Our panels
What are they and how are they different?
Custom online panels are engaged groups of customers, prospects and stakeholders, usually numbering in the several hundreds to several thousands, providing collective wisdom back to management and sponsors. Communities tend to be smaller (under 400) providing more qualitative insight in a continuous dialogue through online group discussions, forums and off-line meetings and conferences. Members also interact with one another, yielding valuable insight and "ah ha" revelations.
There are several characteristics that distinguish well managed custom panels:
They are engaged, respected advisors who feel like their opinion matters. All interaction reflects that including: 1) Short, engaging rich media questionnaires; 2) Per respondent-defined incentives which may vary between cash, points, gift certificates and interesting “members only” content; 3) Member defined levels of interaction, such as types of topics and studies they will participate in and their frequency.
Right sized composition. Most panels are too big, especially consumer panels. When the panel is too big, each member does not get invited enough to participate in activities to keep them engaged and responding for the long term. We recommend that every panelist should be have a chance to have some interaction every month, whether that is a newsletter, survey, discussion group, or short pulse poll.
The community is well managed. That means that non-active members are retired and replaced. It means that members are respected with practices outlined above. The panel website is engaging and provides a members’ only portal for reports and incentives, and account administration.
The members are well screened and profiled. We know who the members are with rich, meaningful profiles that are continually updated. We use them for well targeted invitations, post fielding segment analysis, and longitudinal data analysis.