Companies need to know the habits and behavior of the customer to sell more and earn more: who this person is, how he lives, what he likes, where he usually buys, and how he spends his free time. To do this, brand representatives talk to consumers on the Internet, in a specially equipped office, or even at the buyer’s home.
How to become a respondent?
Where to find focus groups? You can search online for St. Louis focus groups. Then you’ll have your favorite sites with constantly updated survey databases. Then you only need to check periodically to see if there are new interesting surveys.
The participants are selected by recruiters. They place ads on sites, thematic branches of forums, in social networks and messengers, and make mailings.
Mailings include those who have already participated in at least one survey. Sometimes the message on the search for respondents includes links to groups in messengers, where you can join yourself.
Most top focus groups are organized for residents of large cities. Often there is a condition that the participant must have lived there for at least 10 years.
What are the surveys? The announcement indicates what format the study will be. There are different options:
- Online survey.
- Focus group – 8-10 potential buyers are invited into the office to discuss some products.
- Hall-test – this is also a face-to-face meeting, but each respondent is interviewed separately.
- A home visit or a trip to the store.
If the message does not indicate the type of research, but there is a list with the dates and times of the surveys in the company’s office, it is almost always a focus group.
Surveys are unlikely to make money all the time. The fact is that research companies keep track of how often a respondent participates in them.
Some companies keep a common database where they enter information about each participant. These organizations and their projects are called a baseline. You can visit a baseline study no more than once every six months. This is necessary so that the respondent has time to switch and forget the details of the survey passed. It is believed that only then will the results be objective. Otherwise, people can get used to the study and begin to fake it, just to hurry up to pass the survey and get paid.
Other companies keep their databases. These research agencies and the surveys they conduct are called non-basic. Each non-base organization’s projects can only be visited once every six months, too.
There are some exceptions. Sometimes a respondent is required not to take surveys for three months. Sometimes they are required to have participated in surveys no more than three times before and not on a similar topic. And for some projects, previous experience is not important at all.
How to leave an application. Recruiters write down in detail the wishes of the participants. If the research was ordered by a coffee company, they choose people who drink coffee of this particular brand. They can look for a target audience without reference to a specific product: for example, owners of dogs and cats.
Usually asked to send such information about themselves:
- Last name, first name, middle name.
- Age.
- Phone number.
- Education, profession, occupation.
- Experience in using the product or service you want.
- Experience in participating in surveys.
The recruiter will contact suitable candidates by phone and tell them what will be done.
Remuneration for participation can be received in three ways:
- In cash at the office of the company, a passport is required;
- transfer to a bank card. To do this, you are asked to send a passport photo. The series and number of the document must be cut off or closed;
- in the form of a Gift Pass gift card. This is a non-personalized “Visa” that cannot be reloaded. Once you spend the rewards, the card can be thrown away.