How to be a good consumer panelist?

How to become the star of a consumer panel? Following these four simple strategies.

Become the star of the consumer panel with these four simple strategies.

Consumer panelists are an important asset for many companies, helping them understand and predict their customers’ needs. After the tumults of 2020, customer centricity is even more important than before.

Being able to help businesses draft better products and even make a difference is indeed one of the main motives for joining a consumer panel.

However, only quality answers from the right people can actually help companies. Stars of consumer panels share these four important traits that make them invaluable for businesses.

Good panelists answer quickly

Online surveys are such great tools, because they allow companies to get opinions from targeted questions quickly.

If you want your opinion to have weight, it’s best to fill a questionnaire as quickly as possible. When there are enough responses – or enough from people in your age group or region, the survey will be closed and you’ll have to wait for the next one to open.

Participate often – but not too often

Another characteristic that star panelists share is activity: they tend to answer surveys often. Actually, the more active a panelist is, the more surveys he or she receives, since the algorithms favor active participation.

However, to be representative, a panel can not consist of the same people all the time, that is why all the surveys aren’t sent out to all participants. Usually panelists receive from two to four surveys per month.

Provide thoughtful answers

Now, activity and rapidity shouldn’t mean skimming questions and providing one-word replies to open questions. Automated quality control systems alert if a panelist doesn’t answer all the questions with enough information.

Of course occasional short answers and skipped questions are part of the deal – sometimes you just don’t have any information to share – but it should be more of an exception than the rule.

Trick question can get you thrown out

In addition to providing quality answers to all the questions, panelists should pay attention to read each question carefully – and answering what is asked, however silly it may seem.

Sometimes the silly questions can be trick questions that are implanted in the survey to find out whether the participants actually read the questions or just tick off their answers to get to their compensation more quickly.

So if you want to be a good panelist, tell us whether you’ve bought a pet cobra or a rare sports car recently. It will help the survey company funnel out the cheaters and provide higher quality insights about your wishes and needs.

Join us!

Do you want to share your opinion, have fun and make money in the process? Join our consumer panel today!