Dimensional Research

Technology Market Research

Rethinking Market Research Incentives

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Incentives are a normal part of any market research project. With each project we ask ourselves: What will we give participants?  How much will it cost?  How do we sweeten the pot to ensure high participation?

Today we’d like to take a step back and ask:  Do we really need to give people stuff to make them talk to us?

Now, before anybody panics, we do believe that most of the time the answer is “yes.” When we’re reaching out to new audiences that we have absolutely no relationship with, we need something to get their attention.  And if we’re asking for something big – driving across town to attend a focus group for example – of course the stipend is important.  We’ve discussed guidelines for compensating participants in the past, and we still think that post is relevant and useful.

But that doesn’t mean that we always need a “prize.”  Especially when working with customers, the best reward might be that they see the feedback they give influencing the product roadmap or support. Sometimes just being heard is a very strong driver.

For example, we have just completed an annual customer survey for a customer we’ve been working with for years. The first 3 years we gave a typical stipend of a $25 gift card to anyone who completed the survey.   But, this year the budget was slashed, so we figured we’d try it without a stipend and see what happened.  A couple of observations on this test:

  • We got the same number of completes as last year – when we did offer a stipend!  The customer base had grown by 15% so we can expect that the lack of stipend hit our response rate by that much, but we still had a very significant response rate so the results were valid.
  • Responses were higher quality than in the past (as evaluated by the thoughtfulness of responses to open-ended questions).  Since nobody completed the survey just for the $25, participants were more engaged.  They took the time because they cared.
  • Perhaps this wouldn’t have worked the first time? This was the fourth in a series of customer surveys, and this client has definitely responded to the findings of past surveys.  Perhaps their customers now realize the survey is worth their time for other reasons then the stipend?

Net-net: We felt we got at least as good as – and arguably better – results from the customer survey without stipends for less than half the costs of previous surveys. Moving forward, Dimensional Research is making sure we evaluate whether the stipend is truly adding value to a project.

Six guidelines for compensating research participants

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There is usually some form of compensation for participating in a market research project. For focus groups and in-depth interviews, research participants are usually offered some kind of stipend in appreciation of their time.  The question I get asked frequently is – how much?

I’ll start by saying that the stipend is usually NOT the primary motivation for participating in technology market research.  I find people are genuinely interested in expressing their opinion. They like to be heard; they like to hear about new ideas coming down the pipe; they like thinking they are influencing the market or the product; and – in the case of focus groups and customer advisory boards – they like to hear what is happening with their peers.  And let’s face it, corporate IT employees are typically paid reasonably well, so a hundred bucks isn’t going to really compensate them for trucking across town to a focus group facility, spending 2 hours talking to you, then trucking back home.

That said, the stipend is key in attracting the right audience, and is perceived as an important added benefit. So back to the question of how much.  The answer depends on a variety of factors:

1. What are you asking people to do?  Focus groups typically take about 2 hours of participants’ time. In-depth interviews usually take from thirty minutes to one hour. In addition, for in-person focus groups, the participants need to get to a specific location.  As a result, focus group participants are usually compensated more generously.

2. How big is the target pool of participants?  The harder they are to find, the more you should sweeten the pot to simplify the recruiting.  If you have a straightforward recruit like “application developers” or “network administrators”, there are plenty of those and you don’t need to have a particularly large stipend to entice them to join. 

However, if you need something really specific like “DBAs responsible for MATISSE databases”, or customers of a competitor that only has a few hundred users worldwide, you want to have a large stipend to make sure that you’re doing everything possible to attract the few people out there that match the recruiting profile.

3. What level of participants are you looking for?  CIOs and other IT executives make more money than sys admins or developers, so the stipends need to be higher to match their expectations for the value of their time.

4. Customers or prospects?  Depending on the context, offering a customer money to give you feedback may be tacky.  Particularly if it’s a customer advisory board meeting, the real value is the chance to be heard.  In this case a nice gift with the corporate logo on it is much more appropriate.  

5.  Give the philathropic option.  More and more corporations have implemented strict policies that employees CANNOT receive any gifts of any kind.  Dimensional Research always offers our research participants the option of donating their stipends to the charity of their choice. 

6.  Web surveys are different.  When you’re looking for hundreds or even thousands of respondents, any stipend, no matter how small, can quickly blow up your research budget. There are certainly options like being entered into a drawing for a gift certificate.  Or the ever popular drawing for the hot electronic item of the day – the iPod Touch has been particularly common in survey drawings in the past year. 

One thing to consider, if the findings are not confidential, is to simply offer a copy of the final report to participants.  This is a very high-value offer to people who care about the topic – probably even more than a gadget – and has the added benefit of not attracting participants who don’t care about the topic and might not give the most insightful or informed answers.