About Panel Services Africa
Panel Services Africa has been developed by the team (which includes our London based shareholder) at Marketing Science since 2005. We have accumulated considerable knowledge and experience in this field and, for anyone who wishes to discover the benefits of online panel research, they can rest assured that the 'learning phase' has been eliminated.
We provide expertise, support, training and technology to clients and research contractors who wish to run their own panels. We also offer the use of one or more of our panels and the software platforms. PSA does not undertake research design, analysis, report writing or interpretation – we are experts at the complexity of executing panel research correctly and we work with specialist research organisations. With the international backing of our business partners in the US, UK and EU, we are at the forefront of cutting edge technology.
A cornerstone of the successful deployment and application of panels is the management of the relationship between the researcher and the panellist. Traditionally, quantitative market research counts 'noses' and discards the people. There in an implicit disrespect inherent in the relationship between the researcher and the respondent (it is routinely assigned to a third party – an interviewer). There are two key measures that panel relationship management bring to the research lexicon – Compliance (the extent to which each panellist completes a survey when asked) and Reliability (the extent to which panellists provide the same answers, on different occasions, to measures that have not changed).
At the heart of our business is our panel relationship management team who focus on compliance and reliability, resulting in response rates in excess of 80%. Our full communication with panellists and detailed investigation of outliers enables us to investigate the importance of insignificant results.
Why Quicker?
Much of the existing data collection procedures involve a very heavy logistical overhead. Questionnaires have to be printed, transported to interviewers who have to be briefed. When the questionnaire is returned from the field each questionnaire has to be edited, back checked, coded, punched and verified. Quotas have to be checked and some questionnaires may have to be re-done, and/or additional respondents found. Meanwhile data that has been captured and verified has to be cleaned with edit checks and tables run before any value can be derived from the process. Panel projects can be done in the same day and rarely take longer than 2 weeks, resulting in improved relevance and actionability of the Research.
Why Cleverer?
Correctly planned & executed clinical studies are the best kind of research that can be done. It is the only way to isolate, identify and measure cause and effect of interventions and results are used for life and death decisions. This is the same methodology we are harnessing to research marketing interventions – whether sponsorship, advertising campaigns or price. Add to this the additional capabilities of randomisation, controlled exposure, piping, block rotation and quality controls, that modern technology permits, and it is difficult to understand why African researchers are years behind their counterparts around the world.
Why more Helpful?
There is a great deal of confusion about what is meant by Internet access. Sometimes it is measured by whether or not a person has an email address. Sometimes by whether or not one has access to a computer and sometimes by whether one uses a mobile device to browse. Our UK partner’s technology permits us to deliver exactly the same survey seamlessly adjusted to the make and model of the device being used, whether desktop, laptop or WAP enabled mobile. The panellist does not have to pay SMS fees and all data is automatically merged into the master database.
Why more cost effective?
Because the logistical overload is largely discarded, there is less to factor into the cost.
