Words & Numbers Research, Inc. (WNR) is a research and evaluation firm founded in 1984 by its current president Susan Carroll, Ph.D. In 1993, the U.S. Small Business Administration chose the company as a model small business.The firm was featured in a film shown at the Success ‘93 Conference.
During the 38 years of operation, the firm has designed and executed hundreds of studies for a diversified clientele.The level of client satisfaction with the quality of the work has been exhibited by the high rate of referral through word-of-mouth testimonials; the firm does not advertise.
The projects have been qualitative and quantitative in nature, as the name of the firm suggests. The methods have included mail, phone and online surveys, focus groups and in-depth interviewing. Customer satisfaction, new product/service testing, brand awareness, competition analysis, sales force evaluation, needs assessments, employee satisfaction and image assessments are typical studies performed.
There have been hundreds of questionnaire instruments designed with several copyrighted. The two most prominent include The Health Equity Index (HEI) which was developed by David Carroll for national use in measuring inequities in health outcomes by location, race, ethnicity and gender based on social determinants of health. The Carroll CBIA Math and Science Index was developed by Susan Carroll to measure the affective domain with respect to mathematics and science in high school students. The firm has considerable expertise in developing questionnaires that produce substantial information.The return /participation rates on surveys exceed industry standards.
Projects have been conducted for corporations, hospitals, foundations, banks, insurance companies, public and private schools, universities and colleges, utility companies, professional associations and state and federal agencies among others. The firm provides external evaluation services to National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education and other grant funded projects.