Time for researchers to reinvent research itself?
July 7th, 2008 by 
Jared Bothwell
Time for researchers to reinvent research itself?, Jonathan Dodd raises this questions in his article “Online surveys don’t tick all the boxes “
The key issue raised is with consumer panels and the detrimental effects that ‘professional’ respondents can have on research results. I have to agree with the arguments raised in this article and this is why Rock Research has to date stayed away from consumer panels.
One type of panel which we have implemented with success is the Rock Research Citizens Panel This is an online Panel which randomly recruits members from the community in order to provide feedback to Local Government. While a small incentive is used the main focus is to allow community members to have a say in key topical issues that are affecting the community. To date the Citizens Panels have been very successful at providing timely and accurate feedback from the community to Council decision makers.
Palmerston North City Council have recently successfully implemented a Rock Research Citizens Panel which has surveyed residents on issues from rates rises to recreation strategies.
Posted in Citizens Panels, Employee Surveys, Online Market Research Tools, Online Research | 2 Comments »
July 8th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Online research has made it quicker and easier to get customer input. But more and more researchers ask themselves: are we always getting the results we should?
While you make point out of the fact that bias is introduced whenever doing research using online access panels — and I fully agree — I fear that more bias is introduced by other factors:
- Will today’s consumers who won’t sit through at 30 second commercial stay engaged for a 20-30 minute questionnaire?
- If a research request interrupts what you personally are doing, do you stop and participate?
- Does the incentive just engage consumers or introduce yet another bias?
- How long will today’s consumer stay engaged in an online study?
- How do we make sure we are talking to the right people about the right questions to get the right results?
We should all encourage ourselves –researchers, client companies, and universities– to join the discussion and provide additional perspective to this lively discussion!
July 9th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Thank you for your comments, the questions you raise are extremely important to consider when undertaking any research project.