Here’s why that matters.
The SSRS Opinion Panel is backed by rigorous science which means the findings are reliable, representative, and valuable for decision making. We make sure the research is ironclad and pass that assurance to our clients.
How?
- SSRS carefully recruits, retains, and replenishes panelists to ensure they are real people (not bots) and are representative of the populations being studied.
- SSRS consistently achieves high participation rates in panel surveys, which produce robust and trustworthy data for all types of research goals, including cross-sectional (one-time) and longitudinal (over time) studies.
- SSRS maintains a large set of “profile” variables that help efficiently target and segment panelists for specialized studies.
- SSRS employs a set of strong quality controls to prevent bots and fraudulent responses and ensure our results reflect genuine opinions and experiences.
The SSRS Opinion Panel recruits randomly selected panelists using a nationally-representative address-based sample (ABS) design with a randomly dialed prepaid cell phone supplement (RDD).
What does that mean?
No one can volunteer or sign up for the SSRS Opinion Panel; members are randomly selected and invited to participate. This reduces the risk of bias and ensures that bots or fraudulent panelists are not recruited.
Our ABS design uses scientific methods to randomly select a sample of residential addresses from a master list that is constantly updated by the US Postal Service. SSRS mails invitations to those addresses, invites them to participate in a public opinion survey, and then asks if they want to join our panel.
SSRS also includes a random sample of prepaid cellphone numbers to make sure U.S. households are fully represented. SSRS interviewers call those numbers to invite them into our panel. We learned that this cellphone sample is more effective than mail at reaching certain demographic subgroups, including adults with lower incomes and less formal education, which helps us include their perspectives in our findings.
The Bottom Line
- The SSRS Opinion Panel is built from a probability-based design, so each time we survey our panelists, the results can be projected to accurately reflect the broader population we are trying to understand.
- The SSRS Opinion Panel is not an “opt-in” or “volunteer” panel. Surveys conducted with volunteers or people who “opt-in” to take part in the survey can only represent those people who decided to participate. Even when adjustments are made to try to make those responses representative of the population being studied, many research studies have found them to be less accurate and display clear bias. This is known as “self-selection bias.”
- Unlike opt-in panels, the SSRS Opinion Panel includes people who do not use the Internet or who prefer not to take surveys online. All panelists are offered a choice between completing surveys online or by phone with live interviewers. While most choose the online mode, a small portion choose phone. By allowing panelists to receive and complete surveys in the mode they are most comfortable, we ensure that their perspectives are included in our surveys.
The bottom line is that the SSRS Opinion panel produces higher quality, more reliable, and more accurate results that cannot be achieved with opt-in panels.
Is it worth it?
The decision to use a high-caliber, probability-based panel such as the SSRS Opinion Panel can be driven by budget and timeline. Opt-in panels are usually less expensive and produce faster results, but…
- Is it worth the gamble to save money but not fully trust the data you collect?
- Does getting data fast matter if it is less accurate?
- What is the cost of including duplicate or fraudulent participants in your research?
- How will you explain that your data excludes those who do not have internet access or prefer not to respond to surveys online?
- Is “good enough” data quality REALLY good enough for your research needs?
