There are many online research tools and suppliers available now. Taking time to find the right partner to help you with your unique needs can ultimately save you money and hassle. To help, we've put together a list of five ways you can go about finding an online research vendor that is right for you!
Choose a provider that will customize their solution to suit your needs. Maybe you are handling some aspects yourself, or maybe you are simply adding a tech element to your fielded project. This should not be a hang up or cause your project to run aground. Your unique needs should not be foreign to your chosen vendor. Experience matters!
Don’t be afraid to ask what might go wrong with the technology or the methodology. Knowing what could go wrong may be the threshold that makes or breaks your decision when relying on technology. When you hear comments like, “all respondents find this easy” or “we’ve never had issues with this” these are flags for concern.
Be wary of companies who push online research for all situations. We all know there are times when online research is not the best approach. A technology-only provider may try to convince you otherwise. That is why working with face-to-face research providers who are also technology experts with an unbiased opinion of the available solutions is such a value.
Choose a provider who understands recruiting. Sometimes the reasons for conducting your research online revolve around recruiting obstacles. There is no better way to facilitate a tough recruit than keeping your tech people and recruiting people tightly integrated.
Work with someone who is going to support you every step of the way. Whether you are a savvy user or not, you don’t need distractions in the middle of your interviews, nor when you are trying to gather the information for your reports. There’s a big difference between, “we’ll be available if something goes wrong”and “we’ll be there in case something goes wrong.”
At Fieldwork Webwork, we have been perfecting our online research services for over a decade. We have made it our mission to keep up to date on all of the available tools so you don’t have to, but what sets us apart is our hands-on personalized service and our overall expertise in the field of qualitative research. Focus on the research, we’ll do the rest.