Top 5 Lessons for Managers of Private Panels
Posted by Jeffrey Henning on Wed, Jun 09, 2010
Here are the Top 5 lessons that professional panel providers can teach managers of house panels of customers and prospects.
 | Sample Sourcing - What you catch depends on where you fish. "Align your panel design with the types of decisions you will make and the reliability you need. If you need to estimate the percentage of your customers with certain attitudes or propensities to purchase, then build a probability panel by randomly selecting customers to participate. If you are more interested in qualitative insights (directional but not projectable), then take a more ad-hoc approach to recruiting panelists." |
 | Panel Recruitment - Once you have them on the line, don't let them get away. As soon as they've agreed to join the panel, have them complete a profile survey. "Field detailed profile surveys. As the last stage of recruitment, encourage panelists to complete a basic profile. Periodically invite them to complete more detailed profiles as well. Build a full picture of your panelists so that you can precisely target future surveys to them. |
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 | Panel Management - Channel their energies. "Limit the number of surveys to 1 or 2 per panelist per month. Almost a quarter of the panels that specified a limit claim not to survey panelists more than once a month on average. If that is a good practice for professional panels, it seems like excellent advice for panels of customers." |
 | Data Quality & Validation - Tame the bears. "Enforce best practices that lead to satisfied panelists. Don't let panel users field long and tedious questionnaires to panelists, but guide them through the process of creating short, engaging surveys." |
 | Policies & Compliance - Good policies make good fisheries. "Document research guidelines. Many in-house panels are created in a response to rampant Do-It-Yourself surveying, which is often done with little oversight or quality control. Develop detailed guidelines that all panel surveys should observe in order to improve the consistency and reliability of the surveys your organization is fielding." |
Want to learn more? For the full results of this study, download our white paper, Panel Management Secrets: Lessons from the Professionals, or view our recorded research webinar of the same name.