A Message from Kees de Jong
CEO, Survey Sampling International

"I first got the idea to create this initiative during discussions with the ESOMAR E26 committee. At that time - and even now - the industry's attention was excessively focused on fraudulent, inattentive, and professional respondents. I thought that these conversations put quite a negative connotation on our industry's main source. It is also very disrespectful to the millions of people who participate in research because they think it is important -- or just fun."

"How we deal with things says a lot about us. This is why I am not charmed with the manhunt for 'bad respondents'. If we would just spend a small part of that time creating better survey experiences and expanding the group of people that are willing to take surveys, we would all be better off. I remember saying, 'We are now finally collectively fighting for data quality, but we are in the wrong jungle'. Basically, the right cause, but the wrong solution."

"The idea for Research Voice gained momentum as I found several respected industry thinkers immediately agreed there was a need for this initiative. How we sincerely think about respondents and how much energy we put in designing better survey experiences for them will change slowly. But each effort, each step is important. I hope that this initiative will be joined by thousands of people worldwide. Each improved questionnaire, any enhanced experience, will preserve and grow the willingness of people to participate in the next research engagement. Thanks for joining Research Voice."

--Kees

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For many years, the available pool of people willing to participate in surveys has been shrinking. However, evidence strongly suggests that this is not indicative of people not wanting to have their opinions heard. Quite the contrary: the 92 million blogs that exist on the Internet would suggest that there is an extraordinarily robust conversation going on and that people do want to be heard. They just want to do so under their own rules.

Why is this? It’s partly a societal change – people are less automatically subservient to authority; partly technological – Web 2.0 has opened up a whole new way for people to interact; and partly environmental – people are used to a rich and satisfying experience and shy away from poorly designed and presented questionnaires (especially online).

Market research has been very slow to adapt to these changes. It is inherently authoritarian and interrogatory; does not allow for interaction (it’s a one-way conversation); and presents participants with an environment (the questionnaire) that is arid and unsatisfying. As a result, marketing research’s most important resource – high quality data from engaged participants – is under threat. The main sources of poor-quality responses are fatigue, boredom, poorly designed surveys, inappropriate rewards, and an overall failure to make the survey-taking experience one that most people would find appealing.