Basic Panel Qualities

When purchasing sample we are often conscious of quality, cost, and feasibility factors. Most everyone will agree that quality is the most important attribute of the sample equation. There are different aspects of sample quality to consider.

Quality starts with the sample recruitment. We also want to make sure that participants are treated as a panel or community of respondents interested in participating in research studies. For a panel to be legit, participants need to be recruited through a double opt in process. Finger print technologies are applied to guarantee that participants are only recruited once, usually by verifying mailing address or by tracking IPO address amongst other things. During river studies, participants are not part of a panel but can still be and should be tagged by such technologies to ensure responses are unique. Regardless of panel or river, your provider should be able to provide this security services. Finally, I wanted to learn about how often panels are refresh through the year. By refreshing, I’m referring to the churn and replenish rate of respondents of a typical panel. I asked ten panels for feedback and on average, 25% of panelists get replaced each year. Some panels eject and recruit participants monthly; other panels every six months, but you can be sure that each year at least a quarter of participants are fresh to panels and their surveys.