I’m a firm believer in “what gets measured, gets better” and so I often suggest to clients that they not only track the quantitative side of their relationship with customers (value, recency), but the qualitative side as well (satisfaction, attitudes, advocacy and ideas).  This could include gathering comments from the multitude of customer touchpoints including call centres, your Facebook page, online community site (or any form of social functionality within your brand

The world of the market researcher has been challenged by the social media phenomenon. That's the polite interpretation. "Turned upside down" is probably closer to the mark. The ability for more research to be done, more quickly and less expensively with willing online participants seems irresistible and often makes traditional research look, well, just irrelevant. So it is not surprising that we have seen traditional market researchers bunker down into a defensive position.