Here's a list of the most common questions asked. It is not comprehensive. If there's any matter not covered here, please get in touch with us using the contact form on the right side ==>
Who do you work for?
Our clients are any researcher who requires participants residing in Singapore for
bona fide research fieldwork. Such as
- Qualitative market research agencies
- Advertising planners
- Freelance researchers
- Usability/user research consultants
- Designers
- Publishers
- In-house researchers
- Software developers
- Public consultative bodies
- PR and media companies
- Qualitative market research agencies
- Advertising planners
- Freelance researchers
- Usability/user research consultants
- Designers
- Publishers
- In-house researchers
- Software developers
- Public consultative bodies
- PR and media companies
How much does respondent recruiting cost?
Your cost can be as low as SGD$30 per respondent (not including the incentive given to respondent).
How do you keep your prices this low without sacrificing quality?
By setting up our in-house recruitment system has led us to a proven, streamlined process for recruiting respondents — and we pass the savings this generates on to our customers.
Second, since we are independent respondent recruiters and not a focus facility, your recruiting dollars don't get diverted to subsidize pricey real estate and overhead.
Second, since we are independent respondent recruiters and not a focus facility, your recruiting dollars don't get diverted to subsidize pricey real estate and overhead.
How do you filter "Groupies" or "Professional Respondents" and minimize their impact on the research work?
1. Through sheer numbers. If we have 6,000+ members, and couples hundred are bent groupies or professional respondents, their damage potential is limited by default - they simply won't get the chance to participate.
2. Rigid control of attendance/participation history. Whilst of course we can't do anything about research they may be undertaking for other agencies if they lie to us about it, to their disappointment they won't be able to take part in more than 2 groups a year for us anyway.
3. Feedback and tip-offs. We get these from clients, viewing facilities, even fellow respondents... once someone is tagged as a 'groupie' or 'professional respondent', they are off our database for keeps. We observe all data protection legislation within the industry precisely, but there are ways of sharing learning to prevent fraud (because that's what it is - obtaining incentive monies by deception)
4. Careful database analysis and de-duplication. Without publishing too many details, it's hard for 'multiple personalities' to get past us.
5. Avoiding the 'recruiter network' - we ONLY recruit from our own database or directly from a client's list, we don't outsource to freelance recruiters.
6. Requiring validation. For example, we will suggest asking all respondents to bring their car documents to the research, or their mobile phone (AND contract!), or the respective credit card, or whatever factor that their recruitment is dependent upon.
Between us we can seriously limit the damage this small and irritating group of people do to the credibility of our industry and the quality of the outputs obtained in research.
2. Rigid control of attendance/participation history. Whilst of course we can't do anything about research they may be undertaking for other agencies if they lie to us about it, to their disappointment they won't be able to take part in more than 2 groups a year for us anyway.
3. Feedback and tip-offs. We get these from clients, viewing facilities, even fellow respondents... once someone is tagged as a 'groupie' or 'professional respondent', they are off our database for keeps. We observe all data protection legislation within the industry precisely, but there are ways of sharing learning to prevent fraud (because that's what it is - obtaining incentive monies by deception)
4. Careful database analysis and de-duplication. Without publishing too many details, it's hard for 'multiple personalities' to get past us.
5. Avoiding the 'recruiter network' - we ONLY recruit from our own database or directly from a client's list, we don't outsource to freelance recruiters.
6. Requiring validation. For example, we will suggest asking all respondents to bring their car documents to the research, or their mobile phone (AND contract!), or the respective credit card, or whatever factor that their recruitment is dependent upon.
Between us we can seriously limit the damage this small and irritating group of people do to the credibility of our industry and the quality of the outputs obtained in research.
Are the respondents all going to turn up?
That's what we're working towards! BUT - respondent recruitment is an art not a science, as it involves those infinitely complex and fallible things we call human beings... and all their busy and complicated lives and priorities.
We do everything we can to select participants who are genuinely motivated and enthusiastic about participating in your research, and we generally get excellent turnout. Respondents also know that cancelling at the last minute or no showing will affect their consideration for future projects with InFocus Group too, and few do it lightly.
However, there will always be factors beyond our control or theirs... and at the end of the day, the keenest potential participant will rapidly adjust their priorities if their child is sick or a work crisis emerges, and anyone can be subject to problems with transport and communications.
