If you are new to taking surveys online, you may be a little confused about the process. Even more so if you have started taking what you think is a full-fledged online survey, online to be declined a few questions later with a “we’re sorry, you do not match our criteria” – or something like that! Typically, marketing companies, corporations and even academic institutions that solicit people for answers to paid surveys are not looking for responses from the general population. Instead, they want to gather information on a specific set or “demographic” of individuals. These demographics of which I speak are quantitative data that is easily measurable and “hard” such age, educational level, residence, number of children and more.
More often than not, companies conducting online surveys will send out “screeners” to their members as a quick way to find out who meets the minimum required criteria of their study. For example, an energy drink company may be looking for men ages 18 – 34 while a wrinkle cream company may be recruiting women ages 35 plus. What a newbie to online surveys sometimes doesn’t realize is that taking the “screener” is the prelude to the actual full-blown paid survey, not the paid survey itself. The screener is like a little mini-survey; if you pass, you’ll be invited to participate in the longer paid market research project. As a token of appreciation, many survey administrators will enter people who don’t qualify (and thus won’t typically get paid) into periodic sweepstakes for cash and other prizes.
While taking “screeners” may seem like a waste of your time, it definitely isn’t. Even if you do not qualify for a particular paid survey, it does put the survey site on notice that you are an active, interested member ready to receive more online survey invitations. My biggest beef with screeners is when companies have extraordinarily lengthy screeners and then tell you “no thanks” at the end – almost like they’ve tricked you out of the information needed and now don’t have to payout. Most well-intentioned screeners should be comprised of just a handful of questions, taking only a minute or two, and then promptly notify you of your status to take the online survey.
