In the past 15 years, with the transition from telephone and F2F data collection to online, driven in many occasions by the search for cost reductions and quick results, we’ve seen the birth of countless “Online Panels”, providing cheap sample and online field services. Unfortunately, the digital race and the proliferation of companies offering online sample services, without minimum level of quality control and market research knowledge and expertise, have generated mistrust in regards to the quality and reputation of the online panel industry. The attractive offer of fast and cheap services summed with the poor respondent experience provided in the majority of the online surveys created, have produced major problems to the market research industry: low survey response rates, a decrease in people’s interest to participate in online panels and surveys, thus compromising the quality of the collected data.
The discussion about this issue has been a hot topic on Greenbook’s blog- one of the most popular market research blogs in the USA, with many posts and interactions covering the matter:
Heal Thyself! When Will Market Research Get Serious About Sample Quality?
Why is nobody here addressing the elephant in the room? It’s not just sample quality. It’s survey quality.
http://www.greenbookblog.org/2015/01/20/is-online-sample-quality-a-pure-oxymoron/
An Open Discussion on the Impact of Respondent Sourcing
http://www.greenbookblog.org/2015/07/08/an-open-discussion-on-the-impact-of-respondent-sourcing/
In mature markets, such as in the US and Europe, where online panels have been extensively used for many years, the industry is already developing solutions to the online sample quality issue, such as programmatic sample, reduction of survey length, improvement on survey experience, mobile optimization, etc. However, in regions such as Latin America, where online research is still in early stages, we’ve been watching the arrival of some “Online Panel” companies, coming from other parts of the world, replicating their business models with extremely low and attractive prices. The main problem here is what is behind those low costs: professional respondents who complete a survey after another to get an extra-income, survey platforms attracting “prize hunters” or people who want to make easy money on the Internet, among other things.
There are great online panel companies that have been trying to maintain quality and offering competitive prices in the market. However, it will be hard to overcome the “quick & dirty” pressure, unless end clients, market research agencies and online panel companies work together in pursuit of a common goal: to protect both the quality and the reputation of the online sample industry. Here are some ideas that I believe can help us avoid the chaos that’s going on out there:
ESOMAR has created a document called “28 Questions to help buyers of online samples”. Request that document to your online panel suppliers and check if they are really doing what they promise.
For 15 years, I have worked with online research and building online panels in Latin America. I may have created one of the first online panels in Brazil (www.ecglobal.com), nowadays with more than 1.2 million engaged users in all Latin America. I have seen everything in the online panel industry, from the first generations of online panels to the current mobile, social and gamified communities, and I still believe that with some fixes and improvements, we can conduct online research with quality and trust.