Pre-qualifying is a market research recruitment method that has many advantages. From better informed, more engaged, and higher-quality participants to cost-effectiveness.
What more could you want from a qualitative recruiting study?
Our market research company discusses the benefits of pre-qualifying participants with a recruitment screener survey in this blog post.
Benefit #1: Pre-Qualified Participants are More Informed About the Study
If you’ve played the game of telephone, you know how easy it is to lose things in translation.
Call scripts help, but receiving information verbally can leave participants feeling confused or missing vital information about the next steps.
This issue is worsened if you have just happened to reach a participant while they’re dealing with additional distractions.
When pre-qualifying, participants can complete the pre-screener and read study descriptions at their convenience.
By the time the re-screening phone call is conducted, participants have already:
- Expressed an interest in participating
- Received a description of the study
- Read study requirements and gained an understanding of what is expected of them
This gives participants the opportunity to review information prior to the re-screening call.
As a result, the re-screening call is an opportunity to refresh participants with what is expected of them, as well as answer any questions they may have.
Benefit #2: Pre-Qualified Participants are More Likely to Follow Through
A major factor of in-person intercepting or cold-calling recruitment is gauging the interest level of the participant.
Determining if a participant’s willingness is based on interest in the study, or feeling sorry for the recruiter can be a tough call to make.
Think of a recruitment screener like a market research RSVP. If you’re sending out a party invite, and someone doesn’t respond, they’re probably not too interested in attending, right?
When pre-qualifying, participants are given the ability to discontinue at any point where they become uninterested in the study, without the discomfort of telling a recruiter “no.”
By the time a recruiter contacts them for the re-screening process, participants have had additional time to decide if the study is right for them.
Benefit #3: Pre-Qualifying Adds an Extra Level of Validation
In other recruitment methods, a participant may be asked screening questions, and then immediately be placed on the study.
Once the data is collected and reviewed, it may appear that the participant never qualified at all.
This can be due to:
- Participants misunderstanding a survey question.
- Participants saying what they think will qualify them.
- Participants answering randomly to rush through a questionnaire.
By having participants complete a pre-qualifying questionnaire, and then conducting a re-screening call to determine qualification, you are able to provide answer validation before the participant is ever placed on the study.
Benefit #4: You Have a List Of Pre-Qualified Participants In Case Of No Shows
There are countless reasons you may experience a drop-off of participants, many of them out of your control.
Consider you’re placing reminder calls the night before a focus group. You reach one participant who tells you something came up and they can no longer attend.
You have a tight deadline on a tough recruit, so what now?
Well, if you’ve pre-qualified participants, you have a list of interested, qualified contacts. You just need to call.
Otherwise, you may be left scrambling not only worrying about the availability of potential participants, but also qualification.
Benefit #5: Pre-Qualifying is Cost-Effective
Anyone who’s ever done it can tell you, cold calling is tough. You can spend hours making calls and still be unable to reach someone who is interested and qualified to participate in your study.
Those hours are accounted for in the costs of the study. When pre-qualifying, less time is spent generating interest or assessing qualification.
Our qualitative recruiting company finds that re-screening calls are also completed much more quickly than other methods. In most cases, qualified participants are waiting for the call to sign-up.
All the recruiter needs to do is confirm vital qualification information, and refresh the participant on study guidelines.
Benefit #6: Pre-Qualifying Provides Higher Quality Participants
If you’ve ever conducted surveys via in-person intercepting, or cold-call recruiting, you know that you often have to work with what you have.
When pre-qualifying participants, you are able to review the data from potential participants. From there, you can pick and choose who appears to be the highest quality from a much larger sample.
From the ability to choose from a large pool of qualified participants to the extra level of validation, pre-qualifying ensures that you are left with high-quality respondents.
Contact Drive Research to Pre-Qualify Participants
Drive Research is a national market research company located in New York.
Our qualitative recruitment team acquires large samples of interested participants in a short period of time by utilizing various recruitment methods such as:
- Our in-house panel
- Targeted social media ads
- Grassroots recruiting
This gives us the ability to choose the highest-quality participants for your research projects.
With our unique, high-touch method of recruiting, as well as our rigorous follow-up and confirmation standards, we experience fewer drop-offs from participants.
This means higher completion rates than other research firms you’ve previously worked with.
To learn more about services contact our team today!
- Message us on our website
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 888-725-DATA
- Text us at 315-303-2040
Ashley Reynolds
With nearly 10 years of experience in market research, Ashley has worked on countless quantitative and qualitative research studies. As a Fieldwork Manager at Drive Research, she’s involved in every stage of the project, especially recruitment.
Learn more about Ashley, here.
