“Beauty & the Beast

This week at Grayling took a different turn. For the first time, I was tasked to conduct street surveys at Raffles Place and Tanjong Pagar MRT stations, something like a research surveyor. What survey? Well, it's for Beauty Asia 2012 - an International Cosmetics, Skincare, Fragrance, and Hair Products Exhibition that is to be held at Suntec Singapore from 20th to 22nd February.

Screenshot of the Beauty Asia 2012 website (http://www.beautyasia.com.sg/)

First up, the beauty of doing street surveys: I got to meet some very "unique" people. I shall not judge here but here are some anecdotes.

There's this lady who asked me for directions at Raffles Place so I took the opportunity to ask her to complete my survey. I'm glad she reciprocated my kind gesture. But while doing the survey, she kept asking me if her answer was correct or whether it was fine. Isn't a survey meant to be your opinions? There's no correct answer for surveys. I tried to be diplomatic and nodded in agreement because I just wanted to get my job done. 

Then I managed to get a Caucasian gentleman to do my survey at Raffles Place. He was with his girlfriend. I endeavoured to get both of them to complete my survey but to no avail. The lady wasn't interested but somehow got interested when her boyfriend offered to do it for her. So the whole scenario was like this: the boyfriend recited the questions to her and took down her answers. Come on, can't you do it yourself? Why do you need a boyfriend to complete the survey for you? To cap it all off, the boyfriend put his name as the respondent but put the gender as "Female". Hilarious isn't it? I cannot help but laugh when I got back to my office.

Next up. This scenario was narrated from my intern colleague. She went up to this guy asking him to do a survey and the guy replied her, "I'm all natural. I don't use any beauty products at all." With that answer, he did not do the survey and scooted off. I can imagine my friend's expression...totally LOL and unexpected.

Another beauty of doing on-site surveys is the ability to empathise with people. I learnt that conducting surveys and giving out flyers on the streets is no mean feat. Many atimes, I just pretend that the person giving out flyers at MRT stations or elsewhere as "transparent". I am guilty of taking a detour or just simply walk by them. When doing the surveys, I met with so many rebuffs and rejections and such a feeling certainly isn't great at all. Worse still if the person is paid by the number of flyers he/she gives out. Having spent 2 to 3 hours in the searing heat, my fellow intern colleague and myself only manage to garner 23 responses to our surveys. Hard work indeed....Hence, from now onwards, I will help out those flyer-givers whenever possible because I truly understand their situation.

Now, the BEAST of doing surveys on the streets - the weather. Standing and approaching people under the hot sun is no joke. Sweat was trickling down my forehead as I tried to get people to do my surveys. HOT, HOT and HOT! So what's the trick? I shuttled in and out of shopping centres and underground arcades where there's air-conditioners to cool me down a little. Even that was scant consolation.

Another beast of course is the people. Being rejected is good enough. To compound matters, you get unpleasant stuff such as palms to your face and even abuse for disturbing their peace. Can't you be a little bit more polite? I'm just trying to do my job.

Worse still, you get embarrassed sometimes just like I did. Back at the vicinity of my office, I saw a security guard at my office building's lobby. She was texting on her phone. I thought "Ahah!", I can interview her so as to get a better spread of results for my survey. But when I approached her and the moment she heard that I wanted to do a survey, she remarked "Survey? I am busy now. You cannot do it here otherwise I will report you" so loudly across the lobby. Behind me in line at the reception were some visitors flowing in, waiting to exchange their passes and they were staring at me...So embarrassed, I quickly slipped out of the main door. Suddenly, the clipboard that I used to cover my embarrassment seemed so small:(!

Doing on-site research surveys is indeed a learning journey and I learnt a lot of things the hard way. At the end of the day, I was glad that I did them. More importantly, I was glad that I had a partner alongside me as it definitely is much worse doing street surveys alone.

EDWIN'S FORMULA TO SURVEYING SUCCESS

FINALLY having gone through the mill, as follows are some of my tips for people who do such on-site research in future:

(1) Phrase your introduction properly. Rather than ask people "Do you want to do a survey?", you should ask "Are you interested in looking pretty or handsome?". Be flattering, people love it! Some words such as "survey" don't go down well with people.

(2) Roam around places where there is human traffic. Don't remain just at one place. Firstly, if you remain at one spot, shop-owners might get irritated with you and call in security. Secondly, you get to meet a more diverse group of people if you move around.

(3) Don't linger around areas where there is competition. By that, I mean other people from banks and insurance companies who have set up booths to sell their credit cards or policies. People will be frightened off by their presence and it makes your job much tougher.

(4) Be alert and target different demographics of people. This is to ensure a more equitable spread of your survey. For example, if you have surveyed a 50 year old male, maybe your next target should be a 30 year old female. The key here is VARY.

(5) Choice of people. I realise that Caucasians more often that not are more open to such surveys/approaches. If you want to get your job done quickly, targeting them might be a solution. However, not everyone is equally approachable. Don't stereotype and be discerning. After approaching people for a while, you will know what sort of facial expressions/body language to look out for and whether you should survey them or not.

(6) Know your stuff well. Always be ready to provide additional information about the survey you are conducting and that adds a sense of assurance to the respondent completing your survey.

If you're interested in looking good, please come on down to the exhibition. More details can be found at the Beauty Asia 2012 website: http://www.beautyasia.com.sg/. 

A big THANK YOU also goes out to all my friends who have helped to complete the online surveys for Beauty Asia.

*PS: Being beauty-conscious is not the sole entitlement of women, men should take note too.