Panel­book

1. What experi­ence does your company have in provi­ding online samples for market research purposes?

OmniQuest is a company spezia­lized in an opinion survey project was founded in 1996 and stands for profes­sional field solutions using compre­hen­sive methods ever since. We have our own online panel, which has conti­nu­ally grown since 2008 and already features over 64,000 members by now. an inter­di­sci­pli­nary team of experi­enced project managers coordi­nates numerous nation­wide and inter­na­tional online surveys for renowed clients at insti­tute and industry level and ensures quali­ta­tively and quanti­ta­tively optimal field solutions.

Please describe and explain that you offered types of data sources for online
Samples (involves databases to an actively managed Panel, direct marke­ting lists,
Social networks across the Web collected samples, real time surveys, etc.)?

OmniPanel is an actively managed portfolio Panel. The Panelists are recruited via repre­sen­ta­tive CATI – and face to face trials, as well as online recrui­ting.

3. If you provide samples from more than one source: How are the diffe­rent sample sources blended together to ensure validity?
How can this be repli­cated over time to provide relia­bi­lity?
How do you deal with the possi­bi­lity of dupli­ca­tion of respond­ents across sources?

If there are neces­sity of using external sample sources in a project, we call upon the service of carefully selected external partner panels. Prere­qui­site for a possible coope­ra­tion is the ESOMAR Member­ship of the partner. By compa­ring the survey data in anony­mous form, multiple parti­ci­pa­tions are excluded.

4. Are your sample source(s) used solely for market research? If not, what other purposes are they used for?

OmniPanel is solely used for market research purposes.

5. How do you source groups that may be hard to reach on the internet?

Many panel members are reached via recrui­ting methods, which are integrated in repre­sen­ta­tive, offline CATI- and Face to Face surveys. These surveys take in a large share of the total survey volume of OmniQuest.

6. If, in a parti­cular project, you need to supple­ment your sample(s) with sample(s) from other provi­ders, how do you select those partners? Is it your policy to notify a client in advance when using a third party provider?

In excep­tional cases we call upon the service of carefully selected external partner panels. Prere­qui­site for a possible coope­ra­tion is the ESOMAR Member­ship of the partner. The inclu­sion of partner provi­ders is carried out in coope­ra­tion with the customer.

7. What steps do you take to achieve a repre­sen­ta­tive sample of the target popula­tion?

The measures to be taken are depen­ding to a large extent on the study requi­re­ments and any customer requests. The modula­tion of desired distri­bu­tions is normally made via quota­tions. Optio­nally weightings of the sample depen­ding on actual struc­tural data can be applied after the survey.

8. Do you employ a survey router?

No

9. If you use a router: Please describe the alloca­tion process within your router. How do you decide which surveys might be considered for a respon­dent? On what priority basis are respond­ents allocated to surveys?

We do not use a router.

10. If you use a router: Who in your company sets the parame­ters of the router? Is it a dedicated team or indivi­dual project managers?

We do not use a router.

11. If you use a router: What measures do you take to guard against, or mitigate, any bias arising from employing a router? How do you measure and report any bias?

We do not use a router.

12. What profiling data is held on respond­ents? How is it done? How does this differ across sample sources? How is it kept up-to-date? If no relevant profiling data is held, how are low incidence projects dealt with?

During the regis­tra­tion process, each parti­ci­pant takes part in a master data survey. This study contains approx. 500 criteria, which can be used for sampling and validity checks. The master data are upgraded at least once a year and also at the current survey projects.

13. Please describe your survey invita­tion process.
What is the propo­si­tion that people are offered to take part in indivi­dual surveys? What infor­ma­tion about the project itself is given in the process? Apart from direct invita­tions to specific surveys (or to a router), what other means of invita­tion to surveys are respond­ents exposed to? You should note that not all invita­tions to parti­ci­pate take the form of emails.

The panelists receive the invita­tion with an integrated link to the survey via e -mail or are able to see it in their personal password-protected profile on OmniPanel.de. The invita­tion includes infor­ma­tion about the length of the inter­view, the amount of propo­si­tion and the scheduled timing of the survey. All invita­tion e-mails also include a unique sender, a link to the privacy policy and our legal notice.

14. Please describe the incen­tives that respond­ents are offered for taking part in your surveys. How does this differ by sample source, by inter­view length, by respon­dent charac­te­ristics?

After successful parti­ci­pa­tions in the surveys, panelists receive bonus points on their personal bonus account. The number of points can vary and depend on the length and type of inter­view. The exact number of points is announced in advance for each survey within the invita­tion e-mail.

15. What infor­ma­tion about a project do you need in order to give an accurate estimate of feasi­bi­lity using your own resources?

• Descrip­tion of the target group (country, demogra­phics, study specific target-group charac­te­ristic)
• Number of cases needed
• Ideally the Incidence rate of the target group (if any, other­wise we will be pleased to inves­ti­gate for you)
• Length of inter­view
• Quota
• Field time
• Requested services (Sample-only, programming/hosting, kind of data delivery or data analysis)

16. Do you measure respon­dent satis­fac­tion? Is this infor­ma­tion made available to clients?

We ask our panelists on a regular basis in surveys and during updating of their master data about their satis­fac­tion and the compre­hen­si­bi­lity of our surveys. In the most recent measu­re­ment, 95% of the panelists answered to be (very) satis­fied with our studies. Further­more, there is the oppor­tu­nity for all parti­ci­pants to contact us via mail for questions and sugges­tions.

17. What infor­ma­tion do you provide to debrief your client after the project has finished?

If required we can supply a field report with infor­ma­tion about the comple­tion rate, screen outs and the incidence rate.

18. Who is respon­sible for data quality checks? If it is you, do you have in place proce­dures to reduce or elimi­nate undesired within survey behaviors, such as (a) random respon­ding, (b) Illogical or incon­sis­tent respon­ding, (c) overuse of item non-response (e.g. “Don’t Know”) or (d) speeding (too rapid survey comple­tion)? Please describe these proce­dures.

We try to avoid undesired response behavior already before the survey start by maximi­zing the usabi­lity for the respond­ents. At this we provide advice for the customer concer­ning the length of inter­view as well as suita­bi­lity and practi­ca­bi­lity of the questi­on­n­aire with regard to the online metho­do­logy.

19. How often can the same indivi­dual be contacted to take part in a survey within a speci­fied period whether they respond to the contact or not? How does this vary across your sample sources?

The panelists are invited four times per month on average. Data about the number of ignored and non-ignored invita­tions are stored in the panel and can be used for filtra­tion of the parti­ci­pants. A panelist can be contacted up to two times within one survey (1 invita­tion mail and 1 reminder mail).

20. How often can the same indivi­dual take part in a survey within a speci­fied period? How does this vary across your sample sources? How do you manage this within catego­ries and/or time periods?

The panelist are invited four times per month to a survey on average. Status infor­ma­tion of the parti­ci­pa­tion on other surveys are stored thereby and can be used as exclu­sion criteria to surveys with similar topics as well as for regula­tion of the contact- and invita­tion-frequency.