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An overview on 'panels'

By John Clark*

In last month's issue of Local Government FOCUS, I outlined some of the research methods used to gather feedback from the local community. In this month's article, I provide more information about the latest trend in market research techniques: "panels".

What is 'a panel'?

A panel is a sample of respondents who are either representative of the whole community, or a specific group, such as youth, mothers with preschool children, senior citizens, and so forth. A panel can be as small as ten people, or as large as 100,000, such as members of a club or a loyalty program.

Council community panels generally comprise several hundred people who have either responded to a letter of invitation, or volunteered to participate through a question at the end of a survey.

Screening questions categorise people demographically, to ensure they have the time and inclination to participate and have sufficient knowledge to be able to provide quality feedback on topics of interest.

History of panels

Panels are not new. In the 1960s television networks used household panels to provide ratings advice. Several hundred households were selected and each was given a diary to record the different programs the family was watching at set times through the day.

In the 1970s, meters were introduced to provide faster analysis. By the 1980s, due to speed, meters had replaced diaries and "ratings" became the guide which governed commercial pricing, or determined whether a program continued to be screened, or was taken off air.

As a counter to declining response rates to telephone interviewing brought on by the negative impact of telemarketing, market research companies are now recruiting panels of community respondents. Just as meters replaced diaries, it is likely panel members, completing questionnaires, giving phone interviews, or attending focus groups, will replace random telephone sampling. It is a more efficient way of gathering community response and is being used increasingly by commercial companies, Federal and State Government departments and some local councils.

Setting up panels

It is important to ensure any panel is demographically representative of the community or target group. It is also important the panel comprises respondents who have volunteered to participate based on an interest in the topic, rather than purely for monetary gain. To recruit a good cross section of participants, it is advisable to use multiple sources, rather than merely rely on one point of contact such as a letter.

Ideally your Council might use a mix of the following:

• a general letter of invitation (included with the rates notice)
• a targeted letter of invitation (a sample letter used to recruit senior citizens is available from OWL Research)
• an invitation over the phone (given to all those who telephone Council)
• a verbal invitation (given to all people who visit Council's front desk)
• an online invitation (on Council's website)
• a poster (placed in Council reception, libraries, other public meeting places)
• a flyer/leaflet (available in childcare centres, sports clubs, senior citizens centres, etc)
• an advertisement in the local newspaper
• a question asked at the end of each survey conducted by Council.

The communication, by letter, poster or a verbal message, should emphasise the value of participation, ahead of any financial reward. Each person who expresses an interest should be invited to attend a public meeting where all questions about being on a panel can be answered. Once fully informed, those who wish to proceed should be provided with a basic demographic questionnaire. This first piece of communication will provide Council with essential data about the respondent that can be used to categorise them, by age, Ward, family composition, and so forth, for future studies.

Once the panel database starts to be built, it is important to stay in touch. Keep members enthused by involving them in regular surveys or by sending out a periodic newsletter explaining how their feedback is being used by Council.

In next month's issue of Local Government FOCUS we will expand on how to use panels not only to measure satisfaction with current services, but to engage members in democratic debate to improve service delivery and develop new services.

* John Clark, Director of OWL Research has been assisting councils with community consultation for 12 years. If you would like to receive a brochure about different research methodologies, or further information about setting up and running panels, you can contact John on (02) 9489 8888 or email john@owlresearch.com.au

The following articles are also included in this edition or go BACK to the main page: