One online survey panel that has been on my review radar for a while is ClickIQ. This company lets users accumulate points as they complete individual surveys. Here are my observations about this panel.
About Click IQ Inc
Operating out of Minneapolis, Minnesota, ClickIQ provides a full range of market research and services to their customers. It specializes in custom marketing research, shoppers insights and proprietary consumer panels.
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It has a balanced approach to achieve its business objective. On one hand, it solicits inputs from panel participants (or panelists) regarding various aspects of businesses. Often the survey is organized according to subjects of interest, so that participants can effectively and conveniently provide their responses on the questionnaire presented.
On the other hand, these opinions, ideas and feedbacks are collated and presented back to companies so that they better understand the perspectives of their customers, vendors/suppliers and average consumers.
There is tremendous value in ClickIQ’s offerings. The information collected would be a great help for businesses to improve products and services.
As for the survey panelists, they will be properly compensated for their willingness to communicate their opinions and experiences with businesses.
ClickIQ’s survey panels can be broadly grouped into 2 categories. First is the e/visor Panel, a generic consumer panel for general consumers in U.S. and Canada. And also industry specific panels with more targeted areas of interest to support vast area of market research.
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As usual, I went to the Better Business Bureau’s website to see if I could uncover anything about the firm.
Seems like the company is not involved in any accreditation program with the Better Business Bureau, which is no big deal really, lots of companies are not BBB accredited businesses. That said, CI is ranked an A+ (highest) rating by BBB.
Panel Participation
Only residents in US are eligible for ClickIQ survey. While age is not a critical or prerequisite factor, the company expressly states that participants should be the decision makers when it comes to grocery shopping.
In that sense, teenagers would not be their preferred panelists unless they are tasked to be in charge of regular shopping. The chance is almost as good as landing on a paid survey site which can cater for adequate livelihood.
The core activities on the site are surveys, interviews, productive thing, and focus group discussions. Appropriate panel members would be invited to participate in any of the stated activities.
It takes no more than 15 minutes to become one ClickIQ member. That is the time used to tell them about your household, the products in your marketing list, number of children you have, nature of job, etc.
The company would then analyze your suitability on the various kinds of surveys based on your inputs. At the end of the process, you would be able to tell how many survey panels you qualify.
Individual survey is sent out from the site through e-mail. Of course participants are not obliged to undertake any survey, but with more surveys completed, the more points participants can accumulate.
Reward System
Rewards for ClickIQ participation come in the form of points much like with Global Test Market panel, which members can redeem for cash. In completing a certain survey, participants would earn a fixed number of so-called “Visor Points”, also known as “IQPoints” (typically 50-100).
There is also a newcomer bonus. Every newbie, called “E-visor” here, would be entitled to 100 points upon joining.
You can also refer up to 30 people per calendar year. For every friend you that invite who becomes a member, you will receive 50 IQPoints credited directly to your e/visor account.
In order to “cash-out”, one needs to gather at least 2,500 points. Every 100 points has a face value of $1, so a survey could earn you $1 to $1.50 on average. Thankfully typical surveys take no more than 10 minutes to complete.
Correspondingly more points are awarded for longer surveys. From my own experience, the max I have ever earned (500 points) came from a survey that demanded about twenty minutes of my attention.
Once you reach the minimum, you may either request a PayPal payment or alternatively you can setup direct deposit to your bank account.
My Review of Click IQ
For me, it has been a mixed experience here on this site. I did not quite like how I had to fill up the lengthy questionnaire when I first registered as member.
- One other problem is the infrequent nature of the surveys commissioned. There is no guarantee that you can receive one every week, so that could be a serious impediment if one wishes to accumulate points in as short time as possible.
- The positive is obvious; that this site is entirely legit. They honor their promise of $25 payment whenever you hit 2,500 points. The default payment option is by check, but they can pay to your PayPal account as well.
- One other aspect I like is that ClickIQ demonstrates complete respect for your privacy. Other than the survey email, I do not receive any email from them at all, spam or marketing messages. This hands-off approach becomes even more impressive when you compare to some online survey sites that seem desperate to want to sell you something all the time.
- In addition, they will never divulge your personal details to external marketing agents so you can rest assured that you would not be bombarded with unsolicited calls from telemarketing agents.
Shortage of Surveys!
Just before I finished off this article, I checked out the website again hoping to find some new and surprise element in their service offerings.
I found none but the message that announced “no surveys are available” surely sticks out like a sore thumb. Other feedbacks regarding ClickIQ which I have observed tend to give a description of “feast or famine”.
Apparently the surveys have a seasonal factor to it; one time there could be many surveys available all at once, and then just as quickly, the surveys just disappear.
So those who look to ClickIQ to turn in regular stream of income would be disappointed. Seriously, I won’t bet my last dollar on a paid survey site which can provide any panelist a steady income.
Is this Site Worthy?
All in all, the site seems to conduct itself pretty above board, but they are not fantastic when it comes to prompt payment.
So if you think you can derive some additional income from them, go ahead and join ClickIQ! But just be prepared to wait for the payment due to you, maybe two months?
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