The Problem with Blaming the Survey for Poor Data Quality

Respondent experience remains key to producing quality sample data.

by Terence McCarron
CEO & Founder at OpinionRoute

My morning routine today included one of my favorite industry podcasts. It was great to hear an episode focus on a topic close to my heart – data quality in online surveys. The guest, representing a major global sample firm, made many salient points. But he also went ‘all in’ on a common industry crutch to explain why data quality is a growing problem. Essentially, he said the survey “user experience” isn’t great.

This isn’t a new argument, and I’ve heard it made countless times through the years by most major sample vendors. This argument is why, despite calls from those same vendors to hold hands to fight the current challenges, a collaboration will never occur.

For my sample friends, I want to explain why I make this claim in a way that represents the passion of the many researchers who roll their eyes every time they hear a panel company say this.

When a sample provider says, “ the surveys are poor consumer experiences, ” the researcher thinks, “this is a complete cop-out by the sample firms who have completely destroyed the panels that were once producing really good data.”