A business research report has the same function as an academic research report. The main point is to research an area or subject to gather more information about it. Topics can include budget research, customer service satisfaction research, product development research and effective marketing campaign research.
The purpose of a business research report is to provide business executives information or data pertaining to a specific topic or area. This can be both internal and external research. For example, if the business research report focuses on customer service and the business’ relationship with its current customers, research assistants could complete a research questionnaire or interview with willing customers.
According to ACS, a research report has specific sections to present the data in a professional manner. The report should have a title page that includes the date of the report and indicates the nature of the data in the report. It should also include an abstract of the research being done, an introduction to the report, a discussion of the experiment or methods used to get the information, the results of the research, discussions of changes that need to be made and a conclusion that sums up the report and research as a whole.
The results of the business research report are used to analyze and identify issues or problems that need to be addressed to improve services or products. For example, if customer service satisfaction surveys reveal that employees are often rude on the phone when addressing the caller, company executives can identify this complaint through the data in the report. A research report can also help identify patterns in seasonal sales or demands for specific products.
Research reports can include graphs and charts in the findings section so the reader can easily read and examine the results. If the research was gathered using interviews, copies of the transcribed interviews should be included in the appendix, which is a supplementary feature of the report. Interviews may also be conducted with employees working directly with the research or the area being researched for the report. Getting a professional and internal perspective can help create a larger picture, instead of simply getting the external customer perspective.
