What might turn an honest, happy respondent into a despondent cheat?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I’m a dedicated survey respondent. I have lots of reasons why I tenaciously
\n try to respond to every survey invitation that I get:<\/p>\n
But today, even I began to crack. I needed a break from work and thought I’d
\n tackle a few of the survey invitations lurking in my email in-box. Two of them
\n were from a panel that I’m a member of; one was from a research institute. I’m
\n going to start by ranting<\/strike> trying to talk calmly about the panel
\n experience first, and then bring in the research one.<\/p>\nWhy do you repeatedly ask me the same questions?<\/h4>\n
Here’s what I’d like to say to the owner of the panel I’m a member of.<\/p>\n
I’m supposed to be a *member* of your panel. Membership implies some sort of belonging, doesn’t it? Shouldn’t there be some sort of continuity in that experience?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n
\nBut no. Every single survey that I get from you starts by asking me a slew of the same questions. I’m simply getting tired of telling you, again and again:<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n
- my age<\/li>\n
- where I live<\/li>\n
- my marital status<\/li>\n
- my employment status<\/li>\n
- my household income<\/li>\n
- that I’m a business owner<\/li>\n
- the number of employees in my business<\/li>\n
- that I’m the main decision-maker for my business…<\/li>\n
- and on and on and on.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Why can’t you just remember? Please? <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Why don’t you let me answer, occasionally?<\/h4>\n
One of the surveys today started with this message (I’ve lightly anonymized
\n it):<\/p>\n“Thank you for agreeing to take part in this evaluation of the XXXX website.
\n Your feedback will help us improve it”.<\/p>\nAs it happens, at that point I hadn’t agreed to anything – I’d just clicked
\n on a survey invitation that made no mention of what type of survey I’d be getting,
\n or for whom. But we’ll ignore that problem and focus on the cheery idea that
\n ‘my feedback will help to improve a website’. Great! I’m an opinionated person
\n and I enjoy giving advice about how to improve websites. Actually, I enjoy that
\n so much that it’s what I do for a living, what I do for my academic activities,
\n and what I do for relaxation. My lovely, long-suffering husband might complain
\n that I don’t do much else. I was feeling genuinely rather happy that I’d get
\n a chance do to it as part of this survey.<\/p>\nBut no. Screened out again. <\/p>\n
As it happens, this particular panel has screened me out of every single survey
\n invitation I’ve received this year. I’m at the point where I’m going to screen
\n them out.<\/p>\nSo here’s another thing I’d like to say to them:<\/p>\n
\nIf you don’t want my responses, why keep asking me? If you do want my responses,
\n why not humor me by letting me respond, sometimes?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/p>\n
Why do you pound me into cheating?<\/h4>\n