Finishing time：2015/9/24 13:30:49 Announcer：TRISEARCHER
The Meaning of Establishing an Industry Association
In the process of Chinese market economy development, MS industry has an important position and role. With the rapid development of the industry, the importance of establishing an industry association lies in the following aspects:
It contributes to make MS as an independent industry
In western world, after decades of development, MS industry has been fairly mature, and separated itself from market research industry and became an independent industry, (detailed data has been listed above). In China, however, due to the early stage of the industry development, it’s presently adopted as a research method on customer satisfaction for market research companies. Up to now, there’re no independent MS companies in China, which makes it lag behind western countries.
With the rapid development of Chinese market economy, the competition among companies will be more intense, the technological gap will be greatly bridged, and competitive edge on technology will be further removed. In order to compete against counterparties, companies have to work on their service, which is attached more importance nowadays and known as “service marketing”. As companies attach more importance to service, more of them will adopt MS method to improve the service level, which requires more specialized and professional MS companies.
The establishment of China MSPA will change people’s opinion of separating MS from general market research, and make people clear of these two distinctive concepts. Firstly, more specialists will notice the industry, and pay closer attention to it so as to lay a solid foundation of theory knowledge. Secondly, a group of enterprises specialized in MS will therefore spring up. A new mature and independent industry will be formed rapidly with strengthened communication and exchanges. With coordination and guidance provided by the association, and further improvement of the industry standard, the whole industry will develop in a sound way, and finally becomes an important driving force for national economy development.
It contributes to the effective communication among major market players
Generally speaking, a market activity will involve three major players: Government, enterprises and consumers. The same is applied to MS, and the three players are: Government, market research companies that conduct MS, and consumers, i.e. clients that ask for MS service. The relation among the three is quite delicate. Government departments need to enact policies and regulation to guide market research companies, and the latter also need to influence the clients through understanding and execution of the relative regulations. Due to the difference in comprehension and execution capability among various market research companies, the implementation effect varies greatly. Different effect will create large psychological contract among clients who demand for MS. All above mentioned problems need to be solved by industry association.
An industry association serves as an information center of the whole industry. Under general circumstances, it will get the whole market information easier than the government. As a link between government and enterprises, industry association will be more professional in market information collection. Meanwhile, its work will be more easily accepted by enterprises and their clients. In mature market economy, due to the limited function of government, industry association needs to play an important role to regulate market players. With the assistance of it, the pressure of government will be relieved, and association will give a full paly to the market.
In China, where MS business is still underdeveloped, through the establish of MSPA, a relatively complete information feedback system can be formed. Government departments are able to get more knowledge of companies with help of the system. Especially when some enterprises are not clear of certain policies and regulations, industry organization can report the situation to government. Therefore, the association possesses a double role, which is to provide suggestion to government, and to give guidance to companies.
It contributes to protect common business interest
We have mentioned above a series of problems that current MS industry is facing with, such as comparatively low executive capacity, poor quality of mystery shoppers as a group, lack of training, vicious competition in the industry, fierce price war, etc. All these have made clients lose confidence.
The establishment of China MSPA will help relieve vicious competition in the market. With the rapid development of MS industry, there are more new problems and situation we’re facing to, sometimes problems would be even more prominent. If in this case, all information need to be reported to government sectors, on one hand, it will cause information overload, and will affect government in solving important issues timely; on the other hand, problems may not be solved in time due to arrangement and limited resources. Therefore, a more effective method is to include market into negotiation among players, and it’s helpful to maintain and protect joint business interest of market research companies.
Besides of coordination between superior authorities and consumers, industry association has a more important role to assist and coordinate among its member enterprises, i.e. market research companies. The role of the association is more like guidance rather than compulsion.
MSPA also serves as a platform for MS companies to communicate with each other. With the platform, more companies are able to provide valuable suggestions to industry development. Within the industry association, equality, mutual benefit, self-discipline, and internal disciplinary mechanism are stressed by member companies. In this way, quality and business management techniques of MS industry will be strengthened with the help of code of ethics and industry standard. Meanwhile, companies from various areas are able to exchange experience and learn from each other in order to make joint improvement. The industry will then realize its role as regulator to member companies. All these in turn will helpful for image building of the industry.
It contributes to develop lateral communication and cooperation
Industry association will, on one hand, facilitate communication and information exchange with other industry organizations and enterprises, and on the other, helpful for industry self- discipline, enhance business performance and improve social status of MS industry. Besides the above-mentioned communication between government sectors and clients, exchange and communication are also conducted with legislative sectors, scholars, consumer groups and media etc. The public will then have a more comprehensive understanding of the MS industry and its staffs. The industry association thus needs to shoulder social responsibilities and guide the whole industry to develop in a correct and sound way.
