Paying Survey Participants

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Paying Survey Participants

By Jennifer Nunez
2007-08-10

Paying Survey Participants

Surveys have experienced a new surge in popularity recently, particularly on the Internet. You don’t have to browse the web long before you come across an offer to earn money just by taking a survey. In fact, there are some people that have made turned a tidy side income just from completing surveys. It doesn’t take them a lot of time; it’s easy thanks to the improvements in web survey technology; and it pays decently considering how little effort is required. Based on these benefits, the boost in web survey participation is fairly simple to understand. Yet in the effort to improve survey participation, many of the organizations that are paying survey respondents are missing the bigger picture – quality vs. quantity.

Who’s on the Payroll?
When distributing a survey, it’s important to keep in mind the target audience. A general market survey can include just about everyone, but if it’s a survey to find out the buying patters of veterinarians, the smart choice would be to limit the survey respondents. It seems simple enough, but it is surprising just how many companies forget this important step. In the end it amounts to money spent in the wrong direction. Using the example above, every dollar paid to a respondent that has no veterinary experience is a wasted dollar and an ineffective use of a research budget.

Who Pays Off?
There’s a reason that some professions earn more money than others – the experience or knowledge is very specialized and not readily available everywhere. Survey respondents are the same way. Very generalized information can usually be collected from almost anyone, which means that paying for such responses isn’t typically necessary. Those respondents that would demand payment are usually no better than those that would offer their responses for free. However, as the information being sought becomes more and more specialized, the pool of respondents shrinks, so eliminating respondents just because they expect payment may not yield positive results. A good general rule of thumb is to consider the types of respondents that are needed and then ask the question of whether you’d pay for those people’s time in other situations. Attorneys, for example, would not give free legal advice, and should therefore not be expected to share their expertise on surveys for free either. Physicians, veterinarians, CEOs, financial advisors, accountants, corporate executives, politicians, and other professionals that typically have either busy schedules or whose time is valuable are all respondents that should be paid for their participation.

What Makes Cents?
Once a decision has been made to pay respondents, the next biggest challenge is determining what will be fair compensation. There are a few different schools of thought on how to handle this situation. Some people advocate that highly specialized respondents should be paid at their normal hourly rate (or an average hourly rate for the industry). Others recommend that 10% of the research budget be allocated to respondent acquisition, and that this amount be split evenly amongst the respondents. Still others believe a flat rate should be established and then calculated into the research budget based on the desired number of respondents (i.e. $50 per respondent for 200 respondents for a total of $10,000 to be worked into the research budget). Quite often, however, organizations already have an amount in mind that they are willing to spend on research. Based on this, either of the first two options are suitable approaches as long as it is understood that the number of respondents may be limited. If the research demands a large sample size, it may dictate the maximum amount respondents can be paid. Also important to consider is how valuable the research is to the organization. While focus testing of marketing may be desirable, it is not what many would consider a necessity. Customer service evaluations or new product testing on the other hand, can be crucial to a company’s financial performance. And in those situations, money spent on research is in fact an investment in the future.

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