Lookin' for dialysis people - in a dialysis center - it's tougher than it sounds

[Caliber]

I own and manage a market research company.   In the past, I have written posts about how people can participate in paid market research projects related to dialysis products and services.

First, understand that I don't sell anything related to dialysis.  I'm a researcher asking questions and have found that IHD participants have immense insight about kidney disease and, in particular, dialysis.

Second, not a single IHD participant has had a negative experience by taking part in our market research studies.  In fact, many have requested that we consider them when recruiting for our future projects because they enjoyed the process and realized that there are no sales involved, that I keep names and contact information confidential, and that they receive fair-minded compensation for their participation.

Today I am stumped.  We have a new research project and need to recruit people receiving In-Center dialysis treatments to complete a 15-minute online survey.  Currently we're offering $20 for people to complete this survey.  Before you ask, "Where do I sign up?", there's a hitch.  We need to recruit people at dialysis centers themselves.  Unfortunately for this particular project we cannot recruit people through online sources like IHD. 

We've determined from past projects that people on IHD (and other kidney disease support sites) tend to be more informed.  That's usually a good thing.   However, for our current project, the research sponsor wants the opinions of “the average person undergoing dialysis”.

My question to you is:   How do I best recruit people or at least inform people receiving In-Center dialysis treatments about this online survey (which can also be conducted over the phone)?

Issues we deal with regularly and have to overcome each time include…

Credibility –
People think this might be sales related or a scam of some type.  I try to explain things in our information pamphlets by reiterating that this is a research project, and we operate an accredited marketing research company.  And I provided my name, phone number, and email address.
 
Another key aspect of marketing research is often the idea that people who participate are not told, at least in the beginning, which company is sponsoring the research study.  As a market researcher, I've seen time and time again how knowing the sponsor of the research can both negatively and positively impact opinions.  Research demands unbiased opinions.  So when people wonder who the research is for and we cannot tell them, then our credibility is again put into question.
     
People forget –
We leave brochures, pass out cards, etc.  People on dialysis have big concerns - many concerns - and not just concerns about their health.  Family, work, finances just scratch the surface.  Who cares about somebody's market research survey!  So when a flyer is picked up, it is easily forgotten or discarded.  We want to somehow become more memorable.

So, how can you help?  Given our concerns, and knowing that we want to reach people at dialysis centers, do you have any recommendations on how we can reach In-Center patients in a non-intrusive way?

For this project, we have created a tri-fold flyer (similar to one you would often see on a table in a waiting area).  We are going into dialysis centers and asking the administration to allow us to leave these brochures in the waiting area and hopefully in the dialysis area.  We think that some centers may say OK and then throw our brochures away when we leave.  We think some centers will say no.  And we think some centers will accommodate our request.

Do you have any suggestions about how we should approach the staff/management at a dialysis center to make it more likely they will help us out?

Do you have any suggestions about what we could or should be doing that I have not mentioned here?

We would sincerely appreciate your assistance.

Thank you for your help.

Pat McCabe
Caliber Research
(208) 904-0339
pat.mccabe@caliber-research.com

[ChrisEtc]

Try the Kidney Foundation.  Try kidney failure support groups.  Try Nephrologists themselves.  Try dialysis centers that aren't part of big chains, I bet they're more likely to be agreeable.  Better yet, hire a dialysis patient to approach other patients.

[Whamo]

GOYA.

[ChrisEtc]

Personally, I would never do a survey like that unless it was someone I already knew.  $20 isn't worth the risk to privacy and what have you,

[noahvale]

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[Caliber]

Lots of good suggestions.  Thank you very much!   Specifically...

ChrisEtc - the study design prevents us from using support groups (local or national).  Bummer.  However, we are showing up at Nephrologist offices (with treats for the staff to bribe them to give us 5 minutes with the practice manager).  I didn't mention all the things we're trying in my note so it was cool to see you come up with this idea that validates it for us.  Smaller dialysis firms (non-chains) - I think this has a lot of merit.  We can't physically be in these places but we can certainly give them a call and see if they are agreeable and then send them the materials.  Hiring patients - this idea we like a lot!  We are thinking about going back to people who previously participated in other research projects and see if they want to get the word out to other dialysis patients.  I'm not sure what that would be worth to some people.  Some people do it for free and others do it for $100.  We have a very limited budget so I'm thinking that we could offer something like - $30 to the person who completes the survey and $20 to the person who tells them about the survey.  If you tell 5 people and they take the survey, then that's $100.  Our budget could handle that.  Great thoughts.  And your comment about the $20 being too low.  We agree.  Our issue is that we just received the funds from our client to be able to pay $50 per survey.  That means we can offer $50, OR we can offer $30 and pay $20 to the person that referred them, etc.  So I'm not sure if $50 tips the scales in your mind, but we hope it will help.  Thank you.