China MSPA is a non-profit organization, and it serves as a platform to conduct international exchange and cooperation. With this organization, one can better understand the development of world MS industry and study the relation between China MS enterprises and abroad ones, so as to strengthen the connection between our domestic industry and the world. Through this organization, one can exchange information with international MS organizations at regular or irregular intervals. We are able to learn from good experience and practice of MS study from developed countries. The China MSPA will also facilitate foreign MS study companies to enter Chinese market, and domestic ones to go to international markets.
The organization can also improve Chinese MS study enterprises through organizing annual conference of various areas of expertise, seminars and overseas investigations. What’s more, they can also invite internationally famous MS study experts to share their successful experience, and via diversified forms of international cooperation and communication, the operation and management level of member companies will be enhanced. Through these international exchanges, we can increasingly strengthen cooperation with foreign MS research institutes, which will facilitate the targeted study regarding China MS industry development, and the research result will be publicized to society, in order to achieve the sound development of the whole industry.
Social benefit and supervision effect
1.Social benefit
Social benefits brought about by MS industry show in the following aspects:
（1） MS association provide the public benefit studies
MS association will provide social service study at regular or irregular intervals, we’ll observe things around people from our perspective, and provide service test from various social service organizations. We’ll practically solve problems related to ordinary people, and achieve “deal with things that are really important to people”. We’ll serve as connection and information feedback center among the mass and various social groups, so as to contribute to improvement of people’s livelihood.
（2） Social benefits brought about by externalities of study object benefit
MS study object organization is the direct beneficiary of MS study. Through the study, the organization is able to improve its service quality and economic benefits. Meanwhile, Enhancement of its service quality is also beneficial to society as a whole, which serves as externalities brought by the benefits of tested organization. For instance, MS study can promote service quality of the tested organizations, so as to improve people’s living standard, and reduce social conflicts due to dissatisfaction of service and contributes to better social order and environment.
（3） Social Benefits brought about by MS study
Promotion of economic development is another important contribution brought about by MS study. In recent years, service industry has served as a significant driving force and plays an increasingly important role in for rapid and sound economic development. In addition, in today’s world when globalization is of deepened developing and international competition is increasingly stiff, more and more domestic traditional industries have realized the important role of “Service”. Enterprise strategies have shifted from simply “goods sale” to “service sale”, with sound service as core competitiveness for enterprise development.
MS study can help companies build a set of applicable service standards and norms. It will improve service quality and lead company development, so as to improve national economy enhancement in a rapid, stable and harmonious way.
2、Social supervision
MS study will help government sectors staffs better regularize their behaviors and build better image, in order to fulfill their goal as servicing the people. MS study should be given full play to the role of bridge, assistance and supervision, reflect opinions, suggestions and requirements of the people from all walks of life, and promote communication and connection between government and people of all sectors of society. MS study also plays a role as supervision to government officials in their work of service provision to people. The study will help to discover problems and deficiencies, provide suggestions, so as to improve the deepening of the “service for people” sprit.
Due to the anonymity of MS study, one can better observe the real side of society, and it will play a key role in supervision and improvement, and enhance the previous insufficiency of superior inspection and internal self inspection. in the aspect of social supervision, MS study objects can be the following ones: ：
（1）Public transportation system
Internal environment, service attitude of driver and steward, charge system (manual, automatic), station announcing, steady speed of driving (slam the brake or not), etc.
（2） Educational institution
Hardware facilities, study atmosphere, security inspection, charge, teaching quality
（3）Public hospital
Hardware facilities, expense for medicine, service quality of doctor and nurse
（4）Community management
Community environment, cleanness, service
（5）Street office work
Check if the Industrial and commercial bureau, police station, taxation office and urban management team have played their role in “service for the people”.
（6）Marriage registration/adoption registration office
Check if registration officers have strictly followed national marriage registration law and adoption regulation, and whether the registration material is standard.
There’re many MS companies provide government with the above-mentioned services in foreign countries, and we can refer to their successful experience. On one hand, our government is truly in demand for such service. Some government sectors hire non-professional personnel to conduct “cursory secret survey”. Although there’re some achievements, without specific training, these people are not equipped with professional knowledge or experience. Therefore, the final result has insufficiency in completeness and professionalism, thus can’t find out the root cause of the problems. On the other, few companies in China provide similar services to the government and the public. Even there’re some companies have done it, due to insufficiency in knowledge of MS theories and techniques, the study result is usually not satisfying.
