How It Works: Research Participation with Research For Good and SaySo Rewards

Research For Good (RFG) helps organizations offer their existing users, customers, members and communities opportunities to participate in paid research.

Participation can include surveys and other research activities. Research For Good provides and operates the participation opportunities, validates activity and pays the participating organization for successful participation.

The organization keeps its relationship with its users and decides how the value generated through participation benefits them.

Research For Good and SaySo Rewards

SaySo Rewards (saysorewards.com) is a brand of Research For Good, Inc. (researchforgood.com), a U.S.-based market research company that provides research opportunities, participation technology, matching, validation and partner services.

Research For Good provides the technology, research opportunities, matching, validation and partner services that support participation. SaySo Rewards is used for participation-facing experiences and resources.

Together, they allow organizations to make research participation available to people with whom they already have a relationship, without requiring those people to become members of a separate RFG program.

How Participation Works

Participation begins with the organization.

A business, association, community organization, publisher or other partner makes participation available within its existing website, application, member area or other authenticated environment.

Users can choose to participate as much or as little as they wish. When they enter a research activity, Research For Good manages the participation journey and determines whether the activity has been successfully completed.

After participation, the user returns to the organization.

Research For Good records the participation outcome and pays the organization for validated participation. The organization determines how that economic value is used for its users or community.

The organization remains the user’s home throughout the relationship.

Who Owns the User Relationship?

The participating organization does.

Organizations retain their brand, users, customer or member relationships, authentication, communications and user experience. Research For Good does not require those users to join RFG as members.

The organization also determines how participation is presented and promoted. Calls to action can therefore fit naturally within the organization’s existing relationship with its users rather than appearing as communications from an unrelated research company.

Research For Good’s role is to provide and operate the research participation behind that experience.

What Information Does Research For Good Receive?

Participation is designed so that an organization does not need to use personally identifying information such as a person’s name, email address or phone number as the user’s participation identifier.

Participation normally originates from an authenticated environment operated by the organization. Research For Good receives a persistent, opaque identifier that allows participation outcomes to be associated consistently with the correct partner user without using that person’s identity as the identifier.

The partner remains responsible for its own user relationship and user information.

Who Determines What Users Receive?

The organization does.

Research For Good pays the partner based on successful participation. The partner then determines how participation creates value within its own program or community.

Depending on the organization, that might include existing rewards, points, discounts, credits, benefits, merchandise, entries into drawings, support for a community objective or another form of value chosen by the organization.

Research For Good does not require an organization to adopt an RFG wallet, rewards program or other user-value system. Existing mechanisms can be used wherever practical.

This distinction is important: Research For Good is the system of record for participation outcomes. The partner is the system of record for value provided to its users.

Does an Organization Need to Become a Survey or Rewards Company?

No.

Participation is intended to fit into an organization’s existing environment rather than turn the organization into a research panel or rewards business.

Research For Good manages the research opportunities and participation activity. The organization continues doing what it already does: maintaining its audience or community, communicating with its users and providing whatever value is appropriate to that relationship.

Participation simply adds another activity that the organization can make available.

How Is Participation Added to an Existing Website or Application?

The implementation depends on the capabilities the organization already has.

In most cases, the objective is to reuse existing authentication, user identity, pages, rewards or benefits systems and operational processes rather than create new infrastructure solely for research participation.

Users begin in the organization’s authenticated environment, enter Research For Good participation from there and return to the organization afterward. Participation outcomes can then be connected to the organization’s existing processes.

Research For Good provides implementation requirements and works with partners to establish the appropriate connection.

Why Do Organizations Offer Research Participation?

Different organizations use participation for different purposes.

For a business, participation can create incremental revenue from an existing customer base while giving customers another reason to return and another way to receive value between purchases.

For a community or membership organization, participation can provide an ongoing source of revenue and engagement. It can also give supporters another way to contribute when they are unable or unwilling to contribute money.

The underlying model is the same in both cases: people voluntarily participate in research, Research For Good creates economic value from that participation, and the organization decides how that value fits its existing relationship with its users.

About Research For Good

Research For Good is a research technology and sample company that connects people with research opportunities and provides technology for matching, participation, validation and reporting.

Research For Good’s infrastructure powers research participation across a range of digital environments. SaySo Rewards is part of the Research For Good participation ecosystem.

For organizations interested in using participation with an existing customer base, membership or community, contact publishers@researchforgood.com or navigate to the home page and use the feedback form located there. We are happy to answer questions about privacy, implementation, participation and user value.