ISSIP.org will help university faculty and students gather research data….

The International Society of Service Innovation Professionals (http://www.issip.org)  is being established to help promote service innovation in our interconnected world.  The objectives include professional development, education, research, practice, and policy.

To help faculty/students get a good cross sampling of responses to their surveys (see Coverage Slide #12)
http://www.slideshare.net/spohrer/issip-intro-20121022-v11

We ask the faculty and students to join ISSIP.org to broaden the set of those willing to help with gathering survey data on a range of topics related to service systems, from business to governments to universities to non-profits..

As you can imagine I get many requests from faculty and students to participate in interviews for university projects…

First, I request that the faculty/student create a SurveyMonkey version of the questions they wish to ask me and others from industry.

Reminding them of how busy people from industry are, so a survey that takes 5 minutes will get twice as many people as a survey that takes 10 minutes to fill out.

I provide them with examples, in case they ask, since I have done so many – for example – here is one that I did yesterday…. this survey took me about 10 minutes to fill out.

Example of an excellent survey that took about ten minutes to fill out:

“… a global research project regarding the role of Marketing in business and gather responses from executives across functional areas, industries and geographies.  All the data will be aggregated and anonymous.   Please go to this link to answer the survey:  http://nusbschool.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_0q7obfxYyUJiArH
Thank you so much in advance for your kind support!
With warmest regards,  Jochen
  Professor Jochen WIRTZ, Ph.D
Academic Director, UCLA – NUS Executive MBA Program
NUS Business School :: National University of Singapore

At the end of the survey, there is a statement:
“If you would like to get a copy of the final report please include your email address”

I also recommend if they want to do some 1-1 telephone or Skype interviews…  that the student/faculty add…
“If you would be willing to elaborate on your responses in a telephone interview, please provide your email address, and we will contact you to set up a 30 minute call at your convenience”

I find this approach works best for everyone – and the faculty and students are usually delighted because they get more data in the end via the survey monkey and quality 1-1 interviews.

Faculty and students need data, and industry can help advance knowledge by sharing some of their time – but faculty/students need to show great respect for industry people’s time, and the above method does that well.

Good luck gathering data!!!