Chicago-based · Serving clients nationwide
C R Market Surveys collects the customer and community data that airports, transit agencies, nonprofits and public agencies use to decide what to fix, fund and build next. Intercepts in the terminal, focus groups with riders, phone and online surveys, and mystery shops of concession programs, delivered on schedule since 1994.
| Client sector | Study | Status |
|---|---|---|
| O'Hare Intl | Traveler sat + shops | Delivered |
| Midway Intl | Passenger intercepts | Delivered |
| Pace ADA | Rider satisfaction | Delivered |
| Pace Vanpool | Customer sat index | Delivered |
| CTA | Spanish focus groups | Delivered |
| RTA | Intercept + CATI | Delivered |
| Your agency | Next study | Boarding |
Selected engagements, direct and as a subconsultant to prime contractors.
Where we work
Busy, public, time-pressed settings are hard to survey well. That is where we have built our reputation.
Terminal intercepts, concession performance audits and passenger experience studies at two of the busiest airports in the country.
Track recordO'Hare International · Midway International
Rider-facing research for agencies planning service, fares, safety and communications, built to stand up to federal reporting requirements.
Track recordPace Suburban Bus · Chicago Transit Authority · Regional Transportation Authority
Evaluation and community research that helps mission-driven organizations show funders what is working and hear directly from the people they serve.
Our missionRepresent the voices of diverse communities in the decisions that affect them.
Resident, customer and service-quality research for city, county, state and federal agencies, from a single focus group to a multi-year tracking program.
Contract-readyExperienced with public procurement, prompt-pay and subcontractor compliance reporting.
Services
Hire us for the full study, or for the piece your team needs: recruiting, fieldwork, moderation, analysis or reporting.
Trained interviewers on tablets in terminals, stations, buses, trains, events and storefronts, with quota control in real time.
Concession, customer service and compliance audits with photo documentation, scored to your standards.
Recruiting, moderation and analysis for in-person and online groups and in-depth interviews.
Computer-assisted telephone surveys, follow-up calling, appointment setting and helpline support.
Questionnaire design, programming, QR and text-to-web distribution, and panel sample.
Program evaluations, needs assessments and performance measures for agencies and nonprofits.
Fieldwork and materials in the languages your riders, passengers and residents speak.
Fast coding of thousands of open-ended comments, checked by our analysts before anything reaches your report.
What our clients are asking now
Transit agencies need to know what keeps former riders away, from safety to reliability to fares.
We useRider and lapsed-rider intercepts, focus groups
As terminals expand and new routes open, airports need to measure wayfinding, amenities and concession value.
We useTerminal intercepts, mystery shopping
Foundations and government grants increasingly require clear outcome data from the nonprofits they fund.
We useProgram evaluation, participant surveys
Federal and local rules call for input from low-income, minority and limited-English communities.
We useMultilingual fieldwork, community sessions
Agencies want independent verification that contractors and concessionaires meet service standards.
We useService audits, compliance assessments
Decision-makers want findings in weeks. Smaller budgets still need rigorous results.
We useAI-assisted coding, rapid-turn dashboards
Selected experience
A five-year research contract with the airport's concessions management team. We badged and staffed 18 interviewers plus six backups across all five terminals, with daily progress reports and onsite supervisors checking quality. We also run recurring mystery shops of food, beverage and retail concessions.
1,450 completed surveys from riders with disabilities across six service regions, about a 21% response rate. We offered mail, online and phone so every rider could take part. Focus groups and stakeholder interviews shaped the questionnaire, and results were trended against 2018.
Reviewed Pace's 2007, 2011 and 2018 vanpool studies, then rebuilt the survey to measure commuter savings, employer transit benefits and referral interest. Fielded by mail, online and our call center, and delivered a full findings report.
Bilingual focus groups with Spanish-speaking riders with limited English, supporting CTA's Language Assistance Plan. We recruited participants and ran the groups, then reported findings on fares, wayfinding, safety and communications. Delivered as a subconsultant to a national transportation planning firm.
In-terminal intercept interviews with travelers to measure satisfaction and understand who uses the airport and why.
Intercept and telephone (CATI) data collection supporting regional planning across the Chicago-area transit system.
Online survey of listeners of Chicago's WVON and its Spanish-language sister station. It measured sponsor awareness, satisfaction with on-air personalities and plans to keep listening. We designed and programmed the survey and analyzed the results in both languages.
Tell us what you need to learn and we will come back with a recommended method, timeline and budget.
For prime contractors
Planning, engineering and consulting firms bring us in to handle the customer research on transit, aviation and public-sector contracts. We arrive with trained staff, our own quality control and clean paperwork, so your team can focus on the analysis and the client.
Discuss a teaming agreementHow a study runs
We agree on the decision the research must inform, then design the sample, instrument and schedule around it.
Trained, supervised interviewers collect the data, with daily progress reports against quota.
Cleaned, weighted data and coded open-ends, with every figure traceable back to the raw responses.
Plain-language findings and recommendations, plus the data files your team needs to dig further.
About us
C R Market Surveys, Inc. began collecting research data in Chicago in 1994 and incorporated in 2010. We are a lean core team supported by a national network of experienced field interviewers, moderators and analysts. That model lets us scale each project to the job instead of passing the overhead to the client.
Our mission is to represent the voices of diverse communities nationwide, so that the products and public services people rely on are shaped by the people who use them.
Cherlyn leads every C R Market Surveys engagement, from proposal through final report. She brings more than 30 years of research and project management experience across transit, aviation, nonprofit and consumer studies, and remains the client's single point of contact throughout.
Contact
Send us an RFP, a scope or just the question you need answered. We respond within two business days.