Custom online panel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A custom online panel is a group of pre-screened respondents who have expressed a willingness to participate in surveys and/or customer feedback sessions. The custom online panel is also known as a customer advisory panel, proprietary panel or an online research panel. Respondents become "panelists" by completing a profiling questionnaire. The data collected includes demographics, lifestyle characteristics and media habits, which provides a basis for future survey participation.

The panel can range in size from 100 to 100,000 or more people. Unlike renting sample, this is a dedicated group that market researchers can engage with and learn from over time. At a moment’s notice researchers can investigate the attitudes, behavior and opinions of existing or potential customers using interactive surveys, discussion forums and 3D retail environments. Plus, results are available instantly and responses can be tracked over time.

A panel can replace, or supplement, many traditional forms of research such as: telephone and mail surveys, focus groups and on-site interviews. Online panel research yields results within 72 hours, whereas telephone survey results can take 3 weeks. Depending on the nature of the sample source, online research savings are between 50 and 90 percent of the cost of telephone based approaches.

Panels are a growing phenomenon in the market research industry. They bridge the gap between a population that is reluctant to cooperate with telephone surveys and the organizations that need to know their perceptions and attitudes more than ever before.

The custom online panel eliminates the middleman by providing researchers with the ability to gain full control of very large panels; thereby, permitting more timely and effective research than ever before. Advantages of a custom online panel include: achieve depth to respondent profiles with every study; instantaneous results allow researchers to send shorter surveys more frequently; increased customer validation compared to traditional methods.

There are several things to consider when planning a custom online panel; how will you recruit potential respondents, what software will you use to manage the panel; who will be involved to run the panel. It’s important for organizations to allocate internal resources to manage, maintain and effectively utilize the panel. A research plan should be developed to establish panel rules for frequency of contact, length of survey and response rates.

The main article for this category is Opinion poll.