Navigating Global Fieldwork Suppliers
Global research has been a critical, and growing, part of our business for years. Given the niche markets and low qualification rates we face on most of our projects, we knew early on in our company’s development we would need to establish a rigorous process to successfully deliver global research. In the early years we relied too heavily on multi-national recruiting partners given our lack of country-specific expertise which resulted in overspent timelines, falling short of quotas in some cases, and other time-consuming headaches. To counteract many of these challenges we started to build our network of in-country moderators and recruiting partners in 2012. More than five years into the process we have forged strong partnerships with domestic and international sampling partners for all markets where our clients are interested in conducting research.
At this point, we have our most standardized approach which provides the best, most cost-effective, outcomes for our clients while simultaneously ensuring global compliance with ever-expanding regulations. We use top tier vendors when most appropriate (e.g., difficult audiences where multiple recruiting approaches/channels may need to be deduped) and routinely leverage our country-specific partners as well, especially for qualitative recruitment and moderation. Overall, we make it a practice to hire vendors who treat their panelists and respondents well. This ensures a successful quality recruit and also bodes well for our interactions with them.
We have found risk and reward can be balanced by thoroughly analyzing bids and project performance. Not surprisingly, we’re all about the numbers – they don’t lie! Over time we have honed our database for tracking project, and project manager, performance. Our staff rate the quality, timing and cost of all deliverables and we analyze the results by project and in aggregate. During our regularly scheduled recruiting partner review meetings, we take these data and discuss our findings; this allows us to have evidence-based discussions about how we can optimize the relationship, including best practices with regard to communication.
Even the best system can break down without strong communication. This is where our global field operations team shines. Their years of experience ensure we have timely and thorough feedback to our research teams, and ultimately our clients. They share knowledge regarding each market and tap resources to broaden our understanding when we enter unfamiliar territory. Our teams also take a holistic approach to round table discussions, keeping up to date on the latest information about new partner trials and successes. Our team works diligently to be cognizant of holidays, preferred communication approaches, timing standards and all pertinent project details. This coupled with our network of suppliers yields great recruiting results.
This year is projecting to include the most global research we have ever delivered at KJT Group, and we are confident our current system and staff will guarantee successful navigation of global fieldwork suppliers.
