What'cha Drinkin'? with Ashley Cunningham and Thomas Morrison
Editor's note: Automated speech-to-text transcription, edited lightly for clarity.
Steve Quirk:
Hello and welcome to another edition of What'cha Drinkin'? I'm Steve Quirk, president of Quirk’s Media. We have launched this series of interviews because while we are all social distancing, we can still be social. So today my guests are Ashley Cunningham and Thomas Morrison of C&C Market Research. Hi guys, and welcome.
Thomas Morrison:
Hi Steve, thanks for having us today.
Steve Quirk:
So let's just get right to it. Tell me, what are you guys drinking?
Thomas Morrison:
So today we are drinking a ginger shot, actually.
Steve Quirk:
Ooh.
Thomas Morrison:
As the pandemic has been going on, we've been trying to boost our immune system and a ginger shot is supposed to be something that does that. So just recently the juice shop that made these closed here so we've had to experiment with making our own, and you happen to be the guinea pig.
Ashley Cunningham:
This is Thomas' first shot at making a ginger shot.
Steve Quirk:
All right.
Thomas Morrison:
They’re a little spicy. So we're going to take a ginger shot now and hopefully boost our immune system. So here goes nothing.
Ashley Cunningham:
Cheers.
Steve Quirk:
All right. It looks delicious.
Ashley Cunningham:
Oh, they're not terrible. So spicy.
Thomas Morrison:
Little spicy there at the end.
Steve Quirk:
Oh, alright. Well you've got a chaser. So, there you go.
Thomas Morrison:
Water chaser.
Steve Quirk:
So, I'm drinking a gin and tonic with Monkey 47. It's my favorite gin. The aromas and the flavors in it are amazing. So if you really like gin, this is my favorite. This little bottle here though is $40. So nice.
Thomas Morrison:
No luck around this.
Steve Quirk:
Special occasions, but it's good stuff. So, if you like gin, I recommend that you try it. So let's jump into a question. I know you guys, you operate mall facilities throughout the country and of course with COVID-19, that's greatly affected the ability for you to do what we'd call traditional in person research. I know you guys are still up and running, so tell me a little bit about what you guys are up to and what types of projects you're still running.
Ashley Cunningham:
So when this broke out, we had to think fast. You kind of have to get ahead of it and the way that we did is we tried to keep everybody safe. So as this kind of pandemic rolled around the country, we either would take it into our own corner and we closed our offices down, but we try to keep the work alive. So a lot of projects were midway through and it was up to the client whether they wanted to keep them going, put them on pause or postpone. So a lot of it, we were really grateful that our clients wanted to keep it rolling. So we just moved methodologies.
We took a distribution center in our office that we have and utilized that to mail products to the respondent's homes. We can follow up with callbacks, we can mail more product out. Really, I mean with the amount of time that everybody has right now, we're very fortunate that we get to keep moving. So we're trucking along and trying to think outside of the box and keep these projects alive for the client. So there's not really a downtime.
Steve Quirk:
Yeah, that's really good to hear. So do you find then that the people who are still doing this then, obviously because people are home, you mentioned, the response rate is really good and the follow through and everything from the respondents is still, would you say it's better than you'd normally expect?
Ashley Cunningham:
I mean, I would say we're pretty fortunate to keep the quality pretty strong on our side. But I mean the way that we're finishing up projects right now –
Thomas Morrison:
It might even be a little bit better than what it typically would be.
Ashley Cunningham:
Yeah, there's not a lot of waiting around. I mean, people are at home and they adhere to the schedule and I mean, we're completing things right on time if not a little bit before.
Thomas Morrison:
And just, I mean, the economy I think as a whole for the year was rolling right along. And I mean, the clients that we work with, they want to do their work and they want to continue to work and continue moving forward. And so we have to find out how to be flexible and how to work with them with whatever makes the most sense for everyone involved. And safety's obviously the number one priority for us and those clients. So we understand that. But there are still things that to keep this economy rolling that we're a vital part of. And so we're trying to be that resource if clients do need us.
Steve Quirk:
Well, I was going to say, I bet one of the other things, and maybe you can speak to this as being a closely held family business, I'm guessing a lot of that also has to go to the trust that your clients have placed in you over the years as well, because to have you guys come to them and say, well, we can still finish this project, it might not be how you initially imagined it. Yeah. But can you speak to a little bit about that? Is it that relationship that you have with your clients?
Ashley Cunningham:
I think so. I think there's been a lot more, and it's kind of one of those things that I think everybody's experiencing right now. I mean, before this, I don't think everybody realized how go, go, go. And sometimes you just lose personal connections. I mean, a lot of time we're spending video conferencing with people or we're having phone discussions and I think everybody's, everybody wants to get back to normal. And as long as we can find a new normal of how we can run things during this, I think it's kind of opening up their trust in us because I mean, we certainly don't want to put any inequality in jeopardy. We don't want to put any anybody in a bad light with this. So I mean, quality is probably the forefront of everything that we're trying to make work. And if we're pretty honest, if it can't work, let 'em know. Right now, we've been fortunate to really think outside of the box and switch and tweak things, but it's been working.
Steve Quirk:
That's so good to hear. I'm glad that you have found a way to keep things going and that your clients want to keep their research projects going. That's really good to hear. I'm going to ask you guys each a question to get to know you a little bit more and so our audience can get to know you. I've got a box of questions and I'm going to randomly draw a question out. Ashley, we'll start with you.
Ashley Cunningham:
Okay.
Steve Quirk:
All right, here you go. What is your favorite musician or band?
Ashley Cunningham:
My favorite musician is probably John Mayer. I try to see him live every time he comes around. It's a really great show. I'll probably listen to anything that he's attached to.
Steve Quirk:
He's a fantastic musician. I must say. I hate him a little bit just because he knows how to swoon the women. Every lady I know loves John Mayer. I'm like, yeah, oh, that guy.
Ashley Cunningham:
That guy. Yeah, he's probably a weirdo at home. Yeah, it's fine. Probably not that cool. But I love his music and I love his shows.
Steve Quirk:
Yeah, I haven't seen 'em yet. All right, Thomas, and your question is, what is one of your quirks that people might not know about you?
Thomas Morrison:
What is one of my quirks that people might not know about? I think probably my biggest quirk is that I eat ice cream just about every night of the year and it doesn't, I'm really not partial to any certain kind. I think what I have right now in the freezer, I think there's some salted caramel cookie that goes really nice with a good chocolate sauce and I also have some Christmas cookie. These are both Blue Bell brands. I have some Blue Bell Christmas cookie that I'm a real sucker for and that goes really good with the chocolate sauce. So I would say that's probably a pretty big quirk of mine. It doesn't matter if it's cold, hot, every night there’s a pretty good chance I'm having a bowl of ice cream. If I'm out of town, we will find somewhere, I can always go find ice cream. They have those to-go little pint sizes or whatever so I'm pretty much having ice cream every night of the week.
Steve Quirk:
Kid over there. That is fantastic. Oh, and there, I see you bring up ice cream and there show up the kids.
Thomas Morrison:
The ears. They just heard it.
Steve Quirk:
Yes, they just heard it. That is fantastic. I love how you described the pairing of the ice cream. Yes. That is a pretty good quirk to have. Well, with that, guys, I will let you go back with the rest of your day. Thank you for taking the time to talk with me today and stay well and happy. All right.
Thomas Morrison:
We hope to see you soon. Thanks.