I was watching this presentation by Gavin Hewitt, VP of Sales at BigDoor. He talks a lot about rewards programs, mostly from the point of view of a retailer trying to cultivate a loyal customer base.
But most of his points are applicable to panelists as well. We have our own panel of 100K+ respondents and we are constantly concerned with being sure the rewards they earn from our surveys are enough to keep them coming back to take more! Gavin implores us to ask the question: “Why do rewards matter?” For us, they matter because with the wrong rewards system our panelists will fall silent. And it is not just about the amount of rewards, but as Gavin states in his presentation, we need to be sure to make the rewards relevant and authentic.
We try to keep relevant by offering a cashout option to PayPal, which essentially translates to cold, hard cash. But in the theme of authenticity, we allow respondents who maybe don’t care for monetary rewards to donate to charity. Other panels use points, with no monetary value at all. For example, if my preferred airline has a partnership with an online panel (eRewards panel does this), I’d take those surveys because I want to earn real rewards. I don’t care that I never see cash, I could one day upgrade my airline seat just because I participated in some surveys!
Gavin warns against the online gamification method of giving “badges” for your customer (in our case, respondents) to show off their status or their accomplishments to their online friends. He says that is just not enough. Some panels I have seen use both badges and tangible rewards. Arabeye, a consumer panel for the Middle East (owned by Yahoo) gives Points, Sweepstakes, AND virtual badges, so you can earn real rewards but also do a bit of online bragging when you can show your friends you are a “Silver” or “Gold” member.
How do you reward your panelists, or customers? Or how do you prefer to be rewarded?