward. That’s client satisfaction at its finest!

Survey research data collection is a tough business where the data collector’s reputation is on the line with the results of every project.  For a company like ADRG to last over 35 years in this business is a testament to our commitment to client satisfaction, coupled with a non-stop push to innovate and evolve.  We’re proud of our success, and while we may have kept a low profile all these years, wanted to share our story.

For more information on how we could put our survey data collection capabilities to work for you, contact ADRG today at (866) 968-7224 or email info@americandirections.com