Jun 27 2005
Market Research (Survey)
Anyway, coming back to the point. Genuine market research does not give gifts (we call ‘token of appreciation’ or ‘incentives’) by ‘CHANCE’. It is usually a standard gift for all respondents (people who participates the survey). Normal house-to-house or office-to-office interviews usually are without gifts or low value (RM10 max); e.g. pen, towel, mug, etc. Value of gifts depends on length of interview and subject. If it is a business-to-business interview, value of gifts would likely be higher; e.g. Selangor Pewter product that worths around RM50-200 (depends on how difficult is the subject).We don’t give out incentives based on ‘your luck’. If we give, every respondent gets the same thing. There is no such thing as ‘scratch and win’.
There were a few occasions when interviewers come to my house. I always let them interview, as I understand how difficult their task is (am now with client side so qualified). However, I always get disappointed when it comes to the end of the interview – the interviewers would say that ‘as a token of appreciation, we are giving out gifts… it depends on your luck what you will be getting…’. The moment they said it depends on my luck, I knew it was a fake research. I immediately told them to leave – without even to see my ‘luck’ what I was getting. I was sure I would get something great – con man punya style mah!
So, you have my word – genuine market research will not tell you that your gifts depend on your luck. If you get something, it is always carried in their bag – you get it immediately after interview completed. If you don’t want the gift, they will leave it at your doorstep, because one of the QC we check on their work is whether they give out the gift or not (so the interviewers will not keep the gifts and sell it for side income).
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may be in the end after the interview they say: “we are giving out gifts… it depends on your luck what you will be getting…” we also can reply: “we are giving out kick…it depends on you ’sing mok’ or not…” (just kidding) :P.
yalah..those con ppl reall make ur survey works getting harder lah…ppl kena b4 or maybe heard too much of it really refuse to do survey wan lah…once kena snake bite, whole life scare of snake liao mah…hehe
Thanks for sharing, lazybone. At least now I know which type is genuine, I’m always scared of kena tipu!
twinsmom:
When i was disappointed, I didn’t let them finish talking and straight away told them that I am not interested and asked them to leave. One of the young boy got so surprised and said ‘this is a gift for you, you sure don’t want’? Probably he was really giving out something, but I just don’t like the idea of trying my luck. 
msau: you are absolutely right. our job gets tougher and tougher nowadays. without con people already tough, with them around and using ‘research’ name, it makes it tougher. even I myself have doubt to entertain them, what do you think normal consumers will do, right?
shoppingmum: No problem. But I’m afraid this is not enough to help you identify which is genuine, coz at a glance I also cannot tell. I keep on asking which research agency he comes from, he just told me he comes from very small fieldwork agency - which can be true as some of the big agency sub contract out.