Ipsos Access Panel

I can’t remember how many survey sites I have joined since I had the internet. Not all survey sites make you earn a big fortune or evaluate your views in a joyful way! To be honest; most surveys are cyclically long and uninspiring. It is barely ever pleasing consequently, not all people are capable or bearing to answer 15-30 minutes with incessant questions without being fed up or driven up the wall by some rudimentary and byzantine questions!

I used to sign up in every single survey site I found, either for money and to fill up my time. Anyway. . .I won’t encourage you to join the bad sites lol. . .I will only suggest the decent ones and Ipsos is one of the first-rate and astonishing survey sites and I can highly recommend it for you to join (if you like filling out surveys)

First, who’s Ipsos? (The company, who are you dealing with and what are they offering you?)

Ipsos ASI, the Advertising Research Specialists, are the Group's dedicated brand in advertising research. With offices in 25 countries, it claims to be the largest provider of advertising pre-testing services in the world. A research company assesses market potential and interprets market trends. Like most survey sites, it sends questions about products from certain clients with new products in the market, new ideas or even questions about political issues to Ipsos members asking for their individual opinions. This process will not only involve questions, sometimes they send products to be tested at home; also they have some focus groups.
Their job is to advertise and help clients to build along relationship with the customers by sending the information and some products to the customers.
Astoundingly, it was originally created in 1975 as a market research company then expanded to most Europe in the mid 80’s then in 1998 it shifted to the newest technology( the internet )and expanded in nearly every continent, in Europe, North America, Latino America, Africa, Asia Pacific and recently the Middle East using over 35 different languages.

Ipsos Interactive Panel, how to join (not rocket science!)

Joining is very simple and easy, you only fill out some very rudimentary details (your details and any other member of the family who lives with you) then a few minutes later a confirmation email will be sent to you with a panellist ID that consists of 8 digital numbers that I found very confusing and difficult to remember. They explain the usage of ID numbers by saying that this number ensures that the answers that you give in surveys are kept anonymous throughout the research process! Also they will send your password as well (you can change it anytime). After that you can go to their website: first select your country then enter your ID and password and there you go!

Homepage (Very useful to visit every now and then, checking your earning, claim you rewards and contacting them in case you have an inquiry)

Very easy site to navigate with no complications. On the right hand there are some mini surveys to fill while on the left hand side you can see seven bars that sums up everything

1. Home
that will take you straight to the home page with a welcoming paragraph and login details

2. About us
everything you want to know about the company and their activities.

3. Data protection
insuring your privacy and the confidential treatment of your data and personal information

4. Winners gallery
showing the latest winners of their prize draw, unfortunately I never won a single time lol.

5. FAQ
All your questions are answered, how to join, your rewards, how to claim, technical problems, contacting email and a lot more.

6. Contact us

which has their email address to contact them if you have any comments or inquiry as well as their postal address. I have contacted them many times using their email address asking for my ID number, they were very fast and reply within a few minutes.

Member centre, everything you want is under this bar…you can

1. change your password

2. Enter the gift area to choose your favourite gift voucher

3. Look for surveys and outline surveys that you might taken.

4. Newsletters, you can read the latest newsletter or browse through the older editions.

5. Finally the logoff bar.

Surveys (the most important part)

When I first joined them, they sent me some basic surveys about my interests, hobbies, household members, works and my shopping habits. They asked about every single member in my household, name, sex and age and a little bit more about each member; I realised later they don’t only send me survey invitations: their surveys are also for the whole family. I receive regular surveys for my dad to fill in, also for my mum and sister; and even some surveys for the little ones as well. Since I first joined when I was in the UK, the main language for the questions is English so I have to translate some of the hard questions and the answers they give as well, so it’s double the job for me!

What kind of surveys they send?

Generally speaking EVERYTHING! Food and drink, cars, shopping habits, baby products, shops, travel . . . etcetera.
It is not only the normal question surveys; they will send you some invitations to focus groups with higher payment (points). It’s not often; for being with Ipsos for two years, I only have had three focus groups. Each was very long and the questions were a bit boring but I eventually reached the end!
In some rare occasions you can have a phone interview which is again highly rewarded . . . I’ve been invited once!

In addition, you can have a product to test at home. They send you products to eat, drink, use or even a DVD to watch, then a few days later they send you the questions survey to answer.

I find their surveys are easy to fill out, simple questions mostly with colourful illustrations and not crowded questions. Most of the time, there are surveys with their logo and questions but, in some rare occasions they send surveys from other survey companies.

There is a point I would like to talk about but I’m not sure if that can be considered as a bad point or a good point. Sometimes they send the same survey a lot of times. For example, I have received through my email a nappies survey sent to my sister to complete: it has been sent more than 6 times with a slight change (the age of the baby and the size of the nappies) and different rewards every time! Consequently, she completed this survey even faster and without my translation and got the points!

Their surveys don’t usually take more than 35 minutes to complete but occasionally it can be 45-60 minutes (but surely for higher reward).

Prize draws

Each month they have prize draw competition and the winners have points as a prize, it’s normally can vary between as little as 200 points to a whopping 5400 points. Every time you fill a survey you automatically enter the prize draw and sometimes they send you surveys to fill for a prize draw to enter but to be honest . . . whenever I see a survey for JUST a prize draw I send it to the BIN . . . I don’t believe in prize draws!

Rewards

You don’t receive money; you have points instead as a reward to be converted into gift vouchers, redeemed from their gift area. I really prefer cash though but their choices of retailer is very good and it covers nearly everyone’s taste. The rewards will not be added instantly; it takes up to 3 weeks to be credited to your account.

• Entering the gift area to find again a set of bars. A status bar with current points, your name and email address

• Change your password

• View gift vouchers, which you can redeem with how many points you have. You can redeem your points for some good retailers like Boots, Argos, WH Smith, Leisure vouchers(some restaurants, café, some nice attractions like Madame Tussauds, sea life and a lot more. Also John Lewis, Amazon and Finally Arcadia (some high street shops like Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins, Outfit, Evans, Wallis & Burton. It used to be 350 points for £2 but not anymore. Now the minimum you can redeem is 750 points for £5 and 1380 points for £10. You can claim as many vouchers as you like.

• View pending order, to see your order status, it’s normally takes between 2-4 weeks for postal order and 1-2 weeks for an e voucher.

• View your order history, to see all your order details.

• Exit the gift area to get out from this area to the main homepage.

My opinion and conclusion

Nice and easy to read surveys, can be repetitive at some point and sometimes boring and very long but they pay more for longer surveys.
What I like about them is that they send reviews to all your household members so you hardly ever get screened out like some other survey sites and if you did you get 10 points. I have been with them for almost two years earning over £210 in vouchers used for Boots and Amazon.

There are a couple of downsides for this survey site:

• You can’t change your personal information and preferences. Once you filled out the basic necessary information for the first time you won’t be able to change anything manually, the only option is by contacting them by email providing your new information which can take a while.

• Most of the times you can’t get to know how many points you are going to get or gain after completing a survey which can be annoying for some.

And finally (23rd April 2009)

I received an email from Ipsos Access Panels VIP Program entering me into their VIP quarterly trip giveaway because I always completed their surveys successfully over the previous three months! So as a thank you I have been automatically entered into their prize draw for a car! I don’t believe in Prize draws but who knows . . . maybe this time I will win! I’ll update my review if I do (lol).

Thank you for reading

© Karimkha~~~~June~~~~2009