Benchmarking Consumer Participation in Research
One aspect of research that can never be investigated enough is the role of consumer participation. Without it, the research industry is handcuffed. How do we get consumers to engage with us and what do those folks look like? Until now, there was very little data available to answer these core questions. Yesterday, GreenBook released their inaugural GRIT Consumer Participation in Research (CPR) report. The study included a whopping 1,587,281 respondents and challenged some of the conventional research wisdom. More importantly, this report sets a statistical benchmark on the study of consumer participation. I can’t say enough positive things about this report and I commend GreenBook for taking the first crack at analyzing this on such a large scale. I highly recommend you read the entire report if you have the time. For those of you who need the quick run-down, here are my key takeaways
Mobile is growing but desktop is still king
81% of surveys were taken on desktop and only 19% on mobile. The report indicated that mobile participation is on the rise compared to numbers (13.2%) that came out earlier this year. Although this is positive for mobile, it still shows the dominance of desktop as the preferred approach in survey participation.
Tweetable takeaway
19% of GRIT CPR respondents globally were using a mobile phone.
Mobile is growing but desktop is still king
Something to think about…
Is there something that could derail the growth of mobile as the preferred research approach in survey participation? In my opinion, the perception of surveys as long, on-going exercises could hinder the growth because although people use their phones more than ever now, it’s typically for a series of short activities and not for longer exercises.
Incentives are not always necessary for participation in research
A common assumption in data collection is that people prefer to be compensated when taking surveys. This assumption may be rooted in another assumption that survey takers perceive surveys as long, drawn-out activities of 25 minutes or more.
Paradigm shift in compensation beliefs
48% of respondents said they preferred NOT to be paid to take surveys. Although this stat is shocking, it does not mean that incentives are not a vital element in most research projects, but it certainly indicates that awards are not the primary driver of engagement.
Perhaps your first thought when you read this stat was that the numbers were skewed by the numerous countries that aren’t accustomed to being paid for surveys. On the contrary…..
The report showed that the U.S. (familiar with paid surveys) preferred NOT to be paid even more (52%) than the global average (48%).
Tweetable takeaway
Incentives are not always necessary for participation in research
48% of respondents said they preferred NOT to be paid to take surveys
iOS/Safari connection has a big impact on mobile
87% of desktop respondents used Windows as their operating system.
The top 3 desktop browsers are Internet Explorer (39%), followed by Chrome (30%), then by Firefox (21%). These 3 browsers held 90% of the desktop browser landscape in the study, further validating the importance of optimizing survey platforms to be compatible to the 3 main desktop browsers.
The leading mobile browser globally was Safari at 41%. Android followed at a distant second at 18%. These stats are consistent with the dominance of iOS as the most used OS in the study. In the US, the leading mobile OS was iOS (51%), followed by Android (25%), then by Linux (11%).
Tweetable takeaway
iOS/Safari connection has a big impact on mobile
The validation power of “fresh” respondents
Outside studies have shown that first-time responders (aka “Fresh Responders”) provide more reliable replies to surveys than practiced (seasoned) responders do. 68% of respondents in GRIT’s CPR report were “fresh”, providing some validity to the study as a whole.
Tweetable takeaway
68% of respondents in GRIT’s CPR report were “fresh”
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