Frequently Asked Questions
- What is an Access Panel?
- How is the Panel recruited?
- Are Panellists on the Panel for a fixed time?
- So how are they removed?
- What if they no longer wish to stay on the Panel?
- What is the average Panel turn-over?
- If respondents are on the Panel for a long time, how do you keep their details up to date?
- How many studies does the average respondent complete each year?
- How do you ensure panellists are not "over-used" becoming "professional" respondents?
- How do you know panel members aren't different from other consumers?
- What kind of response rates can I expect?
- When is an Access Panel not appropriate?
What is an Access Panel?
An access panel is a representative group of respondents who have been pre-recruited and who agree to take part in research. Since they have already provided details about the demographics of all individuals in the household as well as a range of other information such as household income, consumer durable ownership plus usage of a range of products we can target the surveys sent to them very precisely.
How is the Panel recruited?
This is achieved through random mailing, telephone and by approaching willing respondents from other research studies.
Are Panellists on the Panel for a fixed time?
No. As long as Panellists respond to the surveys they are invited to take part in and the quality of their responses remains high they are retained.
So how are they removed?
We closely monitor the frequency and quality of their response. If it is not up to our required standards they are automatically taken off our panel.
What if they no longer wish to stay on the Panel?
There is a free phone number they can call and request to be removed. They can do this at any time. This is stressed to them at sign-up, together with their rights under the Data Protection Act.
What is the average Panel turn-over?
About 15% of the panel has to be replaced each year.
If respondents are on the Panel for a long time, how do you keep their details up to date?
Panel details are constantly updated via self-completion slips, which are sent out with studies. A full update questionnaire to collect the full range of household details is sent every two years.
How many studies does the average respondent complete each year?
It varies by respondent – some demographic groups are more in demand than others – but typically it is between 8 and 10.
How do you ensure panellists are not "over-used" becoming "professional" respondents?
A key concern in sample selection is to prevent results from being affected by the fact that respondents may have completed similar questionnaires for other studies. For this reason there are strict rules on panellist usage according to the following criteria:
- Studies are coded within a category list according to the subject or kind of product and the type of research.
- Panellists are marked as not available for other surveys into the same category for three months for basic studies, four months for concept tests or blind product tests and seven months for a branded product test.
- For studies in different categories the minimum allowable period between studies is 3 weeks
How do you know panel members aren't different from other consumers?
Our Ipsos Access Panels are maintained to be demographically representative of the population and we regularly confirm a number of key criteria from information collected on other attributes such as ownership of consumer durables or usage of certain products. In this way we can see that our members reflect the universe in each country accurately.
In addition to this, research in both the US and Europe has been undertaken to investigate the question of whether people who join panels are different from those who don't. What we found was that there are no differences between findings from survey conducted by random mail and panel for self-completion and that directional results are the same for face to face and panel studies.
What kind of response rates can I expect?
This varies between 55% and 85%. The level achieved depends on a number of factors such as target group, type of study and level of incentive. For example, female head of household has the highest response, young active males the lowest. Highest response rates are achieved for product tests and lower ones for diary studies.
When is an Access Panel not appropriate?
There will be occasions when an Access Panel is less suitable than other research approaches. The use of significant amounts of stimulus material, complex rotations of show cards or product are normally difficult to administer.
Since the Panel is very well spread geographically it is not cost effective to conduct clustered face to face interviews.