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Sample Management

To get research results that are valid, accurate and helpful, you not only have to ask the right questions, you have to ask the right people. And that means getting the “sample” right.

Sample management is a core NRG skill. Our sample management expertise ensures that you have the right mix of responsive and engaged survey participants for your research projects.

Sample management involves three critical activities.

  • First, define the population from which the sample must be drawn for telephone or online surveys or focus groups. The populations can vary widely from study to study. As examples, populations we have studied have been as varied as bus riders on the Number 30 Bus Route, females aged 18-25 who listen to a certain type of music, residents of a 10 square block area of a city, farmers in Ontario who raise cattle, customers of a specific retail chain, or the adult population of Canada and the United States. NRG staff work with you to properly define the population necessary for your studies.
  • Second, know where and how to source the proper sample so it will be accurate and the cost will be reasonable. Our sampling expert, Tim Robinson, draws from a multitude of different sources to select samples, and can advise you about the quality of alternative sample sources. Tim has more than 15 years’ experience working with survey samples—he knows whereof he speaks.
  • Third, make sure the sample is properly and rigorously administered. NRG’s sample management skills ensure that samples are released to interviewers or recruiters on an appropriate schedule. If too much of the sample is released initially and all calls completed very quickly, there may not an appropriate number of callbacks to “no answer” and “busy” numbers and the randomness, and hence the representativeness, of the sample will be diminished. If the sample is too stringently rationed, it will sometimes take longer than clients want to have their interviewing completed.

NRG’s considerable experience and judgment about sample management adds greatly to the value of the final research product.