What is a custom online panel?

• A dedicated group of people who provide their opinions, feedback and advice to an organization, online.
• The group can range in size from a few 100 to 100,000+.
• Engage the panel in surveys, online forums, and 3D environments.
• Speak to the group as often as you like, whenever you want.

Tell me more about panels

A custom online panel is a group of pre-screened respondents who have expressed a willingness to participate in surveys and/or customer feedback sessions. The custom online panel is also known as a customer advisory panel, proprietary panel or an online research panel.

The panel can range in size from 100 to 100,000 or more people. Unlike renting sample (also known as access panels), this is a dedicated group that market researchers can engage with and learn from over time. At a moment’s notice researchers can investigate the attitudes, behavior and opinions of existing or potential customers using interactive surveys, discussion forums and 3D retail environments. Plus, results are available instantly and responses can be tracked over time.

 To see more about panels and how they are used, take a look at our panel overview section.

How does a panel fit in my research plan?

A panel can replace, or supplement, many traditional forms of research such as: telephone and mail surveys, focus groups and on-site interviews. Online panel research yields results within 72 hours, whereas telephone survey results can take 3 weeks. Depending on the nature of the sample source, online research savings are between 50 and 90 percent of the cost of telephone based approaches.

Panels are a growing phenomenon in the market research industry. They bridge the gap between a population that is reluctant to cooperate with telephone surveys and the organizations that need to know their perceptions and attitudes more than ever before. See our comparison section for more details.

What are the benefits of a panel?

The custom online panel eliminates the middleman by providing researchers with the ability to gain full control of very large panels; thereby, permitting more timely and effective research than ever before. Advantages of a custom online panel include: achieve depth to respondent profiles with every study; instantaneous results allow researchers to send shorter surveys more frequently; increased customer validation compared to traditional methods. Go to our benefits section to see more reasons why more and more leading brands are using a custom online panel.

What is involved in creating a panel?

There are several things to consider when planning a custom online panel; how will you recruit potential respondents, what software will you use to manage the panel; who will be involved to run the panel. It’s important for organizations to allocate internal resources to manage, maintain and effectively utilize the panel. A research plan should be developed to establish panel rules for frequency of contact, length of survey and response rates.