Thummim Survey questions for researchers to determine what they can expect from suppliers on the quality and unbiased options of their surveys.
With confidence and assurance, we share the process of our survey recruitment, survey and sample management, as well as policies and compliances to show the data quality and validation needed to provide top-notch service.
01. What experience does your company have in providing online surveys for market research?
Thummim Survey is a new feature of Thummim; Thummim has built a network of over 10,000 healthcare practitioners (HCPs) within Nigeria and some other African Countries. These HCPs are spread over 60 medical and non medical specialties.
02. Please describe and explain the type(s) of online sample sources from which you get respondents. Are these databases? Direct marketing lists? Social networks?
Thummim Survey actively manages our own database and also works with a network of trusted partners and associations. All respondents are validated healthcare professionals, opted-in to receive invitations to surveys via email, and are all actively managed and profiled by Thummim to the same exacting standards, including quality of response, engagement and incentives.
03. If you provide samples from more than one source: How are the different sample sources blended together to ensure validity? How can this be replicated over time to provide reliability? How do you deal with the possibility of duplication of respondents across sources?
Thummim Survey combines our own survey asset and those of our partners with great care to ensure maximum coverage of the markets in which we operate. New partners are selected to complement our existing assets. We deploy a variety of advanced technologies to de-duplicate both within and across sources. By consistently profiling all sources in the same ways, we can ensure that appropriately stratified samples can be replicated over time.
We also deploy a number of technologies and processes at the survey level, including application of RelevantID™ from Imperium, an independent digital fingerprinting solution to provide an additional level of reassurance to our clients, as well as contributing to our overall de-duplication and quality management framework.
04. Are your survey source(s) used solely for market research? If not, what other purposes are they used for?
No
Thummim is an online platform for healthcare professionals all over Africa. Through the Thummim community, physicians and other healthcare professionals are provided a platform for online learning and other activities.
05. How do you source groups that may be hard to reach on the internet?
A lot of our groups are what would traditionally be identified as “hard to reach,” which is why we utilize a multi-level approach to recruitment via telephone, online (where applicable), and through trusted partnerships.
06. What steps do you take to achieve a representative sample of the target population?
Because a universe list does not always exist in the healthcare space, it is not always possible to produce the probability sample required to be representative. However, we work closely with our clients to produce and deliver stratified samples that closely approximate a representative sample by careful selection of quotas. In cases where a panel has most or the entire specialty included within the panel, then a random sample of the panel is representative.
07. What profiling data is held on respondents? How is it done? How does this differ across sample sources? How is it kept up-to-date? If no relevant profiling data is held, how are low incidence projects dealt with?
Basic profile data is collected at the time of registration and this includes country, state, specialty and workplace name. As soon as possible thereafter we ask members to complete a detailed profiling survey that covers additional details on specialty and applicable subspecialties, years of practice,
08. Please describe your survey invitation process. What is the proposition that people are offered to take part in individual surveys? What information about the project itself is given in the process? Apart from direct invitations to specific surveys what other means of invitation to surveys are respondents exposed to? You should note that not all invitations to participate take the form of emails.
All our survey member invites are personalized and will contain:
- the project name and reference
- a brief description of the project
- the length of interview
- incentive due for completion (if any )
- deadline for survey completion
- contact information
- unsubscribe instructions
- privacy and voluntary participation statement
We also promote all available survey opportunities for an individual member into a Daily Email which provides the above level of detail.
09. Who prepares the survey questions?
Most times our clients do prepare their questions and send to us to work on, but a few do commission us to prepare the questions, for this few we use our in house expertise to prepare the questions to glean the information the client wants.
10. Please describe the incentives that respondents are offered for taking part in your surveys. How does this differ by sample source, by interview length, by respondent characteristics?
Our approach to honoraria disbursement integrates the latest research in respondent motivation with a sophisticated suite of in-house technologies, all designed to deliver superior data quality and drive project efficiency. While honoraria are an important part of respondent motivation, research conducted by ourselves and others indicates clearly that money is only one of a number of motivating factors for respondents. Other powerful drivers of participation include a desire to learn something new and a willingness to contribute to the improvement of healthcare delivery.
