Your survey, our needs

Editor’s note: Janet Westergaard is president of Esearch.com, Inc., a Rolling Hills, Calif., research firm.

What’s happening in our industry? Don’t consumers care about the products and services businesses are offering/going to offer them? Don’t they want to provide feedback that will make the offerings something truly special? Something worth buying? Something to get excited about? Isn’t it a privilege for consumers to have the ear of business?

Guess not! Because while we researchers feel that anyone in their right mind should want to participate in market research, respondents often show reluctance. We could all argue over why this is happening, why response rates are going down. But rather than debate this amongst ourselves, we decided go to the people who should be completing the surveys. We asked consumers what makes them participate or deters them from participating in market research (online-based research in particular).

The methodology

First let’s be clear on the surveys and response pool we’re referring to. For the purposes of the study mentioned, the methodology was online research. A Web-based survey was put up and online research panel members were asked to respond. The panel used was an opt-in panel, so while the respondents were self-selected for the panel in general, they were not self-selected for this particular study. There was no incentive offered for participating in this particular study and the interview lasted less than five minutes.

An equal number of male and female respondents were invited (although a greater number of females actually responded), as well as a good spread of ages from 18 on up.

The response

Asking the question, “What factors influence your decision to answer a survey (select all that apply),” here’s what we found. The factors most likely to determine or deter respondent participation are:

  • incentive offered (66 percent);
  • time available when survey offer arrives (56 percent);
  • topic of the survey (37 percent);
  • length of interview (30 percent).

This information suggests that the factors affect males and females differently. Age has an effect as well. Males put a higher emphasis on incentive (67 percent vs. 64 percent for females) while females put a higher emphasis on available time (57 percent vs. 54 percent for males). Incentive has an equal weight throughout the ages, but time available is most critical for young respondents: 72 percent of 18-30-year-olds listed available time when the survey invitation is received as a factor critical in their response. This compares with roughly 50 percent of 31+-year-olds.

Topic affects men (46 percent) more than women (31 percent), as does the length of the interview (43 percent of men vs. only 21 percent of women are influenced to respond based on the length of the interview).

When asked what ONE factor has the most influence on a respondent’s decision to participate in a particular study, nearly half the respondents indicated it was the incentive offered (47 percent). The second-most influential factor was the time available when the survey arrived (27 percent). It is interesting to note that researchers can control the first factor (incentive) but not the second (time available) - although these findings may point out the need for future inquiry into what days and times are best for survey participation, since timing does have a rather strong influence.

The topic of the survey is most influential to only 12.6 percent of respondents (topic being more important for men vs. women). And finally the subject line of the e-mail invitation and the length of the interview both are most influential to roughly 5 percent of the respondents. These factors don’t appear to play a major role in response.

The data were clear: If researchers want to increase response rate, they should first look at the incentive offered and then at the timing of the survey invitations.

A closer look at incentives

Having a hunch that incentive might play a big role in response, we asked questions regarding appropriate incentive levels. Not surprising, the higher the incentive, the more apt people are to respond. And overwhelmingly, respondents would prefer a guaranteed smaller incentive over the chance at winning a larger payment via a raffle drawing; 87 percent of respondents indicated this to be the case.

Only 5.2 percent of respondents would prefer the larger raffle drawing and interestingly, the majority of these folks are young (18-30-year-old) males. The older the respondent, the more strongly they feel about a guaranteed incentive.

Receiving smaller guaranteed non-cash prizes (like phone cards or other prizes) didn’t interest respondents. These fared even worse than raffle drawings.

A penny for your thoughts

Today’s respondents are going to need more than small change to take the time to complete a survey. The majority thought that between $2 and $3 per 10 minutes was about right. However genders don’t entirely agree here: 57 percent of females felt that $1 to $3 was appropriate for each 10 minutes of interviewing while only 45 percent of the males felt this way. The majority of males indicated $4 to $5 per 10 minutes was appropriate (while less than half the females agreed). Overall feelings about incentive levels don’t differ significantly by age but rather by gender.

Of course the higher the incentive, the more apt a person is to respond. Researchers can adjust these numbers to increase response rate when they’re looking for hard-to-find audiences. And it’s important to note that the incentive levels are for general consumers (B2B research generally requires higher incentive levels).

Do you have a minute to answer a ton of questions…

“Is there a length of interview that you would consider too long to answer?” NO! was the resounding response. Fifty-nine percent of respondents would consider any interview length as long as the incentive for participation was appropriate. Women feel more strongly here, with a full 65 percent open to any interview length. Half of the men (50.5 percent) agreed - which leaves the other half feeling that there is a limit to the time they would take to complete a survey. Of the 49.5 percent that felt there was an upper limit, half of these (25 percent of the male respondent base) felt interviews should not last more than 30 minutes.

Communicate effectively

As we continue to vie for respondents’ time, it’s good to know what is important to them. By listening and taking these factors into account, we can increase our research response rate and also communicate effectively to our clients about research expectations. We need not/must not take respondents for granted as it is their generosity and good nature that ultimately determines the success of our research. We rely on them and their willingness to participate and must always keep their preferences in mind.