FAQ

Helping to shape the future of the products and services you use is empowering to you as a consumer, and makes a real difference – a total win-win situation.

Every day you use products and services in a competitive market place. Taking part in research gives you the personal opportunity to feed back to and have influence over these companies so that what’s on offer in the future will suit your needs better.

When you take part in a discussion group you might be chosen from hundreds of applicants, and effectively you represent the views of potentially hundreds of thousands of people. This gives you a genuinely powerful and important role in new developments. We can’t guarantee that the brands paying to know what you think are going to do things exactly in the way you suggest… but if you don’t have your say, there is no way you can make a difference.

Most of our research is commissioned by commercial brands, and if we ask people to take time to participate in a discussion group they are financially rewarded for their time and contribution. This is a one-off cash payment, typically of £30 – £50 for a 1-2 hour discussion, but it could be far higher for specialist or business groups, and longer studies are often available too. Questionnaires and surveys are obviously much quicker and easier to participate in, and may be rewarded by entry into a draw of some sort – we’ll always make it clear what the deal is, whether a survey is for its own sake and rewarded as such, or if it’s just part of a screening process for a more qualitative phase. Sometimes when manufacturers are testing a new product, participants receive samples/supplies, in return for evaluating the performance.

The idea of talking in a roomful of strangers in a typical ‘focus group’ might seem intimidating, but most people find they really enjoy participating in groups – discussions are lead by a skilled moderator, everybody gets their say, and it can be lively and interesting, whatever the subject matter. Remember everyone’s in the same boat, and the researchers are well aware of this and go to great lengths to make everyone feel relaxed and welcome. And whilst helping to influence the activity of a company or service, you get paid and offered refreshments just for talking! You will have been selected for the group for a reason and as such you are likely to have many things in common with the other participants, indeed sometimes people find the more business-oriented projects can often represent good networking and contacting opportuntiies.

Take the first step today and register with Saros, you have nothing to lose and potentially quite a bit to gain.

Market researchers love asking questions! But they are all asked for a purpose, to recruit you to the right research event.

Market Researchers in general (and Saros Research too!) seem to do nothing but ask you questions! Some of these can be quite personal, but all are for good reason.

Of course taking part in research is interesting and brings many of its own rewards… but another good thing is that you do get paid as well!

Taking part in qualitative research or user testing with Saros Research takes time, concentration, and effort. It sometimes involves preparation, and often involves travel... so it's only fair that this is rewarded financially.

Payment for research events is made between our client researchers and you as the participant. The payment is not made by, nor is the level set, by Saros Research (although in many cases we may administer the payment to you on behalf of the researcher). The amount on offer is always made clear at the point of application, and unless very specifically stated otherwise it is a total payment, to include any direct expenses you may have to allow you to attend (e.g. travel, childcare etc). So, it’s up to you to work out whether it is worth your while to apply to attend, taking all those factors into account along with your personal level of interest in the research itself.

Typical payments are from £40 for a 90-minute consumer discussion group, but we have had longer studies offering payments of hundreds of pounds. Payment is usually made in cash at the end of the session. For online or remote research, payment is typically made by Paypal or BACs within a few days of the research concluding – although bear in mind that the last day you participate, may not be the final day of the project itself.

If you have been recruited for the research in your professional capacity – for example, it is research specifically for Office Managers or Veterinary Surgeons – then typical rewards tend to be higher. Even if you are the same person who did a discussion last year about breakfast cereal for £40, your opinions on your specialist professional area may be of more direct value to our client, depending on the desired outcomes of the project.

We consider that taking part in an interesting and well-run piece of research brings many rewards to the participant, especially if the research relates to a professional specialism or personal interest. The feedback we receive each week tells us that people really do enjoy it, often far more than they expected to. The money is great to receive, and indeed it may have cost you directly to get there and take part… but the money is far from everything.

Market researchers love asking questions! But they are all asked for a purpose, to recruit you to the right research event.

Market Researchers in general (and Saros Research too!) seem to do nothing but ask you questions! Some of these can be quite personal, but all are for good reason.

When you register with Saros you will be asked to complete our basic registration form. We use the information on this form to try to match you to the most appropriate research event in your area. We used to ask a range of other, optional, more detailed questions but found that these would quickly become out of date as your tastes, tech and behaviour like car ownership change. So, we now only hold your basic demographic information. This can mean that you are invited to projects you may feel are not relevant to you, but if you find that happens you can either simply ignore the email or pass it on to someone you think may like to take part.

Once you have registered with us though we still ask questions, whenever you apply for an event! This is because we cannot know everything about you from your registration, and still need to know things that are specific to a project, or that might change frequently, such as which supermarkets you have visited in the past month.

