KNow’s Customized Recruiting Approach

Date: August 15, Simona Kats

Recruitment is a simple word but can have daunting connotations. Recruitment for qualitative market research has become increasingly complex over the years. I have been managing Qualitative and Brand Studies for over 15 years and in that time, recruitment has evolved from using short screeners with random questions for diversion to lengthy screeners with extensive and specific questioning regarding sometimes more than one topic area.

At KNow Research, we came to realize that too many recruitment practices were focused on external databases and/or panels, with a high volume of over-used and/or professional respondents. In response, we have created proprietary methods and systems to help us recruit fresh participants, sourced on a per project basis, to fulfill recruitment needs from gen pop to more niche specifications.

Our recruitment process combines many different tools and methodologies to achieve fresh recruitment for most target specifications. Upon receipt of the project request, we assess the study’s needs and curate a recruitment approach that is sure to provide every opportunity for incredible insights while supporting the achievement of the overall study’s objectives.

When recruiting off of client-supplied lists, a different approach is needed. Our ‘white glove’ client list recruits are successful due to our proprietary processes and procedures that result in very low attrition rates and higher quality participation across the board while keeping our client databases secure.

Five elements to keep in mind when working off client-supplied lists:

1. Treat every participant as an individual based on their availability and interest
2. Develop steps/process/language/PII-sharing protocol when passing names/contact information between clients and recruiters
3. Find ways to ensure clean and clear hand-off/opt-in processes so that participants know where their information has been obtained and why
4. Ensure participants are given clear and concise directions for their participation (and be sure to stay within those parameters!)
5. Provide a single point of contact at the agency as well as a contact person in the client organization to support the validity of the study

As the complexity of recruiting increases, be sure your processes and protocols are regularly reviewed and refined to ensure the best results!

Read more in our series of posts on Participant Engagement best practices, inspired by our work with GRBN.