Over the years we’ve written about the importance of screening guides for market research recruitment. We’ve gone into a lot of detail about why they’re essential to recruiting and the value of double-screening. Today we’re going to share with you 4 questions that should always be included in your screening guide. Adding these questions to your screening guide helps ensure recruiting the best qualified participants for your study.
Question #1 Demographic Questions—No matter what the subject of your research study—from B2B to medical—your screening guide should include basic demographic questions. Not only will this help easily sort for demographic requirements (for instance, a study that is focused on millennials needs to find participants that fall within the general age span for this cohort), it also ensures that you end up with a representative sample for your study. Basic demographic questions about ethnic/cultural/gender-identity, etc. ensures that you end up with a well-rounded sample.
Question #2 Accessibility/Familiarity with Technology Questions—You’d be amazed at how often moderators are stymied because participants are accepted into a study only to learn that they have accessibility issues, or don’t really understand how to use technology. Never assume that the people you’re screening has the right equipment, or understand how to use a new app (especially for mobile ethnography studies.) A candidate may meet all the other qualifications for your study, but if they don’t have the right devices, or stumble when asked to demonstrate using a new technology, then you need to keep looking.
Question #3 Degree of Closeness or Relatedness to Topic of Study—Asking if the potential candidate has family and/or friends who work(ed) in related fields or organizations of your study will alert you to potential biases about the subject matter of the study. If the respondent answers “Yes” to this question, it doesn’t necessarily disqualify them, but the moderator certainly needs to know this, especially in focus group settings. A person with more intimate familiarity may have certain biases, and may make other participants feel shy about sharing their input because they might feel they don’t ‘know as much.’
Question #4 Psychographic Questions—Demographic questions are easy to come up with, psychographic screening questions are more nuanced. Psychographic questions allow you to select participants based on their daily activities, personal values, purchasing habits, and opinions. You can format these questions as, “Which of these statements best describes your activity/subject/topic?” The answer options would be broken down by usage, frequency, or familiarity. For example: Q: “Which of these statements best describes your viewing habits of website X?”
· I view this website daily
· I view this website between 2-3 times per week
· I view this website monthly
· I never/rarely view this website
Writing a screening guide is an essential part of your market research recruiting efforts. Of course, your final screening guide will have many more questions to help determine qualification for a study, but these four questions should always be included. Our recruiting teams work closely with researchers and moderators to help with screening guide questions. We know first hand how important screening guides are to finding the most qualified people for your study, which is why we are happy to help you write a maximally effective screener for your market research study.
Contact us Today to Learn More about Recruiting for your next Market Research Study.
