A whopping two thirds of market research (MR) companies do not have a policy for web surveys that land on mobile screens or they don’t modify surveys to be seen on small screens.

That’s according to Confirmit’s survey of 230 MR firms worldwide which found only one in seven respondents adjust their online surveys to make them more appropriate for mobile devices.

The research found that the use of technology other than mobile is evolving across the MR industry. According to the figures, 84% expect that the proportion of their work using new MR – synthetic respondents, neuroscience, co-creation, crowd-shaped questionnaires, web scraping, digital ethnography and market research online communities (MROCs) – will increase over the next one to two years.

Additionally, the survey revealed that 80% of MR firms are experiencing a growth in demand for data visualisation.

Pat Molloy, chief strategy officer at Confirmit explained: “According to research by Knotice, 28% of all email is opened on a mobile device, either a phone or a tablet, but our survey shows that only 15% of MR companies are actively ensuring that their surveys are adapted for mobile devices.

“These companies are showing a shocking complacency and are losing out on potential respondents! This must be taken as a wakeup call to MR companies to start embracing the mobile world in their surveying strategies.”

Dave King, EVP of mobile solutions at Confirmit, added: “The technology is there for those that choose to embrace and take advantage – there are a number of progressive, forward thinking Market Research companies that have chosen to do just that and we expect we will see more in the future.”