For most studies, you’ll be asked to fill out a screening questionnaire so we can make sure we’re reaching the target our clients want to reach. Public health and market research requires that we speak to a wide variety of different people who have different experiences whether as a member of a demographic group, a user of a particular product or service or people with specific healthcare issues.
For marketing research we’ll often want to hear from both users and non-users of brands to help companies do a better job. For public health research we’ll want to hear from different ages, demographic groups and people with different experiences when it comes to health, to ensure that our clients, the public agencies, are hearing from different kinds of people.
As a public health and market research firm, our top priority is protecting our respondents’ contact information they provide as part of the registration process . We do not sell the information to third parties for marketing or sales or any other purposes. We will only use that information in order to reach out to you to invite you to interesting research studies where peoples’ opinions are needed. Our business model depends on people trusting us and so we take that responsibility seriously. Even the clients who hire us do not have full access to your contact information.
People who show up to the research session on time and commit to the full duration of the study will be compensated the full amount they were promised during the recruitment process. We typically pay between $100 and $200 per person after the completion of the focus group. Depending on the topic, it could be more. For virtual studies, payment is via Zelle, PayPal or Venmo typically within 48 hours of the completion of the group. We can also mail checks to US based respondents via snail mail. International respondents are paid via appropriate, locally appropriate methods.
If you were invited to a study, it is because you fit the criteria of the type of people our clients want to hear from. For example, for a Medicare study, we would want to hear from seniors who are on Medicare.
For virtual studies, once you’ve been invited, you will be provided a date, time and a link to the RemoteAccess™ portal which is where the research activities will take place. You will log in (or register) for the study and there will be instructions on the website to guide you. You’ll also receive reminders from the system, once you’re registered.
For in-person studies, you will receive a time and date for the research session and the location. The location is usually in a conference room facility where focus groups are conducted. Occasionally, it might be at another location (corporate offices, hotel conference rooms or even hospital office buildings).
Our research discussions are led by professional moderators who will guide the discussion topic and keep everyone on track. Our moderators try to keep the conversations interesting. Your role, as a participant, is to offer your honest, straightforward opinion or experiences on the topic. There are no right or wrong answers. Anything you say will help our clients improve their services, products or experiences, so your input is invaluable.
For every research study we do, we need to make sure that the person being recruited has some knowledge of the topic we are discussing. For example, if we want feedback from pickup truck owners, we won’t want to talk to minivan owners. For healthcare studies, we might want people who have a certain type of insurance, or perhaps are suffering from certain health conditions.
In addition, to make sure we have a wider range of responses, we try to get a diverse group of people within that category of participant. For example, we might want to make sure we have both young and older respondents in a group. Or we might want to speak to people who use their trucks for business only (versus recreation). For healthcare studies, we might want to speak to people who are being treated and those who are not being treated for a specific condition. Every study is different and there are specific types of people we want to talk for each study.
The survey helps us find the right people for the discussion. All answers are kept strictly confidential and are never sold to third parties. They are only used to help us select the right people for each study.
