Unwillingness to spend could be another cause. Serena Jacob, partner at Shaman Marketing Research Associates, points out that clients who relentlessly insist on lower costs have only themselves to blame. If the research company isn t making money it ll cut corners somewhere and an easy way is not to do all the back-checks needed while recruiting respondents. Sooner or later professional respondents will slip in. But it s probably a mistake to blame only clients.
Doctor feels researchers shouldn t duck their responsibilities.
It s the client s job to make impossible demands, he says. It s up to the researcher to convince them. If they value your services they ll listen. They should say there s a basic start-up time and cost, and if they can t convince clients about that, they don t deserve to. Perhaps the real problem is the number of researchers who can t.