If you have a fairly large call center, or conduct research for a multitude of client radio stations, and need to break out the costs of one or more cycles of research, you can use the Cost Analyzer built-in to ComQuest.

 

The Cost Analyzer is accessed by selecting it under the Callout / Interviewer Incidence menu.  (ComQuest Technical Support must first activate it on your Fileserver, before this selection will be available on your menu).

 

Cost Analyzer configuration screen

 

Fixed Costs

 

This section of the screen allows you to enter your fixed costs, for whatever period you wish to analyze.  If you run the Cost Analyzer each month (for one month at a time), you should enter your monthly rent, monthly electric, monthly Supervisor salary, etc.

 

While some items are broken out to make it easy to configure, the Misc. field can be used to contain all other fixed costs, such as SSI sample purchased, office supplies, sales commission, etc.

 

In addition to the Fixed Costs described above, you should enter your average hourly wage for interviewers.  This figure will be used when calculating the labor costs, based on the number of interviewer hours worked, and the rate at which the typical interviewer is paid.

 

Run Analysis

 

Once you have set your Fixed Costs properly, click the Run Analysis button, and ComQuest will loop through all the databases in your system, for the date range you have selected, and display a Cost Analysis report on the screen.

 

Cost Analyzer report