Do you write screeners?

The simple answer is 'yes of course we do' - but the details are important to clarify.

If you are used to working with a traditional fieldwork agency, you may be expecting a lengthy paper questionnaire with routing instructions, but we don't work in the same way so our processes - and the screening tools they generate - are different too.

For example, our screening on a typical project takes part in 3 distinct phases - certain information we already know from our database record (although many demographics can change so we always re-check details), other things we can incorporate in an online questionnaire (we are happy to send you the link but obviously the routing instructions are not normally visible, this is all coded in the background and we can talk you through anything non-obvious), and other things we keep back for the telephone interview in which the final booking and selection takes place.

We find conducting the initial screening process online is extremely effective - there is no possible way for a human interviewer to consciously or unconsciously bias the results, for example by the way they pronounce or inflect the list in which your client's crucial brand is carefully hidden.  Of course for some digitally-excluded respondents we have to use different approaches, but the online screening followed by detailed telephone interview is the approach that brings us the most consistently accurate results.

Of course if you already have the 28 page screener, developed from a previous job or a different market etc, we are happy to work with that and reverse-engineer it to suit our processes.  We will always use your exact question wording where we can, especially on attitudinal or segmentation questions.  But please don't write one just for us!  A list of qualifying criteria, any dealbreakers vs desirables split out, along with whatever supporting information you can share, works just fine with Saros.