Don't Volunteer for Surveys

Alan Frayer, CNE, CNI, CIW CI, Net+, MCP

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We've become an Arbitron family. For those uninformed in such matters, Arbitron is the company that publishes ratings for radio stations, much as Nielsen does television. Arbitron has you keep track of the radio stations you listen to at any given time so they can calculate a station's "market share."

When I agreed to do this, I thought it might be interesting. They sent each of us a little booklet, in which we were expected to write the time we listened, the station we listened to, and a vague idea of where we were when we were listening. Simple, right?

So I thought, as I handed Bocona and Debbie their booklets and gave them their directions. When we started though, the hidden side of the Arbitron family appeared. The pressure we faced became intense. As I reached for my radio, I wondered whose job was getting cut because I didn't turn to some other radio station. After listening to a few songs, I knew, if I changed stations, I'd have to write down the time I did so and the name of the station to which I switched. Radio listening wasn't an unconscious thing, anymore.

Soon, I began to debate whether it was worth listening to the radio, when I could put on a tape or a CD and relax in unrecorded bliss.

Reviewers are supposed to be able to put such thoughts out of our minds, but Arbitron has twisted me in new and different ways. Just as I began to wonder if some company was planning to make computer users log their software use (and fully suspecting the IRS has already thought of that), I got the word that J. D. Power and Associates has turned its attention away from cars and onto software companies.

Good old J. D. Power has published its 1991 Computer End User Satisfaction Study, which questioned 1,784 businesses with fewer than 500 employees about software capability, ease of use, and customer support. The surveyors somehow took responses that would undoubtably be product specific and converted them to company satisfaction, because the survey ranks the publishers, not their products.

So who topped the J. D. Power and Associates 1991 Computer End User Satisfaction Study? I'll give you a hint: which company has been offering competitive upgrades on practically everything released during the last two years (and don't we wonder if there is a relationship in this?)? The answer is Borland International, the company that gives us (almost literally) Paradox, Quattro Pro, Sidekick, Turbo C and Pascal, ObjectVision, and more. Borland beat WordPerfect, Claris, Aldus, Microsoft, and Lotus for the honor.

I wasn't one of the 1,784 businesses surveyed. Up until this week, I wondered if anyone was ever really asked such things. Arbitron has changed that, as well. I hope those businesspeople didn't sweat over their answers the way Arbitron has me sweating out this week. I sit here listening to the sound of my air conditioner, praying someone doesn't ask me to join a study of a/c use.

Reviewers differ from surveyors in that they are supposed to have specific standards in looking at a product. Surveyed users will rarely agree on what makes a product or company good, but when you think about it, reviewers are the same way.

For instance, look at databases. One publication names dBASE IV top of the heap. Another publication rates it low, and places Clarion at the top with Paradox, while a third publication tosses Clarion back down near the bottom. The only one many publishers seem to agree on is R:Base, which has seen better days, although the reviewing community doesn't completely agree even there. Until reviewers can agree on the standards by which software is reviewed, they can't really be placed separate from those surveyed.

What am I saying? Should we ignore reviews altogether? Heavens, no! Instead, think of reviewers as a select group of product users, and look at them all, then average them the way the surveyors do, giving additional weight to categories important to you. The result would be the (Insert Your Name Here) Product Comparison Survey, and would give you a better look at the experts' advice tailored to your own needs.

The silence is getting to me. We've only got a few more days to go as an Arbitron family, but I'm not sure I'll survive it. I can't avoid the stores that long (with their radio stations playing in the background), and driving without the radio just isn't the same.

Maybe the solution is to leave the radio on continuously, on just one station...


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