We are dedicated to increasing the quality of our internal processes. Our management team is trained to continuously improve the quality of our systems. We have put together a detailed workflow process from receipt of the RFP through the completion of a study. As a data collection company we do not design the survey instrument and often are only asked to recruit respondents to a survey programmed by others. If we are programming and hosting the survey, we rely on survey programming to guard against straight-lining and loss of concentration, and regularly advise our clients on implanting these verification measures within the survey programming. We also request client feedback on each and every study in order to remove respondents not providing legitimate data so as to never again use these members. Some of our specific data quality measures are highlighted below:
Relevant ID – sophisticated digital fingerprinting technology that ensures same device is utilized only once per project (https://www.imperium.com/services/relevantid-digital-fingerprinting.php)
Flat lining – we can flag or terminate respondents in a grid question if same rating is provided. It’s suggested to employ when there are 10+ attributes to be rated, but logic can be added for any number of attributes.
Focus trap – we can flag or terminate respondents in a question if instructions are not being followed. Usually in questions where there are 10+ attributes are shown, we insert ‘for quality assurance please enter rating 3 for this row’ as one of the instructions. This will ensure that respondents are carefully reading through each question.
Minimum LOI – we can flag or terminate respondents if length of interview falls below the minimum threshold instructed by client at different points in the survey.
Custom checks – we can employ any additional or requested checks when provided specific guidelines by our clients.
Programming QA –The first step in our programming protocol is a thorough review of the questionnaire. The Programmer reviews all logic, skip patterns, design flow, content consistency, etc. All questions from this review are brought up to the client during the kick-off call. Once all questions are answered, the Programmer carefully scripts the survey. When all programming is completed, it is the Programmer’s responsibly to run through the survey numerous times to ensure all skip patterns/scripts/logic are working correctly, with a goal to deliver an error-free link. When the Programmer is done, the survey link, along with latest version of questionnaire, is sent to a separate Quality Assurance (QA) team member, who independently checks the survey for accuracy. Feedback from the QA person is passed back to the Programmer for survey adjustments, if any are required. At this stage, the Programmer sends a survey test link to the Project Manager noting that hidden screens are shown (and clearly marked on page) along with the BACK button and question IDs. This is purposely done so the tester is able to see if respondents are being placed into correct quota groups, scripts are executing correctly, background calculations are accurate, etc. After our internal QA process is complete, the program is sent to our client to review and approve prior to launch. Multi-language surveys are also checked for translation overlay quality in a similar fashion.
Soft Launch QA – Typically with internally programmed surveys. This step is vital in ensuring that the data is being collected as required/assumed. We use this period to attain 10% of our client’s desired quota and vigorously check the data quality to ensure all data is being collected as expected. We also provide this data to our client(s) to review and comment, in case we want to make tweaks to the look/feel of the data layout or tweak the data output format to allow a more efficient analysis on their end