Custom Research Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Custom Research full-time

Pros – There is a lot of work. Encourage socializing.

Cons – Too many executive VP. Need more help in operations. Work is not evenly distributed. Work to all hours in evening and weekends.

Advice to Senior Management – More hiring of staff below Researchers.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Custom Research full-time for less than a year

Pros – Really good and supportive folks, who know market research thoroughly. It's a large organization with lots of resources to leverage. There are many hurdles that small companies often must wrestle with that Custom Research has managed.

Cons – There is so much to learn and so many good professionals with whom to collaborate, it can be somewhat daunting to find ones way.

Advice to Senior Management – Consider Steve Jobs' advice about focusing on how less is more.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Custom Research full-time for more than a year

Pros – Fun atmosphere, emphasis on employee engagement, several activities planned each month (both company-sponsored and unofficial happy hours), passionate and engaged staff who love research, work/life balanced greatly encouraged

Cons – Difficult working with inter-company partners (operations), sales are slow, perhaps not as innovative as our competitors

Advice to Senior Management – We sell ourselves to clients as being "global" though we don't leverage this perhaps as much as we could

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Custom Research full-time for less than a year

Pros – A wealth of very structured tools, techniques, systems and methodologies to "sell" to clients.
Vast global network of offices as well as outsourcing partners to assist in getting things through the pipeline to meet deadlines.

Cons – Poor quality control (or any control) when it comes to outsourced operational services (programming and data processing) ... having a vast network of outsourcing partners is not an advantage if you don't monitor them, or properly instruct them!!
Tons of bureaucracy that sometimes gets in the way of productivity.

Advice to Senior Management – Institute better QC procedures for both internal and external services

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Custom Research

Pros – big company, can learn alot if in the right department

Cons – no communications, management does not respect the employees, no set culture across the board

Advice to Senior Management – listen to the little people, include the workers in decisions, sometimes they have the answers you are looking for

Former Employee – worked at Custom Research

Pros – Great company, people you work with.

Cons – Middle Management must be some of the most incompetent in the industry

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Custom Research

Pros – The company offers a decent benefits package and the organization is rather flat allowing some employees a great amount of responsibility.

Cons – I was given 2 weeks worth of work over my 5 month tenure there and had nothing to do the rest of the time.

Advice to Senior Management – The company needs to break free from it's staunch conservative market research roots. Research methodologies are changing and evolving and it is no longer appropriate to remain standing still in the face of other more effective techniques.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Custom Research

Pros – Highly collaborative and supportive work environment
Smart people
Exciting projects
Ability to do many things early in career

Cons – Corporate senior management (GfK CRNA) not very inspiring

Advice to Senior Management – Work with corporate senior mgmt. to create more inspiring and encouraging overall GfK culture

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Custom Research

Pros – Good opportunity to learn research methodologies.

Cons – Too much unnecessary office politics/female cattiness; worked under bad leadership, limited communication with supervisors.

Advice to Senior Management – Recognize that intelligence and hard work contributes to company stability/profitabiity.

Current Employee – been working at Custom Research

Pros – Good place to learn a lot about research.

Cons – New management is reactionary, not strategic thinkers.

Advice to Senior Management – Listen to your employees before you make big decisions. If you are going to make the big decisions, own them and don't hide in a conference room and announce them via a conference call rather than telling your employees face to face.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend