ESOMAR 28. TalkToMe 2015 Full Circle Research Co

Transcription

1 ESOMAR 28 Trust. Without it, we all may as well go home. This is true in life. In love. And in online market research. That s why Full Circle is ready and willing to present our answers to your biggest questions. The ones that challenge, Prove to me that you re trustworthy. Because when you run your business as transparently as we do, it s easy to put our best face forward. It s the only one we ve got. TalkToMe 2015 Full Circle Research Co

2 2 Company Profile 1 What experience does your company have in providing online samples for market research? It was exactly our deep experience with online work that inspired Full Circle in the first place. Our founders, true thought leaders in the field, have independently and collaboratively fielded more than ten thousand successful online studies, thousands of which for Full Circle, alone. Staying on top of emerging trends is what they do best. It s how they were able to pinpoint the industry s undercurrent of evolution and why they knew that they were just the researchers to usher it in. We understand how to collect and analyze demographic and psychographic data others don t even think to look for. We owe it to multi-generational market research experience in online research strategies, relationship sales, analytics and customer service, all based upon decades of consistent and loyal customer following. Combined, this online market research boutique boasts more than 100 years of market research experience and owns a union of content-driven publisher strategies backed by Computer Aided Telephone Interviewing (CATI)-based resources that results in the industry s highest validity levels at price points that fit into real-world budgets. In fact, our industry experience, commitment to innovation and obsession with quality is what drove our desire to become the first and only U.S.-based consumer sample provider to earn ISO:26362 certification. Mission accomplished January, 2014! Sample Sources and Recruitment 2 Please describe and explain the type(s) of online sample sources from which you get respondents. Are these databases? Actively managed research panels? Direct marketing lists? Social networks? Web intercept (also known as river) samples? There is one thing every single Full Circle member has in common: each has double opted-in, starting with registration at Survey Roundtable, our inaugural community panel. Survey Roundtable is built, of course, through traditional online sample sources, including exclusive partnerships with content-driven website publishers, associations with social networking sites and real-time intercept sampling.

3 3 But sticking only with the same-old online sources? That s just so flat. Which is why we developed a proprietary approach to boost representation and solidify validation far beyond what everyone else is doing. It s a mix of technology (online) and human (phones) sourcing that we call our Mixed-mode Validation Process (MVP), and it s pretty obvious why it s Full Circle s most valuable player. MVP is everything that s good about multiple layers: our combination of online and phone recruitment is multi-layered. Our validation is multi-layered. From sample to data, MVP is simply the most evolutionary sourcing process in the market to date. And rest assured that we ll never rest on our laurels. MVP will evolve as emerging trends expose new and advanced ways to engage audiences and secure the information they provide. 3 If you provide samples from more than one source: How are the different sample sources blended together to ensure validity? How can this be replicated over time to provide reliability? How do you deal with the possibility of duplication of respondents across sources? The sucessful blending of MVP s different sources is what makes Full Circle come... full circle. We ensure against duplication by employing the industry s leading security software, RelevantID. Its unique identifier allows us to understand (and subsequently shut down) members computers if they ve already taken the survey. Even better, RelevantID gives us deep knowledge to help us replicate reliability over time, solidifying our client s confidence in our product and validating our ISO:26362 certified status. 4 Are your sample source(s) used solely for market research? If not, what other purposes are they used for? Undoubtedly, unabashedly and wholly transparently, our sample sources are used solely for market research purposes. We do not share or sell any information to third parties for marketing or advertising (no matter how much they beg). And our privacy policy protects our members from being contacted in any other manner. The way we see it, the best way to fuel a productive partnership between us and our SurveyRoundtable community is to have a little respect.

4 4 5 How do you source groups that may be hard to reach on the Internet? Phones. Did we say that loudly enough? PHONES. It s very exciting when you think about it. Full Circle has positioned itself at the forefront of exceeding client niche segment demand thanks to our flexible online community strategies and powerful phone recruitment center. Even more beautiful, since the phone center is ours, we avoid the price increase otherwise inherent in mixed-mode methodologies. Another bonus? Using phones ups the level of validity that our sample provides, thanks to off-site monitoring and widely respected Sawtooth Software. Of course, we also go ol skool, aligning demand planning strategies with our clients RFP pipelines. We attract the most desired panelists attributes through targeted audience buys and new community profiles. Our website partners, too, are always on deck. This full circle approach (pun fully intended) is how we provide the market s most robust profiling. (Yes, you Smarty Pants, you: it s also one of the reasons for our company s name.)

5 5 6 If, on a particular project, you need to supplement your sample(s) with sample(s) from other providers, how do you select those partners? Is it your policy to notify a client in advance when using a third party provider? We re going to let you in on a little secret: Full Circle doesn t have secrets. We don t play games. We keep our promises. And we only partner with sample providers that do what we do, at the same level of integrity at which we do it. (Important, of course. But really important when it comes to ISO:26362 certification, which requires that our partners sign contracts agreeing to adhere to ISO:26362 standards.) We share our stringent outsourcing process with our clients during our very first meeting, identifying a cost- and time-effective Plan B from the get-go. Most often that Plan B also includes that something no other sample provider can offer at online price points: phone recruitment. It s our first line of defense in satisfying a client s project in flying colors, right on time. Incidentally, the decision to supplement our community is not one we take lightly. Multi-panel membership, if not properly managed, can dilute data until it s unusable. That s just a huge waste of time and money. And that s why we only work with highly controlled, preferred networks not contracted for other providers panel builds and/ or guide our clients toward choosing one source per project (it all can make a vast, positive difference on the end result). Also helpful? Industry-leading RelevantID s digital fingerprinting, which ensures that the same member is unable to take the same survey more than one time. This remains our single greatest defense against duplication when integrating clients sources into our own. Sampling and Project Management 7 What steps do you take to achieve a representative sample of the target population? This is going to sound complicated but it s really common sense: we apply a disproportionate census stratification strategy to our sample distribution to account for varying response rates per each census segment. What does that mean? Here s an example: Males possess response rates far lower than that of females 55 years and over. To ensure representative starts to the survey, we include a larger number of male s in the sample batch to offset the lower response rates. Then we do the exact opposite for females 55+, thereby ensuring we do not oversample. A nice, neat, proven method for achieving the balanced completes our clients are after.

6 6 8 Do you employ a survey router? That answer would be a no. Seeing as the market research industry has not yet standardized rules on router utilization, we prefer to stick with technology we can control. 9 If you use a router: Please describe the allocation process within your router. How do you decide which surveys might be considered for a respondent? On what priority basis are respondents allocated to surveys? No router here. 10 If you use a router: What measures do you take to guard against, or mitigate, any bias arising from employing a router? How do you measure and report any bias? No router here, either. 11 If you use a router: Who in your company sets the parameters of the router? Is it a dedicated team or individual project managers? Seriously. No router. We promise. 12 What profiling data is held on respondents? How is it done? How does this differ across sample sources? How is it kept up-to-date? If no relevant profiling data is held, how are low incidence projects dealt with? Like any good data pack rat, we keep every bit of profiling data our Survey Roundtable community throws at us. Sample source makes no difference. At registration, we collect 25 demo points (think: age, gender, region and household demographics). Then, to acquire even more data from our members, we deftly merge 12 profilers into one, 15-minute profiler that we link to our double opt-in process. This nifty profiler dives deeper into consumer and B2B members electronics choices, ailments, mobile and gaming preferences, financial status, smoking status, travel choices and other psychographic information. Of note, we also store the data drummed up from specialty surveys pre-screeners and profiling surveys.

7 7 To keep our data up-to-date, we automatically update panelist info as well as encourage community members to expand their own profiles to better tailor their survey experiences. And, again, that phone-thing: We ll call to verify records both randomly and before/after survey completion. Now, if no relevant profiling data is held and/or a community is niche even for our farreaching capabilities, we roll up our sleeves and get to it. We access website traffic via our publisher relationships. We tap into our telephone recruitment bank. And we call on our exceedingly trustworthy, highly qualified extended partner network. 13 Please describe your survey invitation process. What is the proposition that people are offered to take part in individual surveys? What information about the project itself is given in the process? Apart from direct invitations to specific surveys (or to a router), what other means of invitation to surveys are respondents exposed to? You should note that not all invitations to participate take the form of s. Our ISO:26362-approved survey invitation process reflects the respect we give to our community members it s the simplest, most effective way to nurture our enviable community build. Every invite is transparent, providing pertinent information including the generic nature of the survey topic (we remove bias or baiting by eliminating screener clues). We are also upfront about our expectations regarding specifics such as survey length, how long the survey will be open and incentive offers. An opportunity to unsubscribe from our community is always included, as well is our community feedback address. Our adherence to a strict code of ethics applies to every project we recruit, including those done via our phone bank. Our experienced recruiters gain permission before accepting addresses and offer new members the choice of registering right then and there or doing so via a web-based link. 14 Please describe the incentives that respondents are offered for taking part in your surveys. How does this differ by sample source, by interview length, by respondent characteristics? The type of audience, how long the project takes to field, its incidence, complexity, length and topic it all factors into our structured incentive program. As our aim is to maximize response rates, we take the time to tailor the incentive to the member. Of course we do not ever advertise incentives to join our community. But once the registration and security process is complete, our members can have at it. At this time, our community earns points to acquire virtual debit cards and other virtual gift card options.

8 8 To keep tabs on the temperature of our Survey Roundtable community, we continually (but not annoyingly) administer community satisfaction surveys. We catch up on likes, dislikes and interest in future incentives. We then match these desires with our incentive partners offerings, everything from local restaurants and store gift cards to charitable organizations, VISA gift cards, credits on Amazon, itunes and much more. 15 What information about a project do you need in order to give an accurate estimate of feasibility using your own resources? All we need is incidence, respondent specifics, length, fielding timeline and complete levels/quotas. Piece of cake. 16 Do you measure respondent satisfaction? Is this information made available to clients? We are really, really good at online market research. We are really, really bad at ESP. So when it comes to measuring respondent satisfaction we don t guess. We ask! And the Survey Roundtable community does not hold back, eagerly sharing their opinions of our service and surveys. To ensure the growth of a healthy, vibrant community, we actively engage in these relationships before, during and after survey completion (and sometimes randomly, just for fun). We also provide friendly, knowledgeable 24/7 customer service a community for our community. And this information is, of course, available to any client who asks for it. 17 What information do you provide to debrief your client after the project has finished? Let s discuss transparency, shall we? As in: we re huge fans. Which makes our post-project debriefing a highlight of our client experience. Our report typically includes a variety of relevant information, including study metrics, gross sample, start rate, field work process and so on, and can be further tailored depending on each client s needs. That said, it s our revelations that really do the debriefing justice. We strive to teach our clients what we know along the way, so they can make more educated, effective decisions with the data that we ve provided to them. And our in-depth consultations have lasting appeal: with the knowledge they gain, our clients are more able to effectively manage future studies. It s the Full Circle win-win.

9 9 Data Quality and Validation 18 Who is responsible for data quality checks? If it is you, do you have in place procedures to reduce or eliminate undesired within survey behaviors, such as (a) random responding; (b) illogical or inconsistent responding; (c) overuse of item non-response (e.g., Don t Know ); or (d) speeding (too rapid survey completion)? Please describe these procedures. At Full Circle, data quality control is a shared responsibility that starts well before projects are launched. With our clients, we explore a variety of quality procedures, including speed-check limitations and red herring traps, to help identify which combination will obtain the most righteous data. We also deploy RelevantID, Verity and a proprietary internal algorithm to protect our quality (and our rep). 19 How often can the same individual be contacted to take part in a survey within a specified period whether they respond to the contact or not? How does this vary across your sample sources? Regardless of sample source, our community members receive no more than eight invites a month. We purposefully dispatch an amount lower than industry standard to elicit higher response rates from our members (a proven approach). We also place moratoriums on participating in similar survey genres. Doing so ensures a more active, vibrant community to better achieve quality data.

