GRBN launches new handbook: ENGAGE

GRBN launches new handbook, ENGAGE, to help researchers deliver better experiences to research participants and greater value to clients NEW YORK – October 16 2017 – The Global Research Business Network (GRBN) today announces the launch of its new handbook ENGAGE: 101 tips to improve the research participant user experience. According to research[1] conducted by GRBN in 2016, as many as 7 in 10 participants had had a poor experience taking surveys. Andrew Cannon, GRBN’s Executive Director, who led the creation of the handbook, noted: “Whilst research participants do have good experiences most of the time, this research showed that as a sector we still have much room for improvement. At GRBN we decided to take the lead with a global sector-wide initiative to tackle the issue.” In late 2016, GRBN launched the Participant Engagement Initiative, designed to bring clients, agencies, technology providers and data collectors together to improve research participant experiences. Over the past 12 months more than 35 companies have joined this mission, and GRBN has worked with its partners to conduct research into both the online survey and qualitative research user experience, as well as to collect user experience metrics data. Taking this research and metrics data as the starting point and supplementing with the expertise of our partners, we have created the ENGAGE handbook. The handbook contains a wealth of practical, expert advice on how to deliver a better user experience to research participants.  Containing international advice from experts around the globe, the specific tips can be tailored to meet the cultural, ethical and legal requirements of different countries or sectors. The handbook will not only help create better user experiences, it will also help increase the brand equity of end-clients by making market research a positive brand touchpoint. Over the coming months GRBN will be introducing an implementation program designed to ensure that the tips contained in the handbook are put into practice as widely as possible across the globe. Jane Frost, chief executive of the Market Research Society (MRS), commented: “As a sector we rely on the trust and goodwill of research participants to continue with the vital work that we do – ensuring a positive and fulfilling experience is not only a commercial necessity, but our ethical responsibility.  “We welcome GRBN’s drive to bring together guidance on best practice in this area via the ENGAGE handbook, which will be a valuable resource for researchers worldwide.” Scott Miller, CEO at Vision Critical commented: “Gone are the days when we could consider research participants and customers to be two different groups of people and treat each group differently. We know now that research participation is an important part of the customer’s experience with a brand, and it is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that experience is positive and valuable to the customer. We applaud GRBN in its leadership on this issue and look forward to continued collaboration in promoting these best practices across the industry worldwide.” Simon Chadwick, Chairman of Insights Association added: “Research participants are our life blood. Without them, we do not exist. We welcome and applaud the drive of GRBN to enhance the researcher-participant relationship and stand foursquare behind this initiative.”   About GRBN (www.grbn.org) The Global Research Business Network connects 45 research associations and over 3500 research businesses on six continents. More than US$25 billion in annual research revenues (turnover) are generated by these businesses. GRBN’s mission is to promote and advance the business of research by developing and supporting strong autonomous national research associations and undertaking global industry initiatives. Twitter: @grbn_org About MRS (www.mrs.org.uk)

• The UK is the world’s second largest research market.
• With members in 50 countries, MRS is the world’s leading research association.
• It has a diverse membership of individuals at all levels of experience and seniority within agencies, consultancies, support services, client-side organisations, the public sector and the academic community.
• MRS represents 80% of research agencies who commit to, and are regulated by, the MRS Code of Conduct to ensure professional and ethical research of the highest standard of excellence.
• In 2013 MRS launched the Fair Data trust mark that demonstrates which organisations handle their customers’ personal data fairly.
• MRS is the global leader in research qualifications and training.
• Winners of the Launch of the Year prize at the International Content Marketing Awards 2013 for Impact Magazine, the quarterly publication of the Market Research Society and sister title to Research-live.com.

Twitter: @TweetMRS About Insights Association (http://www.insightsassociation.org/) As the leading voice, resource and network of the marketing research and analytics community, the Insights Association empowers intelligent business decisions. Through advocacy, education and certification, it enables its members to thrive in an evolving industry and drive business impact. About Vision Critical (https://www.visioncritical.com/) Vision Critical provides customer relationship intelligence software that improves customer relationships to grow customer lifetime value. Designed for today’s always-on, social and mobile savvy customer, Vision Critical’s technology helps large, customer-centric enterprises discover what their customers want so they can deliver what they need. Unlike traditional customer research, which is slow, expensive and gathers dust on a shelf, Vision Critical’s customer intelligence platform replaces static data and cumbersome reports with real-time actionable customer intelligence that companies need to build better products, deliver better services and achieve better business outcomes. Hundreds of high-performance organizations use Vision Critical’s technology. Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/visioncritical. ### UK media contacts:   Rebecca Daley / Emma Molton Camargue +44 (0)20 7636 7366 rdaley@camargue.uk / emolton@camargue.uk [1] GRBN UX Study 2016