Getting to understand your customers can be 'deceptively simple'

By ELLEN READ

It's not often that a direct marketing company will admit that its tools are deceptive, but that is how AIM Proximity is plugging its new surveying system.

Well perhaps that's a bit of a long bow to draw - the exact words used were "deceptively simple".

The product in question is Closer, a new internet survey tool its designers say will allow marketers to survey clients online.

System architects Geoff Wood and Angela Day say Closer by Proximity will make things easier and faster for direct marketers.

Because the marketers can use the tool themselves - and there's no software to download - the need for in-depth database, research or HTML skills is removed, which greatly speeds up the process.

Day estimated it could take up to a week to prepare and publish an online survey prior to Closer and even then, the survey couldn't provide instant feedback.

A marketer can also edit and update the survey and provide live feedback to customers.

External uses include polls, profiling, order forms or registrations. Internal uses include performance reviews, training sessions or quizzes.

One of Closer's unique aspects is the way it displays information, using animated graphics, including an animated face with a slider which changes it from a smile to frown, a "thumbometer" which goes from thumbs up to thumbs down and a set of scales.

Another feature is the use of "skip logic" which automatically bypasses parts of the survey depending on the response.

Closer also eliminates the costs associated with the data entry errors of traditional survey methods by transforming the raw data into reports that summarise and tabulate responses.

It took 18 months and more than $200,000 to develop Closer, an outlay that will be recouped by using the system with AIM's own clients and by selling it under licence.

Wood said basic monthly access to the system, with no input from AIM Proximity, would cost around $2000.

The system allows customers to brand their Closer surveys using their own words and images.

"The limit of what you can do with this is the imagination of the marketer," Day said.

The product will also be offered to the global network of Proximity companies, also under licence.

Interest has already been received from potential buyers in a number of countries including Australia, the United Kingdom and Belgium.