MarTech Interview with Mike Billingsley, Group CEO, OnePulse

Mike Billingsley, Group CEO, OnePulse shares a few thoughts on the importance of gathering customer feedback in a more insightful and interactive way;

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Welcome to this MarTech Series chat Mike, tell us more about OnePulse and how it’s evolved over the years?

We are a unique opinion platform that turns market research into a conversation.  Historically the industry has been slow to adapt to new technology and change but that is changing fast and we are thrilled to be part of helping with disruptive innovation that is healthy for our industry.

Originally from Australia, the product was first conceived when our founder woke up one morning in June 2010 to find that our current Prime Minister had been kicked out of office overnight and as part of the transition, the party was changing policies. I felt that there should be a way for the political party to quickly gauge public opinion on issues like this, even if the decision needed to be made within hours.

We quickly realised there was a much larger market for companies wanting to converse regularly with consumers, so we set out to create a platform for people to answer questions that was first and foremost consumer focused. We wanted to create a platform to capture and engage consumers who take part in no other form of market research.

How do you feel market research agencies and marketers can collaborate more to drive deeper customer insights to in turn help marketing and customer centricity initiatives?

By democratizing the approach, by giving more people the ability to access and gather consumer feedback in a fast and agile way.  Too often questions are not asked because of the time and cost involved.  Technology creates a better way for people within an organization to collaborate.

How do you feel market research as an industry is going to change with the developments in market research software? How can this benefit marketers directly?

More agile and cost-effective approaches will become available making it easier than ever to gather insights.  These approaches are also consumer friendly driving better results as it humanizes the interaction.

What are some of the main missing elements you see in customer insights used by marketers today?

Long and boring surveys sent out by email create an incredibly negative experience for consumers which leads to poor quality feedback.  Marketers must consider that before they ask customers to give feedback!

As the need for deeper intelligence and insights grows, in what ways do you feel marketers of the future will drive demand for certain kinds of marketing technologies and martech categories?

The ability to directly ask consumers questions will continue to grow and be streamlined.  Integrating that information with behavioral data is incredibly valuable but it must be done in a way that respects consumers privacy.  Capturing both quantitative and qualitative insights within one platform is a growing trend that leverages video and open text feedback is an exciting trend too.

A few last thoughts and takeaways for marketing leaders and CEOs/CMOs to keep in mind through the rest of 2021?

There has never been a more important time to stay close to consumers. Gathering their feedback in fun and engaging ways correlates to good quality feedback and needs to be considered in every interaction.  An easy measurement to consider every time you conduct market research is if it is something that you would personally respond to or participate in.  If not, why would you ask consumers to?

OnePulse is an agile, easy-to-use opinion platform that gives brands and agencies instant access to what people think.

Mike Billingsley is the Group CEO of OnePulse. For the past 15 years, while much of the market research industry has focused on dated methods, Mike has helped brands capture insights from consumers using innovative technologies while always focusing on a positive consumer experience.  An early pioneer in digital survey data collection, Mike is part of a team that owns a patent on screening and survey data collection.  Before joining OnePulse, he led global teams at AOL, Dynata, and Toluna while also launching the research consultancy Interloq. Born and raised Texan, Mike lives in Austin, Texas.