Kiaer Research

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the quality assurance director of a prepaid inpatient health plan in Michigan. The state of Michigan gives us the budget that they would usually provide for mental health, behavioral health, and substance abuse services for providers and payers. We manage all those services and provide authorization to access them to all of our customers within a nine-county service area.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kiaer Research?

We have a variety of contractual obligations that we need to meet with the state, including accreditations from the National Committee of Quality Assurance and the Managed Behavioral Healthcare Organization. 

Every year, we are obligated to administer a customer satisfaction survey. We take a sample of the population of our consumers and get a gauge on how they feel about the services they received. That way, we can know how they perceive the services and the programs they are enrolled in, if they are improving their care, or if there's any comment or feedback for improvement.

We use the Mental Health Improvement Statistics Survey for adults who are 18 years old and over, and the Youth Surveillance Survey for young people who are under 18 years old.

Both surveys are very similar. The adult survey has seven categories and the youth survey has six.

We were really short-staffed this year, and we were trying to shop out this project. We usually worked with another research company, but they recently went out of business. This year, at the last minute, we were scrambling to find another company that could do this for us, so we hired Kiaer Research.

What was the scope of their involvement?

For this year’s surveys, we had a population of 2,000 completed services. Kiaer Research put together a plan and a budget for us, and they administered the entire survey service. At first, they worked with us to know what our needs were based on that budget. Then, they helped put together a call center and trained the operators to make the calls, and formatted an online survey where consumers could go in and complete it. 

After the surveys were completed, we got back the raw data. so we had all the consumers’ feedback. They also tabulated the results and provided us a presentation with an analysis of those outcomes.

What is the team composition?

Nathan (Founder and Principal) was the project manager and our only point of contact.

How did you come to work with Kiaer Research?

Initially, we contacted a big research firm, but they told us that they didn’t have room to take on a project like ours at the time. A person from that firm, who had worked with me in the past, referred us to Kiaer Research as a potential resource, and they turned out to be a tremendous fit for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $33,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started planning the surveys in October 2020, and we finished everything in January 2021.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The presentations and data delivered to us were outstanding. I've done this for more than 20 years, and I know good quality work when I see it. The quality of their work was top-notch — it was among the best I’d seen.

How did Kiaer Research perform from a project management standpoint?

Sometimes, we communicated via telephone if something random, like a glitch, popped up and we needed to work through it quickly. Other times, we communicated via Webex. I had my quality team on one end, and Kiaer Research’s team was on the other end with our project manager. Nathan was the chief lead on their front.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were smaller than other companies, and that made them have a more vested interest in us. Their personal touch and expertise in their field set them apart.

At the end of the project, we had a debriefing, which I really appreciated. They went through the project and analyzed what went well, what could have gone better, and what were some of the things that we could try next time to improve the process.

A lot of companies don't take the time to do that, and at the end of the day, they just deliver the product. Kiaer Research continued to be there after the project and asked us if we wanted any changes in the presentation and other things like that. I was impressed with those additional efforts, and that set them apart and above other companies.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I'm not in a position to give any criticism to them because we threw so much at them with such a close deadline. They did a really good job getting everything together.

They would probably criticize themselves thinking that they could have done things a little bit differently if they had had more time to work on the project.

Any advice for potential customers?

Start planning as early as you can, interview them, and make sure that they are able to offer exactly what you're looking for in terms of services and deliverables.