Outstanding Results in Recruiting using Motivators

When recruiting its important to remember the reason respondents agree to participate, as it enables recruiters and moderators to control participants correctly.

There are three main reasons why people come to Focus Groups.

Money: The amount which is attractive is a fine mix of the type of group they are in and the difficulty associated with recruiting them. Participants are essentially paid for their time and expertise - results show that those motivated solely through a need for money are more likely to show-up but engagement can be lacking.

In the recruitment phase, associating the incentive as a respect for their 'special' expertise can foster a more engaged participant. ie. a mother with a child of 2 years old has a very particular life experience which is valuable, couching the approach in these terms early on produces a better quality (if however money interested participant.)

Ego: Another motivator which arises is that people genuinely like to give their opinions about topics they have an interest in; they find it interesting meeting and chatting with their peers about subjects of interest. For many it also is a break in their routine and a fun way to spend an evening.

These people can overwhelm a group by being outspoken or having a heavy presence - early identification in screening can allow researchers to place these type as a spread across groups or in groups together.

Curiosity: A third reason is to experience the research technique or the topic being discussed - often focus groups can be very helpful to people who are seeking additional information about a subject. They can talk with others about various aspects of the subject, gathering much useful information.

Many business and medical professionals attend focus groups to help them keep up with new developments in their field; often the groups will address topics that represent new products or services which will be introduced in the future.

A categorisation of these motivations during the screening phase - either observed or asked (at the tail of a recruitment call) can provide Researchers with another aspect of group control.

Moderators may heed these attitudes too.

Quality recruits are not only defined by meeting the specifications and showing up, a high level of engagement is important and can depend on management of primary motivation, equally, a moderator should acknowledge an individual motivations and attempt to reform the attitude toward a curiosity orientation if possible.

AFS Recruitment Guarantee

There are three principal ways recruits are located - and the way AFS has designed each process yields significant advantages for researchers;

Using a lists of contacts that clients provide, generally a customer list, AFS recruiters use advanced multimode technologies (Phone, Mail, SMS, Fax etc) to access, qualify and motivate large numbers of respondents - this style can be underway the same day.
Using an inhouse database, purchased list or web panel recruit, provides the ability to better pre-qualify respondents (including prior participation) where in many instances, this method provides a guide to the number of available respondents at the outset, further controlling costs and expectations.
The third method is to 'go to the market' for small and hard to reach incidence groups;
Advertise for participants in local and national media, paper and radio work exceptionally well - but requires some planning
Find target membership groups (e.g. council groups or social groups) to invite their members to participate in conjunction with sharing results - a longer term strategy
Locate potential participants by providing a commissions to reference groups (e.g. doctor to patient, mechanic to car owner, accountant to client, lawyer to client) - there are specific strategies we've used here which provide access to very specific groups

AFS guarantees to provides you with:

Access to an unequalled pool of respondents in Metro and Regional areas
One consistent point of contact throughout your project
A detailed project plan once the screening questionnaire is finalised - including collecting motivating information
Options based on real life experience of recruiting for similar projects
100% in house recruitment with highly effective controls to ensure all respondents are on spec and on time.
Extended business hours through to 9pm to meet your needs
Ongoing communications with candidates to maximise attendance
Liaison with your chosen venue to facilitate the session
Competitive rates that balance exceptional service with realistic budgets
An eagerness to work on attaining difficult to reach groups

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