July 19, 2021
There wasn’t just one sign that the acquisition of Grail Insights was going to be a good fit for Escalent and our clients. There were many. When we shared the news internally, there was instant excitement about the new tools and capabilities we’d be able to offer our clients. Together, Escalent and Grail accelerate growth for our clients by creating a seamless flow between primary, secondary, syndicated, and internal business data streams, providing consulting and advisory services from insights through implementation.
While you already know the many kinds of award-winning, financial services insights we provide, you may not be as familiar with Grail’s work. We asked some of our new colleagues to share projects they are most proud of.
Transforming a Customer Panel into a Goldmine of Insights
While Escalent does our share of financial services research with Insight Communities, Grail did something unique with one of their global financial services clients. The client came to them with an existing community that wasn’t delivering what they needed. Rather than provide another off-the-shelf solution, Grail identified areas that needed to improve. These included updating the current panel set-up and member profiles, a sampling methodology in line with their current research needs, and an innovative member hub portal.
Grail implemented a predictive sampling methodology to better target customers and ensure the right surveys went to the customers most likely to complete them. Grail also introduced greater flexibility into the standard processes, making engagement with the community more agile. To put action behind the insights, Grail also built a multi-skilled team to manage the community and dig deeper and interpret panel responses, turning reactions into strategic direction.
The client transformed their customer panel into a goldmine of insights. The number of surveys run through the community doubled in less than a year and response rates improved by 15%. Most importantly, with seasoned Grail insights professionals managing the community, the client received insightful and actionable findings.
Tapping Into Internal Data to Improve ROI
For more than a decade, a dedicated team of Grail researchers and analysts has been working with one of the leading global financial services providers to optimize internal processes. One recurring engagement helps the client with capacity planning for branches and call center support teams, improving digitization efforts and determining the most successful commission structure to promote success.
In one such study, Grail collected and interpreted data on the time taken to complete specific activities by different roles in branches and call centers. By understanding how much time each task takes, the client could answer strategic questions around staffing and capacity planning for specific roles.
Having a long-standing relationship with the client’s internal stakeholders has given the Grail team a unique and deep insider understanding of how the business works, allowing their solutions to truly support a variety of business questions and provide actionable answers. A combination of primary research, secondary research, knowledge synthesis and optimization, and business process insights helps the client achieve a better return on investment.
Long-Standing Global Research and Dashboards for a Leading Financial Services Provider
A dedicated team of Grail researchers, analysts and programmers has been working with one of the leading global financial services providers for over ten years to support corporate traders and equity research analysts on key investment debates across both developed and emerging markets.
Grail developed and implemented automated solutions to capture, validate, analyze and deliver large volumes of secondary research data to the client. The Grail team has also developed in-house algorithms to monitor and harvest this same data, creating efficiencies for time and ROI. These secondary data, along with insights from primary research also conducted by Grail, are then fed into data visualizations developed and built specifically for the client by the Grail team. Robust dashboards give the client the ability to look at both changes over time and the flexibility to evaluate different scenarios based on key assumptions. With their full time Grail team behind them capturing data globally, these proprietary dashboards make it easy for the client to make Grail’s insights actionable.
Looking to the Future for Escalent and You
We understand the issues our financial services clients are facing. As technology upends the industry, we are on the inside. We talk to the specialized populations that are critical to our clients’ success every single day. And now, through our union with Grail, we have even more tools, capabilities and expertise to guide financial services firms through disruption and move them up and to the right.
We’d love to connect with new and existing contacts to figure out how we can leverage our new capabilities to move your business forward. Click below to send us a note, and we’ll get something on the calendar!
Christopher Barnes
President
Chris Barnes is president of Escalent. He has a deep background in market and public opinion research, including co-founding the Center for Survey Research and Analysis at the University of Connecticut where he led ongoing studies on the business climate presented to regional economists quarterly. He has led studies for many of the nation’s top companies in insurance, banking, wealth and health insurance sectors. His studies have appeared frequently in the national media, including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times and Time cover stories. Chris earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Kenyon College and a master's degree in political science with a concentration in survey research at the University of Connecticut.
