Sometimes, I have to wonder whether the consumer insights world is an industry of hypocrites.
We Need Respondent Cooperation
As researchers, we depend on the cooperation of respondents. Are you trying to field a telephone survey? Recruiting for a biometric study? Conducting any other kind of primary research? No matter what it is, if people won’t cooperate with us we don’t get the research done.
Yet I can’t count the number of times over the years when I’ve had a research client comment to me, “I never take surveys.” Sometimes this type of comment is made by a graphic designer or copywriter. But frequently it comes from a research director or marketing manager who is in charge of the project. Worst of all, too often the comment is made in a condescending manner. The attitude essentially is, “Imagine those people sitting at home and actually answering our recruiting call. What saps!” That is the very definition of an industry of hypocrites.
But Do We Cooperate?
Response rates to industry surveys such as the GRIT study are often frustratingly low, as well. According to industry guru Leonard Murphy (and I use that description solely to encourage enthusiastic promotion of this blog post!), the response rate on the latest GRIT study is estimated at about 2%. That means 98% of the researchers who are daily asking people to participate in their studies in turn refused to participate in this one.
I conducted in-depth interviews with client-side researchers a few years ago for the GRIT study. Many of the people we invited to participate declined. A few politely told us corporate policy kept them from being interviewed, or they were going to be traveling. Most simply didn’t even bother to respond to the invitation.
What Gives?
How can we expect people to participate in our studies if we as researchers won’t even participate in research? Isn’t that the very definition of hypocrisy?
“Ah,” the non-participating researcher says, “but I’m extremely busy. I don’t have the time to respond to stuff like that at work because I’m swamped with important research projects. At home I’m busy with my family.” That may be true. But the single mother I want in my online focus group is also extremely busy trying to work and raise her kids. The college student I want doing my mobile study is extremely busy taking 16 units, writing for the campus newspaper, and holding down a part-time job at Starbucks trying to pay for her textbooks. The IT manager I want in my B2B study is likely just as busy at work as I am.
“Well,” the non-participating researcher explains, “a lot of the studies I have participated in previously were poorly done. They were boring. I couldn’t even understand the interviewer. I see no reason to subject myself to a boring, irrelevant questionnaire.”
If we as researchers don’t want to participate in bad research projects, why are so many in our industry still writing 30-minute questionnaires with ten minutes’ worth of repetitive grids? Why are so many telephone field centers employing people who are hard to understand because they rush through the script as quickly as possible? If we don’t want to participate in bad or boring research, what makes us think respondents do?
Besides, what a fantastic opportunity to learn what not to do in a research project!
You Can Still Be Selective – But Respond!
I am not advocating that researchers need to participate in any research that comes their way. Phone surveys are politely declined or rescheduled when they catch me in the middle of dinner. I abandon online surveys that are poorly designed or confusing. When interviewers are so poor I have trouble understanding the questions, I quit. I don’t participate in certain projects when I am on deadline and simply can not take the time at that moment. And I won’t engage in any research that is irrelevant to me, or where I feel my participation could adversely affect the project. (Since I’ve moderated a few thousand qualitative sessions, no moderator wants me in one of his/her projects.)
But if I consistently refuse to participate in research, what right do I have to expect people to help me do my job by participating in my studies?
It’s time to stop being an industry of hypocrites. Maybe the Insights Association should establish a new ethical rule. researchers cannot conduct projects unless they also participate in projects. Maybe that way, the response rate to the next GRIT study will inch all the way up to 3%.
It’s time to end the hypocrisy and support the industry in which you work.