Incentives: The Right Ones Can Work!

While many of our online studies source sample from online panels, we also do a substantial number of studies using client provided opt-in customer lists. Not that long ago, customers willingly completed a survey, purely based on their relationship with the client company. But these days, customers have come to expect an incentive – either in the form of a sweepstakes or as an individual gift. Today I want to talk about individual incentives.

Incentives serve as a nice perk for respondents and increase the likelihood that they will take a survey. However, it’s crucial to consider various ramifications that may come into play. Many clients are tempted to give an incentive that appears innocent, and to be a cost saver for them, but that can actually introduce a major bias. For example, if a restaurant chain wants to give a “free appetizer” incentive – what about the customer that is so disgruntled that they would never revisit your restaurant. The free appetizer would not appeal to them, and you would never get their valuable feedback. The same thing goes for the CPG firm that wants to give one of their products as an incentive. These types of incentives are very effective for an advisory panel, but not for your typical survey.

Another thing to keep in mind when it comes to incentives is to offer something broad and neutral, which can accommodate anyone. Let’s say you were to offer a gift certificate to Bed Bath and Beyond. This prize would most likely appeal to a certain demographic, aka soccer moms, as opposed to young male teens. Thus, you have biased your sample (unless your customer base is only comprised of soccer moms). Something like an Amazon gift certificate would appeal to a broader audience. We have tried other incentives, such as Gap, LL Bean, or Starbucks gift cards. Each of these can have a biasing impact. And of course cash is very neutral, but we have found gift cards much easier to administer.

So the next time your study calls for an incentive, think about any potential bias it could introduce.