THN ensures minimum numbers are met for your projects. This is because there is always the potential for participants who cannot attend at the last minute.
THN recommends an oversample for the following reasons:
Factors impacting attendance can be events such as work and traffic. However, with the shift from face-to-face to online participation, we have seen new issues arise. For instance, technical difficulties have come to the forefront of obstacles and as a result; participants cannot attend projects at the last minute due to technological and connectivity issues.
Our Project Management team always run tests with those who are not familiar with the platform prior to the group or interview. However, there are times where technological issues still create last minute absences. Platform choice and accessibility are notable elements to consider when organising online projects.
This is why oversampling can be a useful tool in insuring the success of your market research project. Although, we can recruit one as a standby to be ‘on call’ with discussed budgetary limitations. Respondents that are not needed on the day are offered 50% incentive. This can offer us a little extra insurance for groups where there is a minimum number of attendees.
With quantitative research, THN include an oversample of 10% in the recruitment fee. We view this as an essential component in the recruitment process and can be the difference between getting over the sample line or falling just short.
With online panels, we occasionally see a drop in engagement levels. Factors responsible for this are often; tasks extending beyond their original timelines, or the content being too strenuous for many people. We recommend that a 5-10% oversample is included. Additionally, where there are large panels sizes, THN are happy to discuss options around this.
Our PM Teams love it when we have full attendances for your groups, interviews and panels. Having an oversample just offers a little bit of insurance to ensure that we get your minimum numbers for your project!
To find out more about oversampling in market research you can get in contact with Ben and Shelley here.