Online survey panels have a hard time recruiting new panelists. So much so, that in their desperation to reach recruitment quotas they have to make deals with the devil.
Many new members are lured into joining by false promises of money and prizes. They quickly realize the recruitment offer was misleading, and since the panel experience is not engaging, they want to leave. Not so fast! Most panel companies intentionally make unsubscribing confusing and difficult to deter panelists from leaving. This is part of their retention strategy; since we have trouble getting people in, we have to make sure the ones we have can’t get out. This is insane! Making it difficult for people to leave doesn’t solve the problem because if those people don’t want to be part of your panel they aren’t going to do surveys.
If you want to retain more panelists focus on ways to improve their experience. Locking the doors and windows so they can't leave is just going to make them angry enough to say bad things about you in public.
I was glad to see Vovici acknowledge there is a problem with how companies handle unsubscribe requests. They even followed up by suggesting ways to improve it. For that, Vovici get’s a tip of my hat.
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