Checklist for planning and implementing a consumer survey panel
Use the checklist below to help you plan your organisation's consumer survey panel. If your panel is already underway, have you covered each of these items?
1. Developing a strategy
- Who will be responsible for the project?
- Who is needed to authorise the project?
- What resources (people and money) are required?
- What is the implementation timescale?
- What are the key objectives of the panel?
- What size will it be and what demographic information is required?
- How will panel members be recruited?
- What are the Data Protection requirements and how will they be met?
- What incentives will be offered?
- How frequently will panel members be contacted?
- What type of questions will be asked (e.g. customer satisfaction, market research, competitive issues, etc.)?
- How will feedback be reported and to who?
- How will success be measured?
2. Setting up the process
- Communicate and promote the concept to the business
- Develop partnerships with other departments requiring access to the panel and agree appropriate service level agreements and processes * Design and build a database
- Develop a web interface to field questions and collect data
- Design a questionnaire format
- Design the solicitation process (e.g. at contact centre, printed invitations, product messages, etc.) and other customer focused publicity * Ensure solicitation material states confi dentiality promise and sets clear expectations and guidelines on frequency of contact
- Design the electronic reporting process
- Agree other internal reporting strategies (e.g. meetings, presentations, etc.)
3. Implementation of the Consumer Panel
- Database and technical infrastructure in place
- Resources in place to ensure ongoing management of panel database
- Solicitation process finalised and any materials produced
- Start soliciting panel members
- Collect demographic data from new members and build panel database
- Consider the issues to be covered and design the questions and associated reporting for the first panel study
- When sufficient members recruited - field first questionnaire to panel
- Brief appropriate staff on access to the study’s results including password protected access
- Communicate internal feedback by other means (e.g. meetings, reports, internal newsletters, etc.)
- Provide appropriate feedback to panel members via email newsletter
- Continue to develop the process and subsequent questionnaires
This checklist was reproduced from our whitepaper "How to Amplify the Voice of the Customer: Developing Your Own Online Consumer Panel to Generate Proactive Customer Feedback" (PDF 143Kb)
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