Finding customers to talk to
Introduction
Any experienced user researcher will know getting your participant recruitment strategy is vital to the success of your research. Never underestimate how hard recruiting the right participants will be. Start thinking about your recruitment plan at the earliest possible time.
The best recruitment method depends on several factors:
Research objectives and methodology
Definition of your targeted participants
Timeline constraints
Budget availability
How many interviews you are planning to run
Whether the interviews are in person or remote
Success often comes from combining multiple recruitment methods and maintaining flexibility in approach based on project needs
Find the right people to talk to
It's essential that you find the right people to talk to. This means recruiting participants who match your target customer profile exactly - avoiding friends, family, or convenient substitutes. Recruiting wrong participants will mean to misleading insights and wasted resources.
Finding the right people to talk means you'll be gathering insights to drive your desired business outcomes. Therefore before starting your research, it's really worth taking the extra time to think carefully about the characteristics and behaviours of the people you want to speak to (based your aims and objectives of your research plan). This will allow you create a selection criteria against to help you target the people you wish to talk, and those who you wish to screen out.
The next to step is to find your participants. These may be existing customers (who have opted-in to be contacted for this purpose). Alternatively, you could add an intercept on your website asking if customers or potential customers wish to take part in research or target suitable communities (for example on Reddit). Offering an suitable incentive (such as gift voucher) will ensure interest (and increase the chance that the selected participants turn up to the session and be engaged participants)
You can also use online research platforms (for example, Askable, Prolific, Respondent) or participant recruitment agency (such as Angelfish, People for Research) to find participants (who are not customers but match your target customer profiles). Each of these methods have their pros and cons. Typically, cost per participant is relative to the scarcity of participants with your desired criteria. If there are budget constraints remember, it's best to choose 5 high quality participant than more low-quality ones.
Selecting the right participants
When selecting participants, it’s important to draft your screener survey carefully so potential participants can't 'game' the survey to ensure their selection. Here are is an example B2C screener and B2B screener templates.
When circulating the screener, it should be accompanied with a short message. To encourage sign-ups, it's vital to manage the expectations of potential participants by clearly stating what the conversation will be about, how long the session will take, the dates of the sessions. If you intend to record the session, you should state this also. If conducted remotely, state the communication method to be used. You should consider which method is most suitable for your audience. For example, older participants may prefer over phone over an online platform such as GoogleMeet.
Preparing your participants to take part
Give those participants who are selected, the option to select a suitable date and time. Then provide them a calendar invite (and ensure a reminder is sent 24 hours before the session).
Before the session is conducted, you should also ensure the participant is fully aware of any intention to record the session and understands how their recording and their data will be managed once the sessions is complete. This information can sent in an email or in a document. Here is a template example.
If you have not got an existing source of participants, you should allow a minimum of 10 to 14 days to recruit participants. During that time, you can also be drafting your discussion guide with the input of your stakholders.
