News - 2014

06:00 Saturday 2 Aug 2014 Instant text feedback will help make Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week 2014 the best yet

Once again, leading Voice of the Customer specialists eDigitalResearch have been selected to provide the mobile research facilities to help organisers at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week improve the event experience in real-time and make this year’s regatta the most successful yet.

Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week is a key part of the British sporting calendar taking place in early August each year. The event is a great mix of competitive sailing and a vibrant social scene and has evolved enormously since the early days; it now attracts between 800 and 1,000 competing boats, around 8,000 competitors and at least 10,000 visitors.

eDigitalResearch will be providing competitors with the chance to have their immediate say on each day of racing throughout the regatta for the seventh year running with their sophisticated SMS survey. Once across the finish line, competitors will be invited to rate the course from that day, allowing organisers, Cowes Week Limited, to evaluate the feedback and make improvements on a daily basis.

With the increase in popularity of smartphones, this year eDigitalResearch and Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week are expecting their best response rate yet - eDigitalResearch’s own consumer tracking shows that around 70% of the UK population now own a smartphone device. Trends seen last year reinforce that prediction with a significant leap in the number of people texting through their feedback on courses – some individual days saw more than half of all competitors sending through their daily evaluations.

Derek Eccleston, Commercial Director at eDigitalResearch, comments, “Listening to customers and offering people the chance to feedback really is vital if a brand wants to continuously improve. With a mission to grow and improve the event’s already legendary success, Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week has yet again turned to instant mobile feedback to make incremental changes across the Week with the objective of better serving sailors and helping to make this year’s event the most successful yet”.

Stuart Quarrie, Sailing Director for Cowes Week Limited, adds, “We have worked with eDigitalResearch for a number of years and we’re delighted with the support they provide in enabling us to gather feedback quickly and efficiently. Our whole ethos is built around evolving the regatta to deliver what existing and potential competitors may want and therefore the data we receive from eDigitalResearch is of great importance”.