Summary
Oftentimes companies rely on recruiting agencies to handle finding participants for their research. While there are some advantages to this approach, and cases where outsourcing is the best option, nowadays bringing research in-house can be simple, flexible, cost-effective, and fast. Learn more about how and why to bring your recruiting in-house.
Key Insights
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Recruitment via User Interviews offers a median participant arrival time of just three hours, significantly faster than typical two-week agency lead times.
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Using agencies often involves opaque processes, delayed updates, and limits on seeing screener responses, adding stress and uncertainty to recruitment.
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Professional test takers and scammers can infiltrate recruitment through agencies, causing cancellations and extra fees; User Interviews includes fraud detection to mitigate this.
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User Interviews charges recruitment fees between $40 and $80 per participant, substantially lower than the $100 to $400 typical agency fees, plus no upfront payment is required.
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Researchers can message participants directly within User Interviews, reducing no-shows and enabling quick troubleshooting that agencies cannot always provide.
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User Interviews allows researchers to flexibly approve participants who narrowly fail screening questions, enhancing recruitment adaptability.
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Scheduling within User Interviews syncs with Google or Outlook calendars to prevent double or triple bookings, common problems when using multiple agencies.
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Pilot testing studies before full launches is standard practice, and User Interviews makes this simple to execute by scheduling a few participants ahead.
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User Interviews supports international recruitment at consistent pricing, currently available in US, Canada, UK, Germany, Australia, and South Africa, with no fee for screener translations.
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Researchers only pay for completed sessions with User Interviews, avoiding fees for no-shows or dishonest participants detected during screening.
Notable Quotes
"The first qualified participant comes in at a median average time of only three hours."
"With an agency, there’s usually a two-week quoting process before recruitment even starts."
"I had a participant get signed up three times across different agencies through Craigslist—that’s a professional test taker."
"You actually see qualified participants come in on a dashboard in real time, including their screener responses."
"User Interviews has automatic fraud detection and zero tolerance for professional test takers."
"There’s no upfront cost with User Interviews; you only pay for completed sessions."
"You can message participants directly through User Interviews to reduce no shows and troubleshoot issues instantly."
"Scheduling syncs with Google or Outlook so you avoid double bookings common in agency recruiting."
"If you realize you forgot a critical screener question, you can message all qualified participants to confirm their eligibility."
"Paying $400 per participant through an agency was a nightmare; User Interviews fees are much more affordable."
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