What to Know Before You Start Taking surveys
Posted on 2008-06-25
You might think that once paid surveys ask you about whether you like a product, or not, you should answer in the positive. No, that is not the case! Paid surveys are designed with the sole purpose to provide reliable consumer feedback to the manufacturing companies and the service providers. If you think that a certain product is crappy, you should indicate that, giving your supporting comments if the survey design allows for that. If you are happy with a purchase you made, then you should say so, giving adequate rating to the company and product of your choice. Surveys ask you about your true experiences, because you as a consumer are the key to company success. If you like a brand, you should credit it with your positive opinion; likewise, if you’ve had terrible shopping experience or didn’t get the services you paid for, then your survey responses should reflect that.
But Don’t I Get Cash Anyway with Paid Surveys?
Getting cash with paid surveys does not mean that you will be rewarded for submitting blank surveys, incomplete surveys, or surveys with unfounded and misrepresenting responses. If you complete a satisfaction survey, its questions will be designed to ask for your detailed opinion – you might need to order a list of product qualities; to show your product satisfaction on a scale; to supply written comments in a text box, etc. If you complete a screener survey, it is most likely that you’ll end up in a lottery drawing or get some sort of prize. Screener surveys are get-to-know-you surveys that companies send to newly registered survey takers. They are broadly scoped and are usually used for the purposes of the survey companies itself, rather than for third-party companies.
Some survey companies have reliability scores for their survey respondents. On the basis of this score, companies select the survey takers to be contacted when a survey that is really important and pays top dollars comes up. When a company relies on a particular survey for carrying on its strategic plans, it needs only the most reliable, most qualifying, and most objective survey respondents. If you are consistent in your survey responses, and build a reputation for a quick, reliable and objective survey taker, you may end up in the top list of your survey company when it sends the $100-surveys. On the other hand, subscribers who do not respond to survey invitations on a regular basis are dropped off the contact list.
How Quick should I respond to complete Paid Surveys?
Once you get proficient in taking paid surveys, you learn how to minimize the time you spend completing surveys. Seasoned surveys takers have training in providing answers quickly and accurately, thus ensuring they have completed and returned the survey before it closes.
Why is it important to submit the survey before it closes? The survey method is based on collecting a representative sample of responses, which suffice to formulate significant and meaningful conclusions about the goals of the survey. As it is never possible to interview 100% of consumers, survey designers set a number of respondents who need to answer the surveys in order to make its results relevant to the whole consumer segment. Most surveys, especially the highest-pay ones, have a preset limit of survey responses. Once this limit is reached, the survey questions might still be online, but the survey is no longer available to complete, and you will get no credit for it. Therefore, survey pros know that they should opt to complete the surveys that are worth the most as quickly as possible. As many other survey takers get the same invitation that you do, it’s no wonder that the most attractive surveys get completed within the first hour of their upload. To eliminate the possibility of disappointment, it pays to make sure you complete the surveys that pay good cash with highest priority.
