Nobody gets really good at market research by taking classes. It comes from learning on the job and in the field from other researchers. That is because researchers are always solving new problems and answering new questions that have never been asked before. That inspired us to make our summer newsletter The Big “How To”…
To get a more robust and representative sample, there are lots of things you can do that will encourage people to participate. You can send them reminders. You can call them. You can invest in snazzy designs to make your survey invitations ever more appealing. But here is one of the best investments you can…
When college students get all worked up about inappropriate uses of email for campus electioneering, it is worth paying attention. Why? Because they are the next generation of consumers (and business decision makers) who will get our requests to participate in surveys. If we do it wrong, they will hit back, and they will be…
Here is the third invitation in our review of three survey invitations. (See also: #1 How Bad Are We? and #2 How Amazing Are We?) In my opinion this one is easily the best. It is truthful and sincere, and tells me immediately why helping this company (by completing their survey) is important to them…
Of the three invitations up for review in our mini-series on survey invitations (see also: #1 How Bad Are We? and #3 How’s Our Relationship?) this is the laughably obnoxious one: What do you think about Acme? Tell us about your experience with Acme products and solutions to help us understand what’s going well, and…
I received survey invitations from three different companies over the last three weeks. Each takes a starkly different approach to wooing participation. One of them I admire; the other two offend me. The invitations brought to mind two feature-length articles we wrote for our newsletter subscribers in 2017: Building a Better Customer Satisfaction Survey and…
I used to think that when potential research respondents said no they’re not interested in participating in our survey, they really meant it, end of story. Then I started working more on the field side where all kinds of different data collection was happening all the time. Seeing recruitment and data collection up close amazed…
Here’s some advice on conducting quantitative research you probably never heard in a college class, and will likely never hear from purveyors of online survey platforms: Never analyze and report on your data until you take a close look at who (or what) fraudsters may be contaminating your data. Versta Research has just published its…
This week one of our sample suppliers said “no” when we asked if we could re-contact respondents for a purpose other than our original request. Good thing I asked, and you know what? I’m glad they said no. I want suppliers to think carefully about seemingly simple requests, and to point out ways in which…
If you are a smart person and you only occasionally try your hand at writing a survey, here is something you may find yourself doing: adding an open box at the end of every question so that respondents can “write in” their own answer if the pre-listed answers do not fit them. Our clients do…