Welcome to Insights for Impact by Finch Brands. My name is John Ferreira and I’m the Chief Insights Officer at Finch Brands. Finch Brands is a real-world brand consultancy with services and insights brand strategy and design and we are one of the leading providers of Insights communities. It’s switching season out there for Insights Communities. 

Does your consumer insights community partner have a turnover problem?

Hopefully, you’ve seen some of my other insights recently. Today is part three in a ten-part series talking about some of the frustrations I felt when I was a client of one of the leading insights community providers and things that I hear from others at trade shows who have insights communities.

We’ll talk about how our Insights community offering here at Finch Brands is fundamentally different. It’s different on purpose to be able to solve some of these challenges that are commonly out there. 

Number three on the list is when your partner has a revolving door problem, causing your team to be in a constant state of flux in terms of the people who are helping you accomplish your goals. One of the biggest frustrations of any client who has an Insights community is when your team is constantly changing – and that change is the only constant. 

This is a serious issue within the industry. It’s one that particularly affects insights community providers that may have been acquired and their subsidiaries of larger firms or, in many cases, technology companies that have great software but underinvest in their teams and the employee experience. 

Insights communities need continuity 

From what I hear when I talk to others at trade shows, it’s really only getting worse. But the level of disruption out there is at an all-time high. Lots of companies are being bought and sold, mergers and acquisitions, leadership changes, culture changes, choppy waters that rock the boat essentially. Those choppy waters affect you and they affect your team and the quality of the work that you’re able to accomplish. 

These are all things that contribute to lower employee engagement and high turnover. A lot of these companies are figuring things out for themselves, which makes it harder to be there to help you figure out the things that you need to. The impact can be enormous on insights, community stability, and performance. Communities need continuity. 

There’s the continuity of the data and the knowledge asset that you’re building up. But there’s the continuity of knowledge within the team as well. It’s not that people are never going to move around. People will get promoted. But if it’s a constant thing then you are not going to have the continuity of expertise on your team necessary in order to push your community to the limits of what it can accomplish. 

Ask yourself, “Is there constant turnover on the account team that’s helping me to run the community?” Maybe it’s worth taking a peek at what the GlassDoor reviews look like for your partner to do a brand health check-in, so to speak, on how things are looking. If the answer to any of these questions raises an eyebrow, perhaps you should consider Finch Brands. 

Gain a positive employee experience with Finch Brands

Finch Brands is a real-world brand consultancy and our purpose is to help brands win when it matters most. As a brand consultancy, we certainly have great technology, but our real central point of difference is our people and our team. That’s where we make our biggest investments. 

We prioritize learning, growth, net learning, and growth in the employee experience. It creates positivity and a greater ability to impact your business and contribute to more effective research. The end goal for us is to deliver a great employee experience that retains and grows our employees to then retain our clients by helping them to grow their businesses by pushing the envelope for what can be accomplished within Insights communities. 

If any of this sounds good to you, shoot me a message on LinkedIn or contact our team today. I look forward to connecting!

About the Author

John Ferreira is Chief Insights Officer at Finch Brands, a leading insight-driven brand consultancy. In 2016, John identified the need for a better solution in the insights community space to help solve the pain points he felt when he was a client himself. The result was FinchSight insights communities, which helped Finch Brands grow over 1,000% in the following 5 years by solving real problems for clients. Prior to joining Finch Brands, John spent 11 years at Campbell Soup Company with roles in consumer insights and brand management spanning brands such as Campbell’s Chunky Soup, Prego Italian Sauce, and Swanson Broth.

To stay ahead of the curve, companies need to invest in foresight to make informed bets on the future. This includes environmental scanning, trend and mega trend analysis, technology assessments, and scenario planning.