An omnipresent priority among all market researchers exists, and that is to recruit the most precise and fitting participants possible. Living in a highly advanced digital and technological age, creativity is essential in crafting recruitment screeners for qualification.
Producing qualified participants requires both team work and critical thinking- even beyond the quotas. Empathy for recruiters who expend a whole slew of hours with various instruments to qualify prospects for studies is smart research at its finest. We provide the following pointers to craft a quality screening tool.
1. Study purpose
2. “Blind” Questions
3. Limit Skip-Pattern’s and Identify Terminators
4. Consider the Length
5. Articulation Question
Study Purpose: Incorporating an appealing study purpose within the introduction of the recruiter call assists in capturing the prospective participant’s attention. Something beyond just a generic “Education study”. Let’s say for example you are conducting a focus group for opinions on higher education, perhaps the study’s purpose can be pitched with the wording of “Higher education decisions.” This provides more information, and also gives the participant food-for thought.
“Blind” Questions: This is an absolutely key screener component! Screeners will include closed-end questions, with yes/no responses for important quotas. “Blind” questions hide your desired category, product, brand and even the client. “Blind” questions also ensure participants truly meet the quotas and are not just trying to please the recruiter to get into the study.
Limit Skip Patterns and Identify Terminators: Instead of relying on recruiters to be typists, make questions sequences free-flowing, or easy to follow. Indent secondary questions below the desired response, with the alternate response that calls out the (GO TO next question). “Thank & Terminate” and specific quotas should follow the question immediately- not appearing for example in paragraph form under the question.
Consider Length: A 15-page screener is not only time consuming, it may not even be remotely necessary. Distinct, compact and directly to the point screeners are highly recommended, and if a client is attempting to garner various segments for grouping, the steps above will help make the screener as straightforward and succinct as possible.
Articulation Question: Including an articulation question in the screener allows the recruiter to gauge the participant’s fluency and command of the focus of the study. This also helps facilitate open ended discussion and putting thoughts on a given topic to words. This allows your participant recruitment team to ensure quality participants.
Putting together a screener that is detailed enough to acquire your qualified recruit, and simple enough to be utilized successfully by recruiters is an automatic win-win.