“I love the platform, I think it’s amazing. It was intuitive to set up.  I ran through an introduction session with Megan and then just dived in.  I was really impressed with the way that the system integrates everything. There is the video component, you’ve got the discussion guide there that you can refer to on screen and then the way that it captures all information.  It made the data really accessible.”

Kellye Hartman, Marketing and Communications Manager, Australian School of Applied Management

Can you describe your role and how you came into contact with Hearsay?

I am the Marketing and Communications Manager for Australian School of Applied Management (ASAM) working across three brands –  Women & Leadership Australia (WLA), National Excellence in School Leadership Institute (NESLI) and Government & Public Sector Learning (GPS Learning).  We provide world class leadership development programs across Australia for different audiences.

I came into contact with Hearsay through Megan who I met through the Melbourne Business School when we were doing a course together.  We stayed in touch. I was really excited to hear about this new technology that would allow us to access good quality in-depth research without the sort of agency fees and timelines we have paid in the past.

Is anything that prompted you or anything in particular that prompted you to need a customer research tool like Hearsay?

There was a change in what we were seeing in the market and we wanted to explore what that meant for NESLI.

There has obviously been a lot going on affecting schools and teachers during the pandemic and we wanted to learn about all the different experiences in all states.  We were only getting a snapshot of Victoria.

It was a desire to get closer to our market instead of making assumptions about what was going on.  And the opportunity to do this sort using Hearsay meant that we could do it quickly and responsively with a fairly small budget.  We hadn’t budgeted for market research this year, but we were able to fit it in with Hearsay.

Was there an existing process or tool that you used for these kinds of conversations before?

We conducted an online survey first, which we managed in house through Survey Monkey.  It was something that we could do relatively quickly.  That was effective but we did realize that we wanted to unpack some more of those findings.   You know, surveys can do great things, but they don’t always tell you the full picture.

We wanted to talk to some teachers and probe further but didn’t have a big budget so using Hearsay was a natural fit. We explored what was possible and it ticked all the boxes making it an easy decision for us.

Have you enjoyed using the platform and found it to be effective?

I love the platform, I think it’s amazing. It was intuitive to set up.  I ran through an introduction session with Megan and then just dived in.

It had all the right prompts, you know, to make us define and sharpen our research questions and it was really easy for me to bring my team in and set them up as interviewers.

I was really impressed with the way that the system integrates everything. There is the video component, you’ve got the discussion guide there that you can refer to on screen and then the way that it captures all information.

So as the project manager, I could jump back in and have a look at the conversations that had happened, the notes that people are taking, the WOW Moments and the things that they thought were interesting.

It made it really accessible. Because I have only worked with agencies before, I’ve never been that close to the data but to be able to dive in and have a look at it firsthand was amazing.

We love that!  You know our mission is all about encouraging our clients to get closer to their own audiences and we believe customer intimacy is key to brand success.  What would you say to other Corporates who claim not to have time to do this work?  Talk to customers themselves?

It would have been challenging for me to fit 10 interviews into my schedule over a week or two, but we spread it out over five team members.  Each team member only needed to commit to two hours over a 10 day period.

To use our internal resources to do this work was quite achievable. And then for me as the project manager, I guess it was just about putting together the research questions, doing any consultation that we needed to do internally and then from there it was pretty easy.  The bulk of the work was done for me – finding the participants, setting up times and then tagging the key points.  For me it was really an efficient process.

Can you see this platform having a place in your toolkit long-term? Something you will keep returning to?

Yes particularly when when we’re looking at strategic reviews.  I think it’s really helpful to have that level of insight at those points.  It’s certainly something that as a marketer I think it’s just so useful. It’s really unique way to go about research.

You mentioned earlier that you wanted to get closer to the your audience to unpack some survey findings.  Do you feel closer to your customer?

I feel significantly closer. I am relatively new in this role and I haven’t had any direct contact with our market, so to hear from them directly for me was really new.  In fact, as a brand team, it has lifted our awareness and strengthened our knowledge.