Quest for Quiescence

This is the first of three reviews that I will be conducting on the Survey Sites used in my online survey experiment. Canadian Viewpoint is a company that provides data collection and project management services in the research industry. Some of their research is performed by distributing surveys to relevant consumers. Canadian Viewpoint runs a website called Survey Lion as a panel to field it’s online studies. Panellists sign up to be members in order to receive surveys to complete in exchange for money.

How it works

After a panellist signs up, they will receive emails in their inbox as studies become available. The email contains a link to the survey as well as information such as estimated time to complete, the topic and the incentive value (a cash reward in $CAD).

The sign up process

In order to sign up you will need to provide the following information…

• Name
• Address
• Email
• Birth Date
• Gender
• Phone number

In case you’re wondering, I haven’t received any spam email or phone calls or any other unwanted contact as a result of signing up at this site. Once you’ve signed up, you will be asked to complete a very simple profile questionnaire with only a few questions that will be used as suitability criteria to pair you with relevant surveys.

The Panel Website

The website is pretty basic but does provide most of the necessary information. When logged in, you can change your password or edit your profile (used as criteria to screen for relevant surveys). There is a contact form with an email address and toll free phone number though I haven’t tried either yet (no support has been required because the process is simple). There is also a decent FAQ to answer most questions you are likely to have. You are also able to see how much money you have earned and request a payment online (more details on payments below). One problem with the website is that the area that is supposed to allow you to track the payment status on completed surveys says that the page is disabled for maintenance purposes. This has been this way since I started using the site on August 19, 2009 if not longer.

Referals

Survey Lion also offers a referral bonus. For each person you refer who becomes an active member you will receive $5. To be considered an “active member” a referral needs to complete at least one survey or attempt 3 surveys. To refer someone, you need to enter their name and email into a form from the members area of the panel. Meaning that you can not send out or post referral links for people to sign up through. This will make it difficult to recruit referrals.

Payment

All incentives (referrals and survey completion rewards) are banked and can be seen from within the members area of the panel. At any time you may request a payment by clicking a “Request Payment” button from within the members area of the panel. Cheques will be mailed out and typically take 4-6 weeks for delivery. No Paypal option is available.

So far Survey Lion seems like a decent Site. At the end of the online survey experiment I’ll be posting a follow-up review based on the experiment results so be sure to stay tuned for that. Also, be sure to check out the upcoming reviews of the two other sites used in the experiment. Opinion Outpost and Greenfield Online.