Tips for selecting a data provider
4 min read
What could be more important in market research than the provider of the information to be collected?
A quality data provider is what will make your market study have true and objective results, which will directly affect your company's strategic decision-making, therefore, it is super important to know the quality standard offered by the data provider you wish to hire.
We have gathered the best and most important tips you should consider before hiring a data provider for your online survey.
First, see here how important it is to use an online panel for your research projects
What is a data provider?
The data provider is the one who recruits participants for surveys and makes them available to companies that need respondents for their studies. In the process of recruiting and qualifying respondents, the data provider must create selection strategies that allow for in-depth investigation, in order to ensure that the information provided by candidates is true and useful.
With such commercial and technological expansion over the last few years, it is no longer possible to obtain truly important results by analyzing these candidates only with basic data such as general demographics and social information; it is necessary to conduct an investigation into lifestyle, tastes, experiences, ideologies, preferences, etc.
A good provider knows its participants like the back of its hand and, in this way, will know how to bridge the gap between you and the ideal respondents for your project. However, to hire a data provider that will meet all the necessary specifications to achieve the quality required for your research to be successful, it is necessary to take into account some aspects that we will teach you next.
7 tips for selecting a good provider
Make the right choice of an online panel with these tips below to get better insights in your projects. As important as the tips below, it is also important to know exactly what your target audience is, and then start selecting the best available respondent panel.
1. Qualification techniques – The types of characteristics investigated in relation to the quantity and specificity of questions asked to the candidate will ensure a truly productive, effective, and individualized database, characteristics that are truly fundamental for a good data provider. This step will allow that, if you need a very specific audience such as low-income young people who studied in private schools in the marketing area and consume Apple products, for example, the data provider has these characteristics processed and properly qualified to provide this specific target audience for your research.
2. Data quality control – It is super important that the data provider updates its database periodically according to pre-established quality standards. This action will ensure a database with updated information, since respondents' conditions can change frequently and they may no longer have the necessary qualifications to be part of your audience.
3. Technology – Get to know the tools used and how modern they can be. Technology is important from the qualification of respondents, during the application of the study, in the storage of information, data security, etc. Therefore, make sure that your data provider is regulated according to ISO 20252 standards (Market, opinion and social research), which will ensure that it complies with the necessary quality standards for an excellent data provider.
4. Ethical data surveillance – Another important point to know about the data provider is the techniques and tools used to ensure the security of monitored data. It is extremely important that the company is responsible for keeping your data and the respondents' data confidential under contract, ensuring that your data will be used solely by your company.
5. Database size – In many cases, the size of the database is as important as its quality, since for many companies with a large market volume, a large volume of respondents is necessary to proportionally represent their audience.
Understand more about how to calculate your sample in this article
6. Price – Paying more for answers does not guarantee better answers, but it can attract audiences excessively interested in profit and not so much in providing special information, as well as lead to respondents with multiple profiles. Therefore, do not select a data provider based solely on the prices charged, but rather on a good price-quality service relationship.
7. Golden tip – Verify the qualification in question based on the qualifications of their clients. Analyze the company's page and read the reviews, get to know their client portfolio and the projects the company has already carried out. Talk to the support team as much as you deem necessary, until you are sure you are able to choose the correct data provider.
Now that you have some valuable tips, contact us to be part of a project together and boost your business!
Need a survey with respondent samples? Count on Painel Tap.
Behind Painel Tap is a team passionate about data and insight generation, who finds in each project a challenge to seek the best and fastest solution for the most diverse types of needs and demands in online research and market investigation.