Furthermore, by lessening the reliance on financial inducements, we aim to improve the attention given to a survey, leading to better responses and higher data quality.
Our multi-tiered approach includes:
- Streamlining survey design
- Minimizing screen-outs through respondent profiling and targeting
- Driving participation through the work of our survey care and community engagement teams
Survey members are rewarded for the completion of our surveys and these details are clearly explained in the initial invitation. Incentive values depend on various factors, e.g. the length and complexity of a study, the respondent type (specialty) and their previous response history. We make payments to respondents through the following ways
- Check
- Bank Transfers
- Payment for Courses on Thummim Courses
- Reward Points
11. What information about a project do you need in order to give an accurate estimate of feasibility using your own resources?
The “size” of any survey or source may not necessarily be an accurate indicator that your specific project can be completed or completed within your desired time frame.
Feasibility is assessed for specialty. Important factors include incidence rate, survey length, field period and any client-imposed restrictions.
If incidence rate is not available, then we need details of the exact qualification criteria so we can make an accurate estimate using profiling information to determine the proportion of a given physician community that may qualify for a survey. We can then use the same information to target survey invitations to just those HCPs most likely to qualify, avoiding respondent burnout and maximizing total respondent capacity.
12. Do you measure respondent satisfaction? Is this information made available to clients?
Within projects, surveyed members have the opportunity to leave comments about the survey completed. We are happy to share relevant feedback from members with clients.
13. What information do you provide to debrief your client after the project has finished?
Throughout the entirety of a project, Thummim Survey offers clients’ access to Dashboard Analytics, an online application that houses all survey results, tools to conduct analyses, and the capability to export results directly into PowerPoint and Excel.
14. How often can the same individual take part in a survey within a specified period? How does this vary across your sample sources? How do you manage this within categories and/or time periods?
Over solicitation may have an impact on respondent engagement or on self-selection and non-response bias.
Thummim Survey does not believe in applying generic limits, but rather focuses on careful management of engagement levels, including items related to:
- Survey design
- Survey screen-out and quota-full rates
- Honoraria levels
- Messaging which speaks to the underlying motivation of participants
- Digesting survey opportunities into Daily Emails with reminders
- As needed, we employ heavier touch communications with members via outbound phone calls for reminders on individual projects as well as more general member (re)activation
15. Do you have a confirmation of the respondent identity procedure? Do you have procedures to detect fraudulent respondents? Please describe these procedures as they are implemented at sample source registration and/or at the point of entry to a survey?
To facilitate the integrity of the survey at point of registration, Thummim Survey:
- monitors the recruitment and survey member verification telephone calls.
- de-duplicates (real-time) new survey member accounts against that of existing panel members
- Deploys automated third-party verification technologies or telephone-verifies all new members that have not been recruited via the telephone
16. Please describe the ‘opt-in for market research’ processes for all your online sample sources.
Survey members recruited via the telephone are given a description of what is involved in being a survey member then asked whether they wish to join. Telephone recruitment calls are monitored daily to ensure survey members truly opted in and are eligible to be a survey member.
Survey members recruited via the website receive an email to confirm their survey registration. Once the link in the verification email has been activated, the panel member will be contacted at their place of work to both re-confirm their interest to be a survey member.
Survey members recruited via the website receive an email to confirm their survey registration. Once the link in the verification email has been activated, the survey member will be contacted at their place of work to both re-confirm their interest to be a survey member
17. How is your Privacy Policy provided to your respondents?
Thummim Survey Privacy Policy is provided to respondents on every survey invitation. It is also included within all surveys hosted by Thummim Survey via a link on the survey page. Our priority is to protect the information of the survey members and to the end, we specify in the privacy policy all the purposes for which we collect personal data and allow them to opt-out in case they don’t want us to use their information. In specific cases where clients are asking for the contact information of a panellist for A.E., we ask panellists for informed consent first before releasing their information.
