Going beyond the evite in Qualitative Recruiting

by Lexy Frazier, Director Qualitative Recruiting

We bid on literally thousands of qualitative recruiting studies each year, and often with new clients I am asked why they should use us.  Price being equal or similar, what are the factors that should be considered in choosing a qualitative recruiting vendor?

Here are a few considerations:

1. Who is recruiting the study and how are they doing it?  If all communications are conducted via email, then there may be no one who is speaking with potential participants.  This impacts overall respondent quality. Speaking with participants is essential in order to monitor language barriers, assess engagement levels and identify distraction potential. 

2. How experienced are the project managers and recruiters?  Especially with complicated screening criteria or hard-to-find specialties, the more experienced the team, the more likely it is that they will have ideas for how to optimize feasibility.     

3. How fast can you get in field?  And how fast can changes be implemented?  Sometimes a recruit starts and criteria needs to be adjusted, and adjusted again, and again – the efficiency with which fielding begins and then can be altered is a game changer when a project timeline is tight.

4. How often are you getting project updates?  Sometimes no news is actually bad news if a recruit isn’t going smoothly.  It’s critical to get updates throughout the entire project so you know where the project stands and can proactively address any potential issues.

5. Does the company have a vigorous confirmation process that includes both email and verbal reminders?  When the primary means for recruiting and scheduling is e-contact, no-show rates can increase. 

Bottom line:  There is more to qualitative recruiting than sending an evite or passing a screener. Give equal consideration to what happens once the project starts as to getting it started.