10 10 20 How often can the same individual take part in a survey within a specified period? How does this vary across your sample sources? How do you manage this within categories and/or time periods? We allow Survey Roundtable members to complete up to four surveys a month, no matter the sample source or category. We can exclude members based on survey experience for the same client or subject, even the amount of time between survey participation. We can batch-deploy invitations across any demographic/psychographic information, including time zones, geography and more. We can also differentiate between those who received invites and those who completed surveys all of which is key to eliminating community exhaustion. It also keeps us efficient regarding participation rates which, as you d assume, is a big benefit to our clients bottom lines. 21 Do you maintain individual level data such as recent participation history, date of entry, source, etc., on your survey respondents? Are you able to supply your client with a project analysis of such individual level data? Maintaining individual level respondent data is integral to ensuring fresh, clean and accurate communities. New members receive an ID number at registration, which they keep for their entire tenure with us. We protect their survey participation, history, date of entry, source and many more data points throughout our partnership by using industry-leading security and survey software. And we re not selfish. Sharing this type of information with our clients is our pleasure. Only thing off-limits? Personally Identifiable Information (PII), of course! 22 Do you have a confirmation of respondent identity procedure? Do you have procedures to detect fraudulent respondents? Please describe these procedures as they are implemented at sample source registration and/or at the point of entry to a survey or router. If you offer B2B samples what are the procedures there, if any? Do we have a confirmation of respondent identity procedure? How about ISO: certified procedures? Full Circle s MVP puts an immediate stop to any fraudulent respondent who dares try to tap into our panel, consumer, B2B or otherwise. First, we kick in Relevant ID, a third-party validity resource that provides real-time digital fingerprinting. This ensures de-duplication amongst the incoming sample sourcing. Next, our algorithm automatically identifies red flags regarding user information, past history and participation, fraudulent proxy servers and more. Then we tap into the powerful identity validation and fraud protection of Imperium s Verity. And, for the cherry on top, our phone center verifies our members PII (eliminating the self-reported data worries inherent in the online registration process).

11 11 Policies and Compliance 23 Please describe the opt-in for market research processes for all your online sample sources. The Double Opt-in process (DOI) isn t new, but it works and it works well. We start with our exclusive website partners, who engage our clients audiences while doing what they love at sites they already trust. Potential community members are asked if they d like to participate in market research studies. If so, and with one click, they re introduced to Survey Roundtable. Our registration form collects simple, basic, demographic information, including names and addresses. The Full Circle system then sends confirmation s, which include personalized DOI links. Members click their links to confirm community membership and voilà! They re instantly participating in applicable open surveys. This process is proven to produce higher-than-industrystandard response rates, which makes Full Circle-sense. 24 Please provide a link to your Privacy Policy. How is your Privacy Policy provided to your respondents? For our privacy policy, please visit (wait for it): ilovefullcircle.com/privacy-policy. Besides this link being easily visible on both ilovefullcircle.com and SurveyRoundtable.com, we also include this information in our community registration process. We clearly outline that respondent information is for research purposes only and that Full Circle would never sell its data to a third party. Ever. Never. Ever. 25 Please describe the measures you take to ensure data protection and data security. As is Full Circle s mojo, we believe there s strength in numbers. Which is why we re proud to have partnered with Kinesis. Their industry-leading software provides the robust platform we employ against malicious attacks, firewall-evasive applications and convergent online information breakthrough protection. Kinesis allows us to integrate contextual and application-aware networks with deep packet inspection to ensure our performance is not compromised. And its SonicWALL family of network security appliances combines a patented high-speed Reassembly-free Deep Packet Inspection (RFDPI) with robust Unified Threat Management (UTM) security services. In summation? It s simply the finest protection and data security.

12 12 26 What practices do you follow to decide whether online research should be used to present commercially sensitive client data or materials to survey respondents? When it comes to determining if a project is Full Circle-community worthy, we follow the strictest, most trustworthy practice known to the free world: our gut. The only data and materials we ll agree to put in front of our members are data and materials we d want to see ourselves. That said, we cannot presume our gut feels the same as those belonging to every member of the Full Circle community. So sensitive projects are accompanied by warnings in their invitations and again at survey-entry. As an extra precaution, our advanced security measures also disable cut/paste functionality. 27 Are you certified to any specific quality system? If so, which one(s)? [SHOUTING FROM ROOFTOP] ISO:26362, baby! Of all of our accomplishments to date, becoming the first and only U.S.-based online consumer sample provider to earn this certification remains Full Circle s most wildly heralded triumph. It also goes without saying that we adhere to all industry best standards, such as those supported by ESOMAR, EU Safe Harbor, CASRO, COPPA, MRA and others. (Duly noted that we just said it.) 28 Do you conduct online surveys with children and young people? If so, do you adhere to the standards that ESOMAR provides? What other rules or standards, for example COPPA in the United States, do you comply with? We do conduct online surveys with children and young people, adhering vigilantly to the standards that ESOMAR provides (as well as those mentioned in Question 27, above). A minimum age of 13 is required to register for our panel; to work with children under 13, we acquire parental permission. What s more, we only conduct children s and young people s surveys that are appropriate in content and language and request parental oversight throughout the data collection process.