There is a lot of discussion within the research industry about response rates, respondent fatigue and the increasing difficulty of engaging people in research.
Having worked in research for more than 30 years, it is certainly a change I have seen myself.
When I first started carrying out business research by telephone, it would not have been unusual to achieve a completed interview from around one in four or one in five numbers called. Today, engaging somebody in that same conversation can be considerably harder.
There are many reasons for that.
People’s time seems more pressured. Roles within businesses have become broader. The traditional receptionist who could tell you exactly who you needed to speak to, when they might be available and perhaps even arrange a suitable time to call is much less common.
There is also the sheer volume of research and feedback requests we encounter.
Buy something and you may be asked to review it. Have something delivered and you may receive a survey. Contact customer services and another request arrives. Stay somewhere, attend something or cancel something and somebody will probably ask what you thought.
From the perspective of each organisation, its particular request may seem quite reasonable.
From the respondent’s perspective, they all accumulate.
Research industry discussion has raised similar concerns about the pressure being placed on participants, while the challenges experienced by major studies such as the Labour Force Survey demonstrate how significant participant engagement can become when reliable decisions depend upon the resulting data. (1)
Perhaps, therefore, the question isn’t simply how we persuade more people to participate.
Perhaps we also need to ask why somebody should want to.
Research relies on goodwill. People are donating their time, consideration, experience, knowledge and opinions because we have asked them to help us understand something.
There is a responsibility attached to that.
When I am designing research, I use an approach I call TORCHV. It is not intended to turn participant engagement into a formula. It is simply a reminder of the different things that can influence somebody’s ability and willingness to take part – Timeliness, Opportunity, Relevance, Comprehension, Help and Value.
Timeliness matters because people’s time has value. We need to think about how much of it we are asking for and whether we’re asking at an appropriate moment. A question might be interesting to the organisation commissioning the research, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it needs to be included.
Opportunity is about making participation genuinely accessible to the people whose views we need. Telephone, online, face to face and postal research all have advantages and disadvantages depending on the audience. The right method isn’t necessarily the easiest one for the researcher. It is the one that enables the relevant audience to participate effectively.
Relevance is equally important. If we’re asking somebody for an opinion, they need to be in a position to have one. Careful audience selection helps make sure respondents have the experience, knowledge or involvement necessary to provide useful information.
Then we have comprehension. The researcher may understand exactly what a question means because they have spent weeks working on the project. The respondent is seeing it for the first time. Language, terminology, question structure and response options all need to work for that person, not simply for the organisation asking.
Help is about giving people the confidence to participate. Why is the research taking place? What will happen to their information? What assurances are there around confidentiality, anonymity or data use where relevant? Where can they ask a question if they need to?
And finally there is value.
I think this may be one of the most important questions we can ask.
What will happen because somebody gave us their opinion?
The value does not necessarily have to be something immediate or tangible for that individual. Research may help improve a service, inform a product, identify something that isn’t working or support a decision about future direction.
It could even confirm that changing something would be the wrong decision.
But there should be a reason for gathering the information.
If I’m helping your organisation by giving you my time and my views, what will you do with them?
There is another aspect to participant engagement which is particularly important when response becomes more difficult.
The headline response rate doesn’t tell us everything.
A large number of completed surveys can look very reassuring, but we still need to understand who has responded and, just as importantly, who hasn’t.
The ONS has spent considerable time addressing these issues within the Labour Force Survey and its replacement. The existing survey’s response levels have improved substantially from their 2023 low, while the Transformed Labour Force Survey has been redesigned with a shorter core questionnaire and other changes intended to improve response quality and representativeness.
A small organisation carrying out customer research is obviously operating on a completely different scale, but the principle remains relevant.
If the people who respond are fundamentally different from those who don’t, we need to consider what that means for the findings.
Good research is not always about hearing from everybody.
It is about hearing appropriately from the people whose views, experiences or behaviour can help answer the question being asked.
And that takes us back to where good research usually starts.
What are we trying to understand?
Why do we need to know?
What decision will the information help us make?
Who can genuinely provide that information?
If we understand those things, it becomes much easier to explain to respondents why we are asking for their contribution in the first place.
Research depends on people.
The least we can do is make sure their time is being used for something worthwhile.
If you are considering research and would value an independent view on the objective, audience or approach before you begin, please get in touch with Ask for Research.