Whamo - I'm working on this 7 days a week, visiting dialysis centers and Nephrologiy practices all over my region, talking to past participants of our research, posting to IHD, and much more.  So thanks for your suggestion but I'm not sure how to implement it.  Frankly, it wasn't very constructive.  I don't expect every reader to help out.  But in a support forum, you hope to read comments that are supportive.

Noahvale - it's always great to hear back from people who participated in past research.  You're right in that IHD admins wouldn't allow us to be here if they felt it was a scam.  They are VERY busy people and took time to check us out and verify our claims about being non-intrusive, confidential, no-sales, and truly only do paid research where respondents are paid for their opinions.  With their blessing, we've been allowed to offer paid research opportunities to people on this site.  We are thinking that this posting will lead us to people who will offer to get the word out in their dialysis center.  We can compensate the IHD contact and the people that take the survey will get paid too.  Before we made that offer formally to people, we wanted to get some feedback about what we're doing, not doing, etc.  When it comes to these larger chains, their web sites have information about various forms of dialysis treatments such as PD and HHD.  Are they simply required to put that information there or do they really care about their patients.  I get very mixed signals from these firms.  In some ways I see how they really do care about the health and well-being of their patients, but in other ways I see them attempting to keep patients in the dark, uninformed, etc.  I realize the monetary motivation that could be driving the lack of information / education to patients, but it still seems inconsistent.  What we're doing is non-threatening - ie we're measuring awareness of various treatment types and the perceived pro's and con's of each treatment type.  But it's the 'why' behind that.  We can't disclose to people the 'why' but anyone who has half a brain at these dialysis centers will clearly know that some firm (like a NxStage type of firm) is sponsoring the study and that certainly doesn't help them.  So the higher we go at these centers, the more we get shut down.  NRAA is a terrific idea.  I'm under a time constraint that won't allow me to do that but I will keep this in mind for future projects.  I really like  it!  Likewise, I really like the ERSD Network idea too.  Purchasing ads with NKF and AAKP.  We are conducting this same survey using the AAKP membership list.  They saw this research as an opportunity for their members to make some $$ and we shared the questionnaire with them in advance.  They have been VERY helpful.  We have been reviewing the data and we noticed that people who are from AAKP generally have done more research on their own and they have greater familiarity with the details about various treatment options.  Our client is extremely interested, and now even more interested in interviewing dialysis patients we 'recruit' from dialysis centers.

Also noahvale - Wow - I can't tell you how nice it is to see that you participated in a previous study.  So would you be interested in helping out with this project by telling people at your dialysis center or giving them a card or flyer about this research for $20 for every survey someone completes?

Thanks everyone for ideas and if you're reading this and want to earn some money by telling people at your center about the project, contact me.  I will share lots of information with you so people will be glad you told them about the research project.  They'll say, "Hey, I took the survey, I got paid, and I didn't give out any private or personal information - it was a good experience - thank you for telling me about it" (or something like that).

All my best,

Pat McCabe






Specifically...

[Alex C.]

First off, for the purposes of full disclosure, let me say that:

a) I am not yet on dialysis, and
b) I have a very, very low opinion of the sales and marketing profession. I believe that their entire profession is based solely on the art of creative lying.

Having said that, let me just point out that the single BEST way to give people the idea that you are scamming them, is to emphatically say "this is not a scam". My experience tells me that when somebody says this, it's about 75% likely that it IS a scam.

[Caliber]

Hello Alex,

I agree with you 100%.  My business partner pointed this out to me.  She is a good writer and when I first created an informational brochure with this type of verbiage, she took it out because she said that we don't even want to give people that idea.  Thank you for your suggestion.

I completely understand and respect your perception about the sales and marketing profession.  I'm not going to back paddle and try to say we are somehow not part of that profession.  I believe we operate very differently but in the end, I'm sure that over the years, our clients have used the information obtained from all the opinions I've collected to put a 'positive spin' and the negative aspects of their products or services.

Thank you for your input and suggestions.   Have a good day!

[noahvale]

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[smcd23]

craigslist maybe? I see all sorts of strange things on there...