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Online Research | Panel Management
Panel Management
A panel is a living organism. It must be cultivated and nurtured to survive and
flourish. All of Decision Analyst’s online panels (including custom client
panels) are actively managed and nurtured “communities,” not just
databases. We heavily invest in systems and processes that ensure our panels are
valid and reliable so we can ensure our data and recommendations are valid and reliable.
Panel Membership
- All of Decision Analyst’s panels are double opt-in.
- All Decision Analyst panels are used exclusively for marketing research,
except the Imaginators® panel, which is used for ideation and innovation projects.
- All of our panel members are paid for each survey. The longer the survey,
the greater the incentive is. For screeners, panelist names are entered into
a drawing for $10,000 in monthly cash giveaways.
Recruiting
- Respondents are recruited by a variety of media and methods: mail, phone,
radio, television, magazines, newspapers, and the Internet. Publicity is an
important component of recruiting efforts, and continuous advertising on over
2,000 different websites is a major source of new panelists.
Privacy Policies
- Each panel has its own privacy policy. These privacy policies, in general,
promise panelists that their answers to surveys will be anonymous and confidential,
that the results will be used only for research purposes, that their names
and personal information will not be shared with or used by any other organization
or party, and that they will be paid for every survey. The policies also state
that Decision Analyst will adhere to all laws and regulations of governmental
entities, including COPPA and HIPPA. Decision Analyst was the first U.S. research
company to qualify for certification under the Safe Harbour Agreement between
the U.S. and the European Union, and remains a party to that agreement.
- All panels are compliant with ESOMAR and CASRO standards and regulations.
Panel Management
- Icion® panel tracking software monitors members’ participation
in surveys, and inactive members are deleted from the panels.
- Panel members have complete control of their membership accounts and can
log in at any time to update, modify, or delete their information. After completing
surveys, panelists are asked to review and update their membership accounts.
Additionally, all members of each panel are asked to update their membership
accounts once a year.
- Our panels are screened periodically for product/service usage, covering
such topics as car ownership and type, shopping habits, eating-out habits,
beverages used, pet ownership, medical ailments, and credit cards owned, etc.
- Panel members have restrictions on how often they can be contacted. No panel
member can take more than two surveys per month (once a panelist takes a survey,
he/she is excluded for two weeks from all other samples). Our typical panel
member takes three to five surveys per year.
- Once the target audience for a survey is determined, a sample is pulled
to represent that audience. Samples are defined and pulled via Icion®,
our multivariate sampling software. Samples are balanced by geographic region,
county size, and target demographics. Within each cell of the sample, respondent
selection is random.
- Decision Analyst carefully tracks surveys by topic/category. Panelists who
participate in a study on a particular product category are automatically
excluded for six months from participating in a study for the same category.
Fraud Protection
- Our panels are rigorously and continuously cleaned by computer systems looking
for registration errors, duplicate registrations, false information during registration, etc.
- Screening questionnaires and survey questionnaires contain “traps”
to catch cheaters and sloppy respondents, who are deleted from our panels.
- As open-end questions in surveys are coded, respondents who appear to be
cheating and/or answering questions in a haphazard manner are deleted from
the study and from our panels.
- During the tabulation process, a series of quality-assurance processes are
employed to look for suspicious responses (straight-line answers, taking the
survey too quickly, inconsistent answers,etc.). Problem respondents are deleted
from the study and from our panels.
- For the specialty panels (such as Physicians Advisory Council® and Executive
Advisory Board®, etc.) each panel member’s occupation is verified.
- A database of “cheaters” is maintained, so that these individuals
will be prevented from registering to become a member of any Decision Analyst panel again.
Deployment
- Once a questionnaire is finalized, an online project can be programmed
and ready to launch in 24 to 48 hours. The typical project takes two to four
days to launch (from the final questionnaire). Much of this time is spent
on quality- assurance processes and procedures.
- All samples are randomized, divided into multiple batches, and then launched
and monitored by batch. Reminder emails are sent to nonresponders within each
batch on the third day. Samples are controlled by geographic area, time zone,
and response rate to ensure a nationally representative sample.
Online Research Services
If you would like more information on Online Research, please contact Jerry
W. Thomas by emailing jthomas@decisionanalyst.com
or calling 1-800-ANALYSIS (262-5974) or 1-817-640-6166.
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