Sterling
Research
Group
Sterling Research Group, Inc. has been an
active local company with a national reach
for almost 30 years. Sterling was founded
in 1987 by Jan and Bill Haueisen, a former
professor of Marketing at the University of
South Florida, who has called St. Petersburg
home since 1989.
With a focus on helping companies pursue
insight and create the perfect experience
for their customers, Sterling provides fullservice
market research and consulting for
a wide range of firms. Among them are one
of the world’s largest hotel corporations, the
largest casino company in the U.S., a very
familiar motor club, restaurants, financial
services firms, healthcare providers and
associations of all kinds. Sterling also has
provided their services to a multitude of
organizations in Tampa Bay, such as the
Morean Arts Center, JMC Development,
All Children’s Hospital, Loews Don Cesar
Hotel and the Florida Aquarium.
Bill & Jan Haueisen
STERLING
RESEARCH GROUP,
INC.
150 Second Avenue N.
Suite 660
St. Petersburg
P. 866.440.6585
sterlingresearchgroup.com
Changes in Market Research
Bill and Jan Haueisen
During its early years, Sterling, which
was one of the largest mailers in St.
Petersburg, collected feedback from its
clients’ customers using paper surveys.
However, the market research landscape
since then has changed dramatically.
Today, consumers are sharing their
feedback quickly via social media and
review websites that use smartphones and
tablets. It has been said that the average
person would tell 10 people about a bad
experience, whereas now they can tell
millions of people, instantly. The ‘Voice
of the Customer’ is being heard through
so many arenas that it is quite difficult for
companies to keep up with all the input
they receive.
It is in this environment that Sterling
succeeds, as they sort through all the
feedback and data to discover the insight
and identify the actions that will have the
greatest impact on improving performance
and the customer experience for their
clients. By using technology in smart ways,
they are able to help their clients learn
from their customers, so that this needto
know information will be available in
the hands of the right people at their firms
instantly. Many former time-tested research
approaches have been largely replaced by
online and mobile surveys that use text
analytics to make sense of a sea of customer
comments and reporting platforms that
are currently available 24/7 from virtually
anywhere.
Impact of Customer Reviews
Sterling has partnered with TripAdvisor
to add Customer Review forms to their
satisfaction surveys. This helps push
reviews directly to the TripAdvisor site.
Recent studies have shown that hotel
ratings on social media sites improve as
more reviews are accumulated. The higher
ratings also lead to higher occupancy rates
and revenue for hotels. This is one example
of the positive outcome for Sterling’s clients.
Competition has never been as fierce as it
is today. Service providers of all kinds find
that competitors exist not only down the
block, but also worldwide on the web. This
environment makes it even more important
than ever to have carefully designed
research to improve a company’s decision
making, as they obtain critical information
that allows them to fully realize all the
opportunities that are available to them. 9
WIN WOLLOFF
76 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016