Improving Data Quality – Why You Should Care and What You Can Do

Data quality has been a hot topic in the market research industry for years and is a constant struggle.  There are consistently discussions about the latest tool or service that claims to improve data quality.  And sometimes they do – for a period.

New techniques to cheat the system are being developed constantly by those trying to cheat the system.  Additionally, respondent engagement is another challenge – many are disinterested or distracted with the survey they are taking, or even taking a survey that isn’t a good fit.

As a researcher, trusting your sample provider to provide highly engaged respondents that will give you quality data is important, but you probably wonder what you can do to help improve your data quality.

Well, we have a few some tips for you that can help!

Know Your Sample Sources

The first step to improving your data quality is to know the sample sources you work with.  Not just who they are, but how they recruit their respondents, what their panel management process is, what quality measures they have in place, etc.

Invest Time In Your Screener

Most market researcher painstakingly design their questionnaire, but may take the screening of respondents for granted, assuming the sample companies have perfect, up to the moment targeting.  If more time is spent on the screener to ensure it is designed just as well as the main survey, this can be an added level of scrutiny to help weed out the respondents that aren’t in the target group you are trying to gather information from.

Design Your Survey For All Devices

Mobile usage among the general population is at an all-time high and will only continue to increase.  So why design a survey that can only be taken on a laptop or desktop?  By designing a survey that is design agnostic, you allow respondents to respond on their terms versus yours, which can increase the quality of the responses they provide.

To learn more tips that you can easily implement to improve your data quality, click on the button below to watch our on-demand webinar, 10 Tips To Improve Your Data Quality.  You won’t regret it!