Respondent Re-Contacts Can Cost You
Are the fees that respondent recruiters charge for re-contacting recruited respondents excessive? Yes and no. On the surface, these fees can appear pricey, particularly given the perceived scope of the effort. To fully understand the reasons behind these fees requires an understanding of what goes on during the respondent recruitment process.
One of the purposes for re-contact fees is to dissuade clients from asking that respondents be contacted beyond what is typically required during the recruitment process. It's not that respondent recruiters are unwilling to perform extra work; it's that additional respondent contacts can be costly, and they can negatively affect the recruiter/respondent relationship. Here's how:
Extra respondent touches can stall recruitment
When respondents must be re-contacted, staff must be pulled from what they're doing to service your request. That means production not only slows on your project, it can slow on other clients' projects, too. And if production is slowed for too long, additional resources may be needed to get production back on schedule. Re-contact fees help pay these added expenses.
Respondents' "lifetime value" is at risk
Respondent recruiters place a lifetime value on each respondent. Lifetime value is the amount of profit a respondent can bring to the recruiting shop -- both in actual uses and referrals -- over the respondent's life cycle.
Respondents may view additional questions or requests as intrusive or annoying. When respondents become irritated, they may ask to be removed from the project. Worse, they may ask to be removed from the recruiter's database altogether.
But recruiters don't always know when respondents are disgruntled. Unhappy respondents may simply stop responding to the recruiter's calls. So to compensate for the possible loss of a respondent's lifetime value, recruiting shops charge a re-contact fee. Re-contact fees are an "insurance premium" that recruiters place on respondents against loss of future use.
Disclosure of fees
Not all suppliers will inform you in advance that there will be extra charges for extra respondent touches. Some state these fees in their bids, others don't. Some suppliers will mention re-contact fees at the time you request extra services, others won't. But that doesn't mean you won't be charged.
For some clients, the first they learn of re-contact fees is when they receive their invoice. Do we agree with this policy? No we don't. We feel that additional fees for additional services should be clearly disclosed in suppliers' cost proposals or at the time additional services are requested.
The bottom line
Almost all suppliers charge extra to re-contact recruited respondents. The only variable is the amount. So avoid surprises by asking for the cost implications of any request that is beyond what was discussed when you first ordered services.
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About Aaron-Abrams Field Support Services
Aaron-Abrams Field Support Services are respondent recruiting and fieldwork management specialists for qualitative market researchers. Aaron-Abrams Field Support Services delivers quality respondents with less stress, less hassle and fewer headaches. Learn more at www.aaronabrams.com
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