Sometimes we require more sensitive information about you, which we use in ways that are appropriate to the research requirements only: one example is we might be recruiting on behalf of a public sector organisation that is required to ensure they research all segments of the population consistently, which is why we may ask about ethnicity. Some of our clients make adaptive technology and other products for disabled people, or medical equipment of use and interest only to people with certain specific conditions, so that’s why we might ask about your health and disabilities on our screening questionnaire (we do not recruit for medical trials, incidentally, even our patient research is about marketing and communications aspects only).

So, we are sorry about all the questions! But it’s the only way we can ensure our clients see the people they are really looking for, and you get the chance to give genuine user insight and the potential to shape products and services for your own future use.

Qualitative research looks at small samples of the public, and is designed to answer specific questions about WHY people think or behave like they do.

It is surprising how little is known about qualitative research for those who have had no direct contact with it. Read on to find out more...

For many people, typical experience of market research involves answering questions, either online or with a telephone or face to face interviewer. Usually these questions are ‘closed’, with a yes/no or multiple choice response option and tend to be used to find out quickly what a lot of people think or do, so that generalisations can be made to the rest of the population – eg ‘50% of the public have seen this ad’ or ‘20% of female customers under 30 like the new packaging’ etc. Because it’s all about numbers, this kind of research is known as quantitative research (‘quantative’ across the pond or often just ‘quant’).

Qualitative research on the other hand looks at smaller samples of the public, and is designed to answer specific questions about WHY people think or behave like they do. This kind of research tends to be far more in-depth, thought-provoking, and – based on the feedback we receive daily – a lot more interesting for the participants! It’s not about finding people who ‘represent’ a whole population, but about examining specific issues – for example, a researcher may want to talk only to people who used to use their product but have now gone off it, or another time they may need to investigate decision making amongst loyal recommenders of their brand, or they might only need people who use a certain service infrequently. That’s why we have to ask you so many questions in screening…

Highly trained researchers use a number of skills and techniques to draw out impressions and opinions that you may not even be consciously aware of – from word association or sorting exercises to creative tasks such as collaging or blogging. Respondents often say they learn a great deal from the process, and not just about the product or ideas being discussed. They also tell us that, whatever their expectations about the subject matter (which might be quite dry-sounding, for example research about insurance), they find the time flies by far more quickly than they expected.

Of course it does all take far more time than ticking a few boxes, and often means travelling to a central research facility. You will usually be required to THINK quite a bit as well, to use your imagination and draw on memories and associations and perform other feats of the mind which are fun, challenging and thought provoking – this is of course why qualitative research participants are paid for their time.

We are all users of technology and online resources – and people who design and create them have to know they will work in the real world with real people.

User Experience, 'UX' or Usability research, tends to take place on a one-to-one basis. It's a great chance to take a peek at something not yet released, or the next version of a service you already use.

User Experience is all about that fascinating area where human beings and technology connect with one another – often it’s the kind of things that, where they work perfectly, you don’t even notice. If a website or application designer wants their new service to be useful to the public, they will at some point have to get feedback on how ‘real’ people will use it, and what kind of issues they might encounter.

This feedback is usually in the form of a structured interview, often in front of the application itself, and it can feel a bit like you’re being tested – being asked to find information, or locate things on a website, for example. Remember though it’s not you that is the test subject, rather it’s the site or process itself. Sessions are often recorded, and special technology to track where your eyes move around the screen is also useful to designers to help make further improvements.

Sometimes research needs to take place in the real world rather than a research centre, therefore you might be asked to test a piece of equipment or software at home and be interviewed there or complete a diary or blog about your experiences. More typical though is a one-to-one session in a development lab with an interviewer guiding you through a series of tasks and talking to you about what you’re doing, how you are finding the instructions or information available and so on.

If you are selected for this kind of research, there will be no assumptions of any degree of technological-savvyness about you. If we need ‘expert users’ we’ll cover that in the screening process, but it’s just as likely that you are chosen because you have no special experience or expertise of the area at all, and better reflect the potential new users ‘out there’. As ever, open questions are asked to pinpoint precisely the participants we are seeking, and by answering fully and honestly you will maximise your chance of selection for the right project.

Sometimes you might be asked to test a future release of a service you already use, and this can be a fascinating glimpse into the future – or our clients might be creating something completely new. Often the ideas being tested are very commercially sensitive, and for this reason you may be required to sign a confidentiality agreement or non-disclosure agreement (NDA) before participating.

It can feel a lot more intense than taking part in a focus group with other paticipants, but the feedback we receive is that people usually find it very interesting to see the directions in which new technology is moving, as well as gaining new insight about how the technology we take for granted is tested and developed.

All the UX projects we recruit for are individually scheduled and usually booked back-to-back in an expensive test lab – punctuality and reliability in our participants is even more vital here than for group work!

Entrusting your personal information to Saros can be done with complete confidence.

Saros is a member of the Market Research Society and the Association of Qualitative Researchers. All the research agencies to whom we supply groups are also members of one of these organisations. The information you supply us with will never be used by us for any purpose other than that for which you have agreed, i.e. to invite you to participate in legitimate research opportunities.