April 23, 2012

It’s an indisputable fact that our clients’ business decisions can only be as good as the survey respondents on which their research data is based. Hence, our strategic commitment to embracing industry standards and employing leading data quality programmes.

Overall, we have a multi-level approach to respondent quality. Our proprietary panelist verification process, Lightspeed RealRespondents, is a series of real-time checkpoints that new panel registrants can pass through while completing the panel registration survey. Registrants who fail these checks are unable to join our panels and cannot participate in surveys. As well as automated validation checks, the Lightspeed Panel Operations teams review registration information and look for any patterns in registration information, such as similar passwords, which can be attributed to a panelist attempting to register multiple times.

Lightspeed Research uses a variety of recruitment approaches including opt-in email, co-registration, e-newsletter campaigns, and traditional banner placements, as well as both internal and external affiliate networks. Social media is included through our recruiting partners. This ensures a more balanced approach to panel building and makes it harder for the fraudsters to get under the wire.

Lightspeed Research also provides support to the survey process through Lightspeed RealResults, which leverages our technology and expertise to identify and remove duplicate respondents from surveys prior to their survey entrance. For surveys hosted by Kantar, a panelist who does not participate in the survey to an expected quality level can be identified through the script set up and those answers can be removed from the final data set. The panelist’s overall quality of response across a number of surveys can then be reviewed by Lightspeed Research for possible removal from the panel.

In addition, the TrueSample process has been added to Lightspeed Research’s online quality checks in the US. TrueSample ensures that all respondents are real, unique and engaged. Panelist identification information is verified via a lookup against external databases. TrueSample uses third-party data validation and sophisticated digital fingerprinting to eliminate duplicates from panels and surveys, to help mitigate the chance that no respondent can take a survey twice. In addition there is survey engagement check that flags respondents that fall out outside set parameters of good survey taking behaviour.

What takes TrueSample to another level is its ability to predict and measure survey performance. SurveyPredictor can be used to identify potential problem areas prior to the launch of a survey. It is an online tool that yields a pre-launch predicted score and suggests improvements. SurveyScore allows researchers to review respondent engagement during and after a survey. It provides a comprehensive and objective measure of respondents’ survey engagement when compared against normative data.

Category:Panel Management, Panel Quality
Posted on April 23, 2012



Back to Home >>