How Marketing Research Companies Ensure Quality Data from Online Surveys

Online market research has exploded in the last two decades thanks to the advent of computers. As the use of online data collection continues to rise, so does the research industry's concern about data quality. Quality of data was rated as the most important attribute in selecting a research agent. Ensuring data quality through online surveys is designed to ensure honest, thoughtful opinions from real survey respondents from the recruitment process, to panel management system, to sampling tools.

But, how do marketing research companies fight against fraudulent panelists? What is the methodology used to ensure data quality? The following discusses how research companies identify and remove bad respondents, such as those who take too many surveys, those who are inattentive, and those who provide dishonest answers in order to qualify for incentives.

The following are some examples of how research companies ensure data quality:

Step 1. The recruitment process is the first aspect that contributes to data quality. When visitors register for an online survey panel, the research company must first verify the potential registrant. They verify the registrants email address, and password. Once the research company's management system identifies the registrant the registrant may then be announced that they are now a "new member" panelist.

Step 2. The new member's name, address, city, state, gender, are recorded to be used to assist in identifying duplicate panel addresses.

Step 3. Once a new member receives a survey opportunity request via email, the research company verifies the email address through a double opt-in registration process to ensure the email address is unique. So, the new member will type in their email address to get to the survey but may have to type their email address a second time.

Step 2. The research company will then verify the new members IP address (the numeric address of a computer on the internet usually the IP from the computers modum). Note that the IP address is different from the computers MAC code (taken from Harddisk, Mainboard, or CPU). The IP address verification helps the research company identify registrants who have a blacklisted IP address as a result of past fraudulent activity.

Step 3. The research company then checks for a proxy server. A proxy server is used to mask the registrant's true IP address and past fraudulent activity. Simultaneously, the research company will geoFence the panelist. GeoFencing locates the registrant's country of origin through their IP address and redirects the registrant to the appropriate country's panel registration survey.

Step 4. The research company may then verify the registrant's postal address and zip/postal codes against a global address directory.

Step 5.To ensure that the responses are generated by a human and not by a computer, the research company's management system will run Captcha. The term CAPTCHA (for Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart) is a program that protects websites against bots by generating grading tests that humans can pass but current computer programs cannot. A common type of CAPTCHA requires that the user type letters or digits from a distorted image that appears on the screen. Because other computers are unable to solve the CAPTCHA, any user entering a correct solution is presumed to be human.

Step 6. The research company may verify the computers unique ID, or MAC ID.Each computer has a unique ID generated by proprietary algorithm to ensure only one registrant per computer can join the survey panel.

Step 7. Once these steps have been verified many research companies will use a series of quality management checks to ensure that respondents who don't participate in the survey to the best of their abilities are identified. Respondents who rushed through the survey are identified by comparing survey completion times to the norm. Respondents who rushed through grid questions are identified by comparing grid completion times to the norm. Survey questions with obvious answers can determine whether a panelist is fully engaged with the survey. Finally, feedback from panelists is gathered and assessed to help determine the quality of the survey.

These are just a few components of the solutions to ensure data quality. By continuously enhancing technology and practices regarding recruiting, panel and sample management, and survey execution, marketing research companies ensure the highest level of online data quality available in the industry.