That's why always advice on contingency planning - over recruitment, in the case of group discussions, back up slots for one-to-ones, whatever is appropriate - we can advise on a suitable strategy to ensure your fieldwork is not derailed by the things we can't control. As ever, the more we know about the mission-critical issues for you, the better job we can do - if one of your sessions is being viewed by 40 clients, we can make sure that that one is the best of a great lot.
Throughout the recruitment, including in the last few hours, we will continuously liaise to tackle any issues arising, and get up to date profiles to your moderator or viewing facility by some means. We also monitor and stay abreast of relevant conditions that may affect turnout and punctuality, and do our best to liaise effectively with all parties concerned to make a success of your research - whatever life throws our way on the night.
We do everything we can to select participants who are genuinely motivated and enthusiastic about participating in your research, and we generally get excellent turnout. Respondents also know that cancelling at the last minute or no showing will affect their consideration for future projects with InFocus Group too, and few do it lightly.
However, there will always be factors beyond our control or theirs... and at the end of the day, the keenest potential participant will rapidly adjust their priorities if their child is sick or a work crisis emerges, and anyone can be subject to problems with transport and communications.
That's why always advice on contingency planning - over recruitment, in the case of group discussions, back up slots for one-to-ones, whatever is appropriate - we can advise on a suitable strategy to ensure your fieldwork is not derailed by the things we can't control. As ever, the more we know about the mission-critical issues for you, the better job we can do - if one of your sessions is being viewed by 40 clients, we can make sure that that one is the best of a great lot.
Throughout the recruitment, including in the last few hours, we will continuously liaise to tackle any issues arising, and get up to date profiles to your moderator or viewing facility by some means. We also monitor and stay abreast of relevant conditions that may affect turnout and punctuality, and do our best to liaise effectively with all parties concerned to make a success of your research - whatever life throws our way on the night.
Do you write screeners?
The simple answer is 'yes of course we do' - but the details are important to clarify.
If you are used to working with a traditional fieldwork agency, you may be expecting a lengthy paper questionnaire with routing instructions, but we don't work in the same way so our processes - and the screening tools they generate - are different too.
For example, our screening on a typical project takes part in 3 distinct phases - certain information we already know from our database record (although many demographics can change so we always re-check details), other things we can incorporate in an online questionnaire (we are happy to send you the link but obviously the routing instructions are not normally visible, this is all coded in the background and we can talk you through anything non-obvious), and other things we keep back for the telephone interview in which the final booking and selection takes place.
We find conducting the initial screening process online is extremely effective - there is no possible way for a human interviewer to consciously or unconsciously bias the results, for example by the way they pronounce or inflect the list in which your client's crucial brand is carefully hidden. Of course for some digitally-excluded respondents we have to use different approaches, but the online screening followed by detailed telephone interview is the approach that brings us the most consistently accurate results.
Of course if you already have the 28 page screener, developed from a previous job or a different market etc, we are happy to work with that and reverse-engineer it to suit our processes. We will always use your exact question wording where we can, especially on attitudinal or segmentation questions. But please don't write one just for us! A list of qualifying criteria, along with whatever supporting information you can share works just fine with InFocus Group.
If you are used to working with a traditional fieldwork agency, you may be expecting a lengthy paper questionnaire with routing instructions, but we don't work in the same way so our processes - and the screening tools they generate - are different too.
For example, our screening on a typical project takes part in 3 distinct phases - certain information we already know from our database record (although many demographics can change so we always re-check details), other things we can incorporate in an online questionnaire (we are happy to send you the link but obviously the routing instructions are not normally visible, this is all coded in the background and we can talk you through anything non-obvious), and other things we keep back for the telephone interview in which the final booking and selection takes place.
We find conducting the initial screening process online is extremely effective - there is no possible way for a human interviewer to consciously or unconsciously bias the results, for example by the way they pronounce or inflect the list in which your client's crucial brand is carefully hidden. Of course for some digitally-excluded respondents we have to use different approaches, but the online screening followed by detailed telephone interview is the approach that brings us the most consistently accurate results.
Of course if you already have the 28 page screener, developed from a previous job or a different market etc, we are happy to work with that and reverse-engineer it to suit our processes. We will always use your exact question wording where we can, especially on attitudinal or segmentation questions. But please don't write one just for us! A list of qualifying criteria, along with whatever supporting information you can share works just fine with InFocus Group.
