The Life of a Research Panelist: Invitations Count

One of my first posts on this blog was about the way online research panels bombard panelists with requests to participate in research. It seemed like I was being invited to take part in surveys that were not relevant and getting these invitations at an alarming rate.

How companies treat panelists came to my mind again last week as I listed to speakers at the Social Media and Community Strategies 2.0 Conference. It seemed like as a research panelist I was only treated as product, not as a part of a community where I had any real control over my own experience.

After tweeting out the question “do panel companies think of their panelists as customers?” (I received a nice reply from iTracks saying that they do and I have no reason to dispute it.) There is no doubt an opportunity to get more engagement and insight from people who have agreed to be a part of your panel. Or at least to better understand my preferences as a panelist, but instead I just get requests to take a survey… and requests… and requests… 120 in all from one company in a week. 120!

As an industry, the market research community often talks about panelist and data quality. Every company has rules for how many responses they will take from a panelist, but clearly the rules do not apply with invitations. The ramifications for market research as a brand are huge. By inviting me to irrelevant surveys I am less likely to respond that those are relevant. I am less likely to feel good about my involvement in research on the whole. And I am less likely (as a business person) to trust the data I am getting. It’s a simple issue that needs to be addressed.

And until then I have 120 surveys to complete so I can get some points I’ll never redeem.

(The conference was great by the way, read a summary here)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is market research recession proof?

Bob Skolnick , North American CEO of Synovate seems to think so in this month's Marketing News... This heightened need to understand competitors and consumers may well prove a boon to the market research industry, despite the struggles of the economy at large. Bob Skolnick , North American CEO of Chicago-based market research firm Synovate , predicts "was abobe average growth" in the overall demand for data. Because of the demand for data, Skolnick notes, Synovate has been under greater pressure to yield applicable results. "Client companies need to see smart research done to make sure they are satisfying their best customers and developing new business where they can," he says. "The market research business, while not recession-proof, is much less susceptible to budgets being cut."
Keep reading

2009 Market Research Predictions, Forrester Style

Forrester's 2009 Market Research Predictions are out and if you're not a subscriber, you can at least read the executive summary here... One prediction of note: "Traditional qualitative research will see erosion as market research online communities (MROCs) and fusions of quantitative and qualitative research from firms such as Invoke Solutions gain steam. In short, everyone will be looking for ways to gain insights to succeed in a troubling market in as cost-effective a manner as possible. This means that newer research modes will gain traction and grab more share of stable or declining market research budgets — even among research buyers who have been more traditional in the past."
Keep reading

McCafe? Its Not Possible

Image
Over the weekend I noticed and more and more McCafe's popping up within my local McDonald's and am curious (cough, skeptical, cough) whether or not this can possibly work. Starbucks has done such a good job over the last few years of teaching the public that a latte requires the love and care that only Starbucks' Baristas or local coffee houses can provide in making a high end coffee that I barely trust Dunkin Donuts to make a latte correctly (and I love Dunkin in a not so healthy way!). What I certainly don't trust is that the 14 year olds who currently make a breakfast sandwich an iffy proposition care enough to even attempt to make my drink correctly. Maybe I have become a coffee snob, but I see the McCafe winding up in a room somewhere with salad McShakers and McPizzas.
Keep reading