Community Rewarded ResearchA new approach to respondent recruitment and incentivisation
15th February, 2012
Ensuring people answer your surveys accurately and completely is notoriously difficult, but ResearchBods has grappled with the problems and pitfalls of this and wider challenges facing the industry. In this article Director Robin Hilton describes how they developed a brand new approach that is proving extremely successful.
Good quality data starts with ensuring the source of that data is valid and robust, and when it comes to online research panels this means the respondents themselves. In recent years panel companies have improved the quality of their surveys largely through the use of technology, but this alone is not able to ensure respondents answer honestly and completely.
Whilst technology has improved the quality of surveys, it has also helped lead to research panels being commoditised, driving down prices and blurring the USPs between companies. This willingness - or perhaps lack of unified riposte from the industry against competing so heavily on price, rather than pushing the quality of their panels - means it is difficult to convince clients that there is any real difference between panels, apart from cost..
The elephant in the room
How can we start to change the way in which clients think about panels? We believe the huge grey animal with a trunk standing in the middle of the room must be addressed. To date, all that’s been done amounts to rearranging the furniture and it would be far simpler if we came up with the solution to removing the animal completely.
The elephant is the motivation and behaviour of panellists in answering surveys honestly and thoughtfully. The furniture is the fantastically designed surveys, or panel management software or payment schemes – all of which are essential in delivering quality panels and respondents, but which by themselves mean nothing if the panellists are not motivated to engage honestly. Failure to tackle the problem can only result in flawed research.
Whilst this may appear common sense, it is not an issue often raised by clients who are focused on price (although they make the right noises about needing quality data) and nor is it addressed by panel companies, who find it easier to talk about technology solutions because these are more visible, sexier and easier to demonstrate.
A brave new approach
With over 15 years’ experience of growing, running and delivering research panels we knew a new approach was needed to address this issue. We asked ourselves why people participate in online surveys and how we could attract people to panels who would not normally participate, so making them more representative.
We realised two key things were missing:
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A real relationship between the panel company and the panellist
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A genuine motivation for the panellist to take the time to participate and participate
accurately and honestly.
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The two are not mutually exclusive – the relationship has to exist before the motivation to participate can occur,
To provide for honest and considered responses, the relationship between the panel company and their panellists needs to be built on trust and respect. Currently this relationship does not exist – panellists register their details with an unknown company or opt to receive surveys from another anonymous online brand. Most panel companies retain a fairly distant relationship with their respondents, many of whom will have been recruited from across the web by third party recruitment companies or affiliates. This lack of relationship and purely financial incentive provides little compulsion or reason for the respondent to answer honestly.
We looked at areas where people give up their time in return for very little reward and their motivations for doing so. This inevitably led us to looking at charities, but here again we found a lack of relationship and also a weariness from people with the whole charitable sector. In the end, the solution was obvious. People will participate in something if they feel that the little contribution they make is part of an overall bigger scheme and if the benefit from that will directly impact themselves and the people they love .
Our solution is EduVoice, a fundraising programme that we run through educational establishments, member organisations and community groups whereby parents, teachers, pupils and members complete surveys whilst raising funds and also receiving incentives themselves. Establishments register with EduVoice and, once verified, are issued with a unique code with which they invite members, parents, pupils, teachers and extended family members to join the panel. Parents can also set up accounts for their children if the child is aged 11 years or older, enabling us to go direct to teenagers themselves with appropriate surveys.
This provides us with a good mix of demographics, as schools and panellists register and participate for various reasons. It also enables us to recruit people who would not normally take part in surveys online and prevents professional respondents as it is an invitation only scheme. Incentives are split between the respondents and the establishment on a sliding scale determined by the respondent. A minimum of 50% has to go back to the organisation or school, but this may be increased to 100% by the respondent themself.
Community Rewarded Research
EduVoice provides incentive for the panellists, more representative and robust data for clients and supports the idea that by working together, people can achieve more as a community than they can as individuals. This is why we call it Community Rewarded Research.
The community benefits
The scheme works because schools are under increasing pressure financially and are always looking to parents for fundraising that entails giving time, money or both. Teachers and PTAs (Parent Teacher Associations) advise that parents are fed up with continual fundraising. Through EduVoice parents, other family members and friends can contribute to the school fundraising effort easily and without having to put their hands in their own pockets. They receive amounts of money that, whilst small, quickly mount up and can go towards more expensive items like interactive whiteboards, sports equipment and IT.
Clients benefit
EduVoice is supported by the national Parents Teachers Association, which recognises the huge benefit the scheme has to both parents and schools alike and which is promoting EduVoice to schools and colleges across the UK.
EduVoice enables us to recruit more genuine respondents. The invitation only registration process helps eradicate potential panellists who may be wishing to register without the proper intention.Overall we’ve seen much higher response rates and more engaged respondents through the length of time taken to complete the surveys and also the considered responses to open-end questions.
This leads to more valid responses and therefore a much higher quality of data with a much higher confidence level. As I mentioned at the outset – good quality data is only as good as its source and EduVoice provides clients with that source.
The challenge ahead
We have created and built a unique, motivated and inspired panel of respondents across the UK. Whilst we continue to focus on ensuring our panellists are properly motivated, our key concerns moving forward are ones that impact the industry as a whole. The continuing reduction in CPI rates, the tendency to increase the length of surveys and practice of screening respondents out when five minutes into a survey, are all industry issues that need to be addressed. As an industry we must challenge these practices whenever we encounter them. If we don’t, we will not be able to reward our panellists in a way that is meaningful for them and, ultimately, the quality of responses will fall even further – and then what will be the value of research panels?
Robin Hilton
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