Case Studies

Legal services | Regulation | Vulnerability | Consumer panel | Deliberative research

The Legal Services Board (LSB) and Legal Services Consumer Panel (LSCP) commissioned us to set up a public panel to be available for qualitative, quantitative and deliberative research. Over the past few years we have conducted research on a diverse range of topics, including organisational strategy; professional competence; the social acceptability of technology in legal services; and consumer vulnerability. Many of the projects have involved translating complex and technical research objectives into accessible research questions and materials that the public can engage with and meaningfully comment on. We have produced a range of outputs for the LSB, including infographics, case studies and this storyboard style visual story.

Water | Vulnerability | Ethnographic Film

We have worked with Anglian Water to help them re-think their definition of vulnerability, speaking with a wide variety of customers to gather personal portraits of their circumstances and the issues they face when dealing with their water company. By understanding their stories, we helped Anglian re-examine their assumptions about how easy it is for people to seek help when they need it. The work included producing a short film created with our partner Postcode Films, which brought to life the lives of Anglian Water’s more vulnerable customers.

Consumer protection | Deliberative citizen’s forums | B2B & stakeholder research | Quantitative tracking

We delivered the FSA’s diverse programme of consumer engagement and research, in partnership with our colleagues at 2CV Research. Central to the programme is the creation and management of deliberative citizens’ forums, but the partnership also undertakes a range of both traditional and innovative research approaches including using mobile phone based feedback to understand real-time behaviour, quantitative tracking of consumer views related to the EU Exit and facilitating a small scale consumer panel feeding into the FSA’s Regulating Our Future programme. The programme also involved research with food business owners, food processing businesses, and stakeholders across the UK.

Healthcare regulation | Patient Panel | Patient experience | Comms research | Public opinion surveys

GDC are committed engaging with patients and public to inform their strategy and use a consumer panel to ensure that they have a convenient, responsive vehicle for engaging with patients and public and hearing their voices directly at all levels of the organisation.

For the past six years Community Research has run the GDC’s 5,000-strong ‘Word of Mouth’ Panel – an online panel of dental patients. We have recently been re-commissioned to use a new panel approach which cuts the costs allocated to panel management and recruitment and ensures that more of our client’s budget can be devoted to research activities themselves. Our approach involves partnering with Panelbase to create a flexible panel which is developed by pre-profiling members of their existing online market research panel to allow us to undertake targeted ad hoc recruitment for all kinds of research and engagement activities. It also gives scope for large-scale quantitative research using Panelbase’s wider panel and for those who have participated in research to form a community which builds up over time.

Healthcare regulation | Patient & public research | Research with Doctors & stakeholders

We have a longstanding relationship with the GMC having conducted extensive research with patients, public and doctors to inform the development of policy and guidance on a variety of topics, including Fitness to Practise; public trust and confidence; training and induction; and professional standards.

You will find links to a number of our reports for the GMC on our Publications page.

Consumer protection | Vulnerability | Post | Energy | Ethnographic Film | Community research

Citizens Advice is the statutory advocate for both energy and post, representing consumers in these markets. They commissioned us to explore customer expectations of the rapidly changing energy market in terms of the role of third party intermediary companies, such as price comparison websites and auto-switching services.

In relation to post, spoke with domestic abuse survivors to explore the effects that the lack of safe access to post had on their lives. The stories survivors shared with us were candid, compelling, and often shocking. The research findings have been widely disseminated.

Citizens Advice wanted to understand the impacts of post office closures on rural communities. We took a 'community view' approach, recruiting residents, community leaders and SMEs from 10 villages from across Britain to get a rounded view. We also partnered with Postcode Films, award winning documentary makers, to produce an ethnographic film of residents affected by changes.

WRMP engagement | Citizens Advisory Panel | Online deliberative research

We have a long-standing relationship with South Staffs Water, having worked on the customer engagement programme to inform the company’s WRMP in PR14, PR19, and PR24. We have completed a number of online Citizens Advisory Panel exercises to inform the company's planning process. These have involved recruiting and engaging 50 members of the general public across the Cambridge and South Staffs regions. Participants included future customers, small business owners and those living in vulnerable circumstances as well as domestic consumers. They debated the complex issues on an online platform as well as providing some self-filmed videos summarising their views. The intention is that SSC will be able to call on the Panel for their views throughout the planning process.

Strategy & decision-making | Customer Advisory Panel

As water companies develop their plans for the future, it is vitally important that they understand customers’ views on the key trade-offs and difficult decisions they will need to make. Portsmouth Water commissioned Community Research to recruit and convene a Customer Advisory Panel, designed to feed their views into future plans for local supply of water and to establish priorities for the company’s future strategy.

Regulation | Blended online & in-person research | Communications development

In-depth interviews, group discussions and an online question board ensured that consumers from all walks of life were able to help shape communications outlining the complaints process within the gambling industry, and more specifically the type of complaints handled by the Gambling Commission.

Regulation | Energy | Consumer protection

The Consumer First Panel, the flagship project within Ofgem’s Consumer First initiative, brings together around 80 energy consumers from across Great Britain to deliberate on key energy issues and policy. In 2016, we were chosen to run the latest round of workshops, which covered a range of topics,  including uncovering consumer views on the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) recommended package of remedies designed to increase engagement in the market.