Survey Rewards

Survey rewards are up to the survey company’s discretion. If the survey company itself is being hired by company and are being paid $50 000 to conduct a survey on a sample group of 500 individuals, it’s unreasonable to expect each survey participant to be paid $100 each…otherwise the survey company would not make any money.

When firms are willing to part with large dollars to get the information they are looking for, the survey companies tend to pass on these big dollars onto the actual survey participants. You may receive a substantial reward of cash for such a survey, rather than a chance to win money or a chance to win other prizes.

If providing incentives cuts into the bottom line of market research companies, why bother?

Firstly, response rates (people who actually complete the survey) dramatically increase when fair compensation is offered. If I ask you to fill out a survey for me and I offer you nothing for your time, your chances of actually taking the survey will be low (especially if the survey is long). However if I offer you say, £5, you might consider it.

Why is cash such a common survey incentive?

Products often involve high shipping costs, and gift certificates are not always redeemable in every area. Offering cash to those who voice their opinion has appeal to everyone and is something of course we could all use more of!

To sum it up, offering appropriate rewards for completing surveys not only benefit the survey-takers, but the survey companies themselves experience a dramatic increase in response rates, which mean larger survey participant groups. This means more and better data for the firm which hired the survey company to conduct this online survey.