Improve the Experience of Your Market Research Participants

For the past decade, Customer Experience (CX) Research has experienced exponential growth within the research industry. At Sago, the introduction of digital qualitative tools such as QualBoard propelled our CX practice to new heights. The reason behind this accelerated growth is simple – CX research delivers exceptional return on investment.

Time and again, our clients reap big rewards and find success by following a simple formula:

Gain a comprehensive understanding of every touchpoint a customer encounters with their brand.
Identify pivotal moments and areas of friction that tend to hinder customer engagement.
Implement solutions that optimize the experience and make it more engaging.
Experience immediate improvements in customer acquisition, retention, and overall engagement.

Inspired by our clients’ success in the realm of CX, we wanted to further explore the experience of market research participants. How can we refine that experience to get better participant engagement and improved panel retention and, in turn, provide better studies to our clients as a result?

What’s It Like to Be a Qualitative Panelist?

We’re research-curious, so we delved into every aspect of the participant journey – from initial panel discovery and communication to screening for projects and receiving incentives.

What we discovered is there are multiple participant user experiences that hinder full engagement and make it challenging for people to remain involved. The rapid growth of digital qual and the emergence of new methods has made being a participant more confusing than ever. Research participation is no longer confined to being screened and attending a Tuesday night focus group; it now entails testing network connections, downloading apps, navigating unfamiliar software, and engaging in projects spanning days or weeks. Innovative, digital research is a necessity in today’s world, but it’s made participating in research much more confusing. And if participants feel confused, they’re more likely to disengage (as we say to our internal project designers and ops teams “If we confuse them, we lose them”).

Seizing the Opportunity: Transforming Participant User Experience

At Sago, we recognize the unique opportunity to dramatically improve the User Experience for market research participants. One of the key factors driving poor participant experiences is the disjointed process of being recruited by one source, screened by a different company, interacted with by a moderator, and then managed by multiple entities for the rest of the experience and incentive payment. Managing the Participant User Experience well becomes a Herculean task in such circumstances.

To simplify this process, Sago seamlessly integrates the panels participants belong to, the recruitment experience they undergo, the facilities they are invited to, the digital software they engage with during research, and their incentive payments. In other words, we control the entire participant journey. This unique approach improves the Participant User Experience, benefitting our participants and, in turn, delivering smoother projects, better participant engagement, and actionable insights to our clients.

Stay Tuned for the Future of Market Research Participant Experience

Watch this space for more examples of how Sago is helping our clients use technology and operations to make being a research participant simpler and easier and reaping the rewards of better compliance, stronger participant engagement, and ultimately more insightful projects.

Keep an eye on our Innovation Hub as Sago continues to exemplify how technology and operational innovation simplifies the research participant experience and reap the rewards of enhanced compliance, heightened participant engagement, and ultimately, more insightful projects.