In 2016, SolarNow, an off-grid solar company in Uganda, learned something its sales figures could not tell it. Customers were having trouble using their solar home systems. The company had delivered the product. Some households were struggling to get the benefit. To anyone counting installations, those two things might have looked identical.
- 60 Decibels interviews the people experiencing a product’s social impact.
- Standard questions turn individual experiences into comparisons across companies.
- The useful result is a decision: change support, rethink a product, or question an investment assumption.
The sale was finished. The story wasn’t.
Lean Data researchers brought those difficulties to SolarNow’s attention. Chief executive Willem Nolens investigated mismatched expectations, technical problems and customers’ understanding of the equipment. He created an after-sales team to contact customers proactively. He also changed sales incentives to reward longer relationships rather than one-off transactions. Over time, reported value for money improved, along with sales-staff satisfaction.
The first visible failure was the gap between buying something and using it successfully. The feedback changed what management paid attention to. There is a lesson here for any business with a splendid acquisition funnel and a somewhat less splendid customer experience: ask what happens after the invoice.
That study preceded 60 Decibels itself. But it captures the business the company would become: research that helps an organization understand the people behind its claims, then gives it something practical to change.
A data offer, with the customer at the centre
Sasha Dichter and Tom Adams developed Lean Data inside Acumen, the impact investor, beginning in 2013. Their problem was familiar to anyone who has filled in a funder’s spreadsheet. Measurement could become another demand on an already stretched business. They wanted it to become a service that business actually wanted.
“Rather than make an ‘ask’ of our investees, we wanted to provide a data ‘offer’.”Tom Adams · Co-founder
External demand grew. The founders spun the operation into an independent company in 2019, arguing that independence would help it scale and lend objectivity to its work. The name refers to the typical volume of human conversation. For a company concerned with hearing people, it is admirably literal.
SASHA DICHTER / CEO
TOM ADAMS / STRATEGYToday, its buyers include impact investors, foundations, corporations, NGOs and social enterprises. Named customers include Rockefeller Foundation, Visa, Unilever and Primark. Its expertise spans financial inclusion, energy, agriculture, education, health, jobs and supply chains. The recurring question is whether an intended benefit survives contact with daily life.
A project starts with the organization’s context and an agreed survey. Researchers interview a sample of stakeholders in local languages; analysts clean the responses and return findings through reports, dashboards and datasets. The company describes a network of more than 1,000 research assistants across 80 countries. Delivery is measured in weeks.
- 01Agree the question
- 02Hear the customer
- 03Compare the evidence
- 04Choose what changes
The comparison is part of the product
A conventional survey tool helps you collect answers. 60 Decibels adds researchers, sector knowledge and a library of repeatable questions. Repeatability matters because a satisfaction score, or a claim of improved income, becomes more useful when compared with similar organizations. Its position sits between customer research and social-impact evaluation, with managed services alongside data products.
60dB Signal takes that comparison into investment diligence. British International Investment used evidence from a similar company while considering an e-mobility deal in Uganda. It estimated that 70% of drivers reached were low-income. This was a proxy supporting an investment case, with a future survey still possible to test the assumption.
The distinction matters. Evidence from comparable customers can sharpen an estimate. It cannot turn another company’s customers into your own. Signal’s value depends partly on the quality of the match, rather than the elegance of the dashboard.
The business earns money from research and data services; investors and grantors can sponsor studies. For one concrete cost example, a GOGLA programme lists off-grid solar consumer-protection surveys at $10,000 for the basic service and $20,000 for the full service. Those prices belong to that offering. They should not become a universal budget assumption.
Its December 2021 Series A brought an $8.8 million investment from FPE Capital, combining growth capital and purchases of existing shares. The company said the money would accelerate adoption of stakeholder-based impact benchmarks.
A loan is more than a disbursement
The Microfinance Index makes the benchmark idea tangible. Its 2026 edition draws on interviews with 18,709 clients of 65 financial service providers in 35 countries. Six dimensions cover access, loan-product outcomes, household outcomes, protection, resilience and agency. The borrower’s experience gets a seat beside the lender’s balance sheet.
One finding invites a useful rethink: clients receiving services alongside credit report better quality-of-life outcomes. The published figures rise from 33% for credit alone to 36% with additional financial services and 45% when non-financial services are also included. The association is worth investigating; the comparison alone does not prove what caused it.
For lenders, the implication is practical: examine the surrounding service, not only the loan. For investors, ask which customers benefited, which struggled, and whether a portfolio average is concealing the difference.
First, find someone to call
Phone-based research needs access to respondents. In nutrition work with GAIN, many small businesses sold through markets and had no end-consumer contact lists. The partners tested product stickers and radio advertisements, then explored interviews at points of sale. A portable method still needs an appropriate way into people’s lives.
That is the part readers can copy: define a decision, ask consistent questions, check whose answers you are missing, and act on the findings. A phone survey will struggle where access is uneven or people cannot speak freely. Customer testimony also needs other evidence when the question is causal. Listening earns its place when the answer is allowed to alter the plan.