Challenges to Overcome for Online Community Based Studies
Online communities for market research are a well-known, rapidly growing technique with many benefits for participants and researchers alike. If they are well managed, MROCs can give you instant insights providing researchers with access to participants’ thoughts that they didn’t previously.
In addition, since they are conducted on the internet in a safe and secure environment, users feel at ease expressing their opinions. They can do it any time, anyplace – which means that MROCs can easily be integrated into participants’ hectic schedules.
Suppose you consider that market research conducted online communities are usually faster and less expensive than conventional methods. In that case, it’s easy to see why they’re so popular amongst market research methods.
As with any technique, there are issues to address to achieve the desired desired results.
Eliminating recruitment risk and the risk of dropping out
If you’re required to meet specific quotas or segments you have to be adhering to, it may be not easy to find respondents. And when you do manage to find them, you’ll want to do all you can to maintain them!
During the recruitment process, you can use many ways to ensure your MROC is running smoothly and that the candidates remain involved.
In the first place, be sure to inform them of what you expect from them so that there aren’t any surprises. Do they have to devote 30 minutes each day for a month? Or will it potentially take longer than this? It is always best to be completely transparent with respondents, as they can become very frustrated when things take much longer than suggested.
Clearly, defining the expectations from the beginning in a concise document can bring about a drastic change. We also recommend an over-recruiting rate of 20-30% in case you have dropouts on the day; you have a plan.
Ensuring your onboarding goes smoothly.
A lack of a proper process for onboarding can have a negative impact on the entire study, from having trouble logging on to the platform to being required to complete tasks that they didn’t expect to finish. Not having an effective onboarding process could result in unhappy participants abandoning the study.
There are a few actions you can take to stop this from occurring:
provide ample time to get the onboarding done before the community is launched (up to 48 to 72 hours when it is possible)
Include an ice-breaker to make people feel more comfortable around each other if they’ll be directly interacting with one another. This can result in more authentic and thoughtful responses to tasks.
Inspiring participation and increasing engagement
It’s crucial that your members feel valued throughout the process to keep them interested by offering bonuses along with the first incentive for participating in the community could be an excellent way to accomplish this. For example, supply a sixty-pound incentive for taking part but propose an additional twenty for having exceptionally detailed answers.
It is also possible to enlist an individual Community Manager to take care of any issues and respond to any queries to increase participation. It is essential to contact your users,, so think about how much time the community you have created will take. Also, it is advised to consider how often you’ll need to contact your members if your research community has unexpected changes or updates. It needs to be possible to contact your members regularly.
An initial phone conversation is typically the most effective method to accomplish this, as it ensures that all issues can be dealt with promptly. It is also essential to consider ways to keep participants accountable to finish their work by a gentle reminder text message could be helpful to remind them about upcoming deadlines.
Becoming adept at tackling complex technology problems
One of the most challenging hurdles to conquer is selecting the correct software. There are issues such as the lack of assistance or software that’s difficult to use, resulting in dropouts. This is why it’s crucial to know what you require from your research and adjust your software to meet your needs well in advance.
It’s also worth thinking about using an app that makes things easier for your members and allows them to join the community and finish tasks while on the move. Allowing respondents to use their mobile devices improves their completion rate as they can easily fit it into their daily routine.
Before you begin the community, make sure you provide participants with an information sheet that outlines what they should do and how to reach them and demonstrate the software and test it with respondents beforehand to eliminate any problems. Tech checks are always essential for any online video study. Vocal Views provides an online video interview solution.
To deal with any issues after the community starts, make sure that there are support advisors during and out of office hours to address problems quickly and eliminate any frustration.
Increase engagement by engaging in exciting tasks
If your community is asking repetitive questions or has nothing unique about it, the patience and quality of your respondents’ answers will be lower in consequence.
From discussion and blogging to brainstorming and blogging, ensuring you have fun, regularly scheduled, and flexible activities appealing to your attendees will ensure that they are eager to participate and give their feedback.
In Conclusion
If you have enjoyed this blog and found it helpful, please do not hesitate to check out our other blogs on our Vocal Views website!
Suppose you are a potential client considering carrying out an online community-based study or just someone looking to partake in one. In that case. In that case, Vocal Views is more than capable of fulfilling your needs.
As a company, we have carried out a plethora of projects of this nature with incredible success, so we felt the need to share our intel on the matter to help others in our community.
If you want an efficient, diversely sourced group to participate in your online community, you are always welcome here at Vocal Views.
