LISTEN CASE STUDY
How the Emeritus Research and Insights team used Listen Labs to scale interview data 10x
Scale impact
Estimated Impact TLDR:
10x faster results
20% improvement in quality and depth of responses
Improved ability to drive innovation and new ways to serve and support learners
Emeritus' mission is to make high quality education accessible and affordable around the world. It does this by collaborating with more than 80 top-tier universities across the United States, Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia, India, and China. Emeritus’ short courses, degree programs, professional certificates, and senior executive programs help individuals learn new skills and transform their lives, companies, and organizations. Its unique model of state-of-the-art technology; curriculum innovation; and hands-on instruction from senior faculty, mentors, and coaches has educated more than 1 million individuals across 80+ countries.
The Market Research and Customer Insights Team at Emeritus provides critical insights to the organization regarding professional growth solutions that resonate with working professionals worldwide seeking career advancement. However, the limited availability of researchers' time made it challenging to conduct interviews at the desired scale.
Eva Guterres, Vice President of Market Research and Customer Insights; Gabrielli Tiburi, Assistant Manager of Customer Insights; Fernanda Deyl, Customer Insights Senior Manager
Since our partnership with Emeritus began, they have experienced strong results in the scale, speed, and quality of research responses. By gathering valuable world-wide information, they can help more people learn and grow in their careers.
The challenge: high demand for research and insights
“When the team started, we were small,” said Fernanda Deyl, Customer Insights Senior Manager. She explained that, initially, surveys were their only option. “We didn’t have much bandwidth to get the in-depth interviews we wanted to achieve.”
As their team slowly grew, so did their capacity. Ana Zavala, Assistant Manager of Customer Insights, was able to conduct some interviews, providing valuable insights that were helpful to the team. However, the team still required additional support to achieve the necessary scale for their research.
“I would often joke and say, ‘We need to clone Ana!’” said Eva Guterres, Emeritus’ Vice President of Market Research and Customer Insights.
Listen Labs provided a technical solution to address this challenge. With Listen Labs, Emeritus can conduct in-depth interviews with individuals across different time zones, gathering rich qualitative insights. The platform’s capability to ask follow-up questions and filter out irrelevant information promotes the collection of valuable and actionable feedback.
Use-case 1: Deep 1:1 Interviews
Gaining direct insights into the challenges and aspirations of a target audience is a valuable opportunity for most companies. Emeritus has gainedsuch insights through the use of Listen Labs.
Emeritus conducts “career journey” interviews for a deeper understanding of their learners. “We have the opportunity to hear from potential learners about the gaps they perceive in their learning so that we can address them effectively,” said Ana. “The only way to identify these gaps is through direct conversations. These interviews are essential for developing professional growth solutions that align with the needs of working professionals.”
As a qualitative research expert, Ana recognized the need to conduct interviews at scale but was initially concerned that an AI interviewer might not meet the required standard. "I was worried that we would lose the deep connection typically established in in-depth interviews conducted by a human. However, that was not the case," Ana explained. "It truly feels as though you are listening to them speak." The voice feature ensures that the interviews retain a personal and engaging touch.
“We value the accuracy of the transcripts, as they provide a complete and precise record of respondents' statements,” Fernanda explained. “This level of detail enables us to better tailor our programs and learning support to meet the needs of our learners.”
Use-case 2: Concept testing courses
After conducting career journey interviews, the next step is to concept test the proposed courses. Concept testing is a method used to evaluate the viability of a new program or service before its launch. Researchers present the concept to a targeted audience, gather feedback, and refine the offering based on their insights. By incorporating user feedback, concept testing helps validate the ideas developed by various Emeritus teams—including Product, University Partnerships, Revenue, Design, and Marketing—based on insights from Market Research. With Listen Labs, this process is significantly accelerated, allowing for more efficient iteration and refinement.
“Instead of waiting for feedback and spending six weeks or more on a project, we can now do things in half the time; sometimes a third of the time!” said Fernanda. Ana agreed, noting that they could now gather insights from fifty interviews in the same time it once took them to complete ten to fifteen.
Emeritus data collection and analysis has accelerated with Listen Labs.
There is also significant time and cost savings in quality control. Gabrielli Tiburi, Assistant Manager of Customer Insights, explained that fraud is an unfortunate but common occurrence with surveys. Some respondents submit nonsensical answers or misrepresent themselves to obtain survey incentives.
Previously, approximately 20% of responses fell into this category, requiring the team to manually identify and replace fraudulent or low-quality submissions With Listen Labs, they’ve been able to reduce this to almost 0%. “We did not have to replace any responses because of fraud or gibberish information,” Gabrielli said.
This improvement has contributed to increased confidence in Listen Labs’ capabilities. “We were very rigorous in testing the AI, deliberately trying to challenge its accuracy, but it consistently adapts when faced with nonsensical responses,” Gabrielli explained. “I have attempted to trick it multiple times, yet it always detects fraudulent input. It’s impressive.”
By eliminating the need for response replacement, Emeritus has significantly reduced both time and costs associated with data collection. With enhanced scalability, greater efficiency, and the near elimination of fraudulent responses, the organization has achieved operational cost savings.
Use-case 3: Landing page assessment
One unique application Emeritus has found for Listen Labs’ technology is assessing webpage navigation.
"With Listen Labs, we are able to include landing pages for new programs and solutions we are considering, and get live feedback from learners," said Eva, "Compared to other ways we could get this impactful feedback, Listen Labs offers a more streamlined solution, and really deep, actionable feedback."
“I was skeptical at first but was very much impressed with both the seamless survey-taking user experience and the depth of the responses we received,” said Fernanda. However, their relationship with the Listen Labs team empowered them to ask. We added the feature, and the interviews began.
“Whatever we need to do, we just ask,” said Fernanda, “We had a standard toolbox we were used to, but with Listen Labs, we can go outside of that box and think of other things we can do. The Listen Labs team has also been great at offering direction on how we can make things happen.”
Listen Labs’s impact on Emeritus' data insights
Listen Labs’ partnership with Emeritus has helped them scale their data collection. Their market research and customer insights team has been able to experience key returns with an estimated 10x faster results and 20% drop in low-quality responses pre-scrubbing. These results help their team drive innovation to serve and support learners.
“Listen Labs is helping us streamline the distribution of information across the organization," Ana stated. “Traditional qualitative and quantitative research often require extensive data processing. However, with Listen, the data is more accessible and easier to share. This reduces the burden on our team while giving stakeholders across the organization greater flexibility in working with the insights.”
Eva agreed, emphasizing that Listen has extended the shelf-life of their research. “Questions may arise a year from now regarding the studies we have just completed. Previously, we would have needed to refresh our memories by rewatching recordings, rereading transcripts, and manually reprocessing the data. With Listen Labs, we can simply query the tool for the relevant insights.”
One of the most valuable aspects of the partnership has been Listen Labs's adaptability and willingness to collaborate with Emeritus to bring their data-driven goals to fruition. “That kind of impact is difficult to quantify or assign a direct return on investment,” Eva noted. Nonetheless, she and the entire team are eager to explore the possibilities that lie ahead. “We are only at the beginning of this journey. I look forward to seeing what we can accomplish in the next six to twelve months.”