One thing the result of the recent Australian election result has shown us is that not all research methods are equal. None of the major opinion polls – Newspoll, Ipsos, Galaxy or Essential polls predicted a coalition win on a two-party preferred basis. People are now questioning what went wrong with the opinion polls as LNP returns to power in what looks like a majority government? Unless a significant number of voters changed their mind on the day (which is unlikely) questions are now being asked why the pre-election polls were so wrong. I have several theories all related to the research methods used and I think there are several lessons that apply to anyone conducting customer research.