Dufferin Research

Online data collection for market and social research

Based near Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Dufferin Research is an online data collection firm. Since November 2000 it has focused solely on secure, user-friendly collection of survey data for marketing and social research. The firm regards itself first and foremost as a service company, and it says its clients' needs are what drive the work. Its survey platform is built to be easy for respondents to use, and the firm checks its designs on a phone as well as a computer.

Survey design, MaxDiff and analysis

Survey work covers the design and analysis of online surveys. The firm offers MaxDiff design and analysis, a method for measuring how people trade off preferences between options, and it sets up those studies and analyzes the results. Analysis and consulting sit alongside the survey work, so a client can take a project from the first question through to the findings.

Environmental research and consulting

Environmental research and consulting is one of the firm's named services, offered alongside its survey and data collection work.

GRI sustainability data collection and reporting

The firm has developed an online tool that gathers sustainability reporting data from across an organization. It is built around the GRI Standards, which give any organization, large or small and private or public, a comparable way to account for its effect on the economy, the environment and people. The tool stores each client's data in its own secure database. The firm designed it to be easy to use and fully mobile-friendly, and it has invested in the user experience so that data collection is as clear as possible. The universal standards are complete, and sector-specific standards are being added as clients in those sectors come on board. The tool is currently available only in English, and the firm plans a French version once translations of the standards are available.

A deliberately small, hands-on firm

The firm says it will stay fairly small on purpose. Service, in its view, does not scale the way technology does, and what it does cannot be copied cheaply on a large scale. For that reason it describes its approach as hands-on, and it says that its technical skill, including fluency in many programming languages, sits behind a view of itself as a service company first. Its stated aim is to offer solid performance, good value and strong customer service over the long term.

Track record and a long-running client base

The firm is in its 26th year of business and has run its online data collection since November 2000. Its work has moved with the technology, from the early web to mobile devices, and it has kept the same focus on secure, reliable collection throughout. Its capability and demonstration pages describe the technical infrastructure behind its surveys and tools.