While ‘online panels’ are nothing new, their potential to help organisations to gain a greater understanding of their customers and their markets is enormous. It is most likely that you would of heard of some of pre-existing panels that exist, but rather than borrow someone else’s panel – why not build your own?

Custom online panels can provide a multitude benefits to both profit, non-profit and Government organisations. Just three of the benefits are:

1. BECOME ENGAGED WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS:By creating an ongoing dialogue with a group of existing and potential customers you can strengthen existing relationships. With a panel you create an ongoing dialogue, unlike a survey or focus group you can ask follow-up questions. The panel tells you something, you respond and together you both explore.
2. UNDERSTAND YOUR CUSTOMERS: One of the sure ways an organization can create a sustainable competitive advantage is to understand your customers better. You need to know your customers better than your competitors do. With a custom online panels you can centralize all your customer feedback data. With this data you can track and monitor responses over time to gain deeper insights into your customers. With every survey and every question you learn more about your customers. The data collected can be used for a multitude of marketing and communication strategies.
3. GO FASTER: Custom online panels can enable an organization to ask questions and receive results almost immediately. This can lead to faster and smarter decisions about your customers.

Building an custom online panel is easier than it sounds and is an exercise well worth doing. Once you have decided that an custom online panel is right for your organisation caution should be taken when establishing one. As with most things there is a right way and a wrong way and it is crucial that you have the right technology and the right support to roll the process out. Don’t be scared off though, custom online panels offer organsations and quick and cost efficient way to communicate with your customers.