Understanding Online Survey Screeners
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.
Pass or Fail: Survey Screener
Unlike taking a test in school, there is no studying beforehand for a survey screener. A survey screener is a brief questionnaire that inquires about various demographic issues as well as issues about the general category of product or service at hand. The results of the survey screener are used to help survey companies decide who is the most qualified or appropriate pool of people to recruit to take a longer paid survey. If you “pass” the screener, then you’ll be invited to the longer paid survey; if you “fail” the screener, you’ll have to wait for a better fitting paid survey. The more matched up the individuals is in areas such as lifestyle, hobbies, and profession to the interests of the client company, the more useful the data gathered will be. For example, men taking online surveys about feminine hygiene products would not turn out usable results for a manufacturer of those products. In the same light, opinions about pet products, baby food, and asthma medication are not really valid to companies unless you have one of these “conditions”.
When you are taking survey screeners, do not try to embellish your answers or “fib” a response to fit what you “think” the client wants to hear. In the long run, this will hurt everyone. Companies will not have sound data on which to base important product development decisions. Therefore, the wrong products will hit the store shelves and consumers will be ultimately dissatisfied. And, if you’ve ever purchased a service or product, you are a consumer too! Also, most survey screeners ask you if you work in the advertising or marketing industry. Many people think that by marking “yes”, they will get invited to the full paid survey. Quite the opposite, most paid surveys do not want individuals who are associated with the marketing industry at all. It is the same philosophy as courts usually disqualifying attorneys to sit on a jury – they just know too much about the inner workings of the system and may have preconceived biases. The best advice about taking survey screeners is just to be as honest about your personal information as possible; even if you don’t get chosen to take the longer paid survey, many survey companies give “perks” for taking the screener – like an automatic sweepstakes entry.