Most online market research surveys begin with an email invitation to participate. If these emails don’t reach their intended recipients and attract their attention, your survey is going to suffer. Successful delivery, which means landing in each recipient’s inbox, not their spam folder, is never guaranteed. And being recognized by them as a legitimate message, which should be opened, is essential to avoid being clicked straight into the trash.

It may sound a bit like a game of chance, but you can take steps to tip the odds firmly in your favor.

To protect ordinary people from being bombarded with huge amounts of unsolicited and undesirable emails which flood the internet every day, email service providers and email apps implement a range of checks on each item before allowing it to reach an inbox. The best practices outlined in this article will help your emails to pass these checks.

1. Create and authenticate custom email domains

The domain your survey invitation emails come from matters. Recipients are more likely to open emails sent from a domain they recognize and feel they can trust. Nfield can easily be configured to send from custom domains as necessary. (Of course, you need to send from a domain you are legitimately entitled to use and have the credentials for – you can’t just borrow any domain you feel like using!)  

To ensure each custom domain passes relevant delivery checks, you should set up email authentication protocols such as DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and SPF (Sender Policy Framework). This is something for your email administrator to take care of.

These protocols authenticate emails to confirm they are legitimately being sent from the domain they appear to be from, effectively removing one of the reasons that emails get flagged as spam.

Once these protocols have been set for a custom email domain, please contact our support to connect this domain to Nfield.

2. Obtain consent from respondents

Obtaining consent to email the people you want to invite to your online survey is important for various reasons. For a start, your emails won’t come as a surprise, so they’re less likely to be suspicious and bin them without opening, or report them as spam. Either of these actions will be unhelpful to both your survey response rate and your domain reputation.  

Aside from this, obtaining recipient consent to include them in a distribution list is both a best practice and a legal requirement under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Compliance with GDPR demonstrates your commitment to respecting individuals’ privacy rights and strengthens trust between your organization and the survey respondents you rely upon. By securing explicit consent, you not only uphold ethical standards but also mitigate the risk of non-compliance penalties. Prioritizing consent as part of your email outreach strategy aligns with GDPR’s principles of transparency and accountability, which fosters a positive relationship with your audience.

Read more about EU GDPR specifications.

3. Validate email addresses

Sending survey invitation emails to addresses that don’t exist results in hard bounces that reduce your delivery rate and damage your email reputation. Even when you think you’ve done everything right, invalid addresses can still get into your system through people accidentally mistyping or deliberately providing false information.

You can flush out bad email addresses by using validation tools (such as Emailable or ListWise). Maintaining a clean and validated distribution list will return higher delivery rates and keep your reputation intact.

4. Enable easy opt-out

Even if recipients have consented to being on your distribution list, they have the right to change their minds. It is important that every email contains an unsubscribe link through which recipients can easily manage their preferences. Any requests to opt-out need to be honored promptly to avoid reputational damage caused by unwilling recipients failing to open emails, and possibly reporting them as spam. If you continue to contact people who’ve opted out, they will also develop negative feelings towards the brand being represented.    

Enabling easy opt-out demonstrates respect for recipients’ choices and helps preserve your email sender reputation. Nfield supports customizable unsubscribe options, allowing you to tailor the process to align with your branding and compliance requirements.

Alongside this, Nfield provides a blacklist facility where you can keep track of email addresses which have unsubscribed, had delivery problems, been flagged as fake or should not be contacted for any other reason. These blacklists are compiled at domain-level, as another tool for helping you protect your email reputation.

5. Assess your spam score before sending

The content and formatting of emails is another factor that can easily trigger spam flags if you’re not careful. Before sending out your email invites, you should evaluate them by using a spam score checker (such as mail-tester) that analyzes subject lines, content, formatting and other attributes that may be scrutinized by the “spam police”. This will help you avoid another deliverability pitfall, while resulting in emails which appear more genuine to the people you need to participate in your survey.

Helping your online surveys succeed

Following best practices for sending invitation emails is essential for online survey success, and Nfield has a number of in-built features to help you do this. For more advice on building a robust email reputation, and to find out why this matters, check out our related articles

• How email reputation impacts market research success
• How to build a good email reputation and deliver more survey invitations

Why spend valuable time on routine tasks that can easily be automated? If you’re using Nfield for Online and CAPI surveys, you can reduce manual workload by hooking up with Microsoft Power Automate. Nfield’s API enables seamless integration with this user-friendly automation tool, without the need for any coding.

Integrating Microsoft Power Automate with Nfield can speed up your operations, reduce errors and omissions, and keep communications flowing, while freeing your people to focus on applying their expertise.  

Here are five examples of what Nfield and Microsoft Power Automate can achieve together.

1. Keeping clients informed with scheduled quota progress reports

Providing regular updates on project progress is good for client relationships, and demonstrates commitment to transparency and timely communication. But doing this takes time out of your day and can easily be forgotten.

With Microsoft Power Automate, you can schedule automated delivery of Nfield quota progress tables to clients, as often as you choose.

Watch our video demonstration of how to set up automated Quota Progress Reports using Microsoft Power Automate

2. Nurturing respondent relationships

Survey respondents are the lifeblood of market research, so keeping them onside is crucial. Simple things like sending thank you notes for completing surveys goes a long way to building loyalty.  

Microsoft Power Automate allows you to automate this. Reminding your respondents that their contribution is valued, and encouraging them to continue participating, without any members of your team having to disrupt their schedule.

3. Efficiently assigning addresses to interviewers

For CAPI surveys, assigning addresses to interviewers is an essential routine task. But it takes time that can be spent on other things.

Microsoft Power Automate can take care of this work by automatically assigning new addresses to each of your Nfield CAPI interviewers as required, ensuring fair distribution of workload and optimizing how each field worker is used.

4. Keeping your research team updated in real time

The faster your research team are informed, the faster they can get on with the next stage of their work.

Microsoft Power Automate can be hooked up with Nfield to notify them immediately when a survey quota target is met.

5. Ensuring survey data is immediately backed up

Everyone knows the importance of back-ups, which is why these should never be left to chance. 

Microsoft Power Automate can initiate backup processes the moment fieldwork is complete. Ensuring this crucial task doesn’t get forgotten, while lessening your team’s post-fieldwork workload, so they can focus their attention on analysis.

Integrating Nfield with Microsoft Power Automate, via the Nfield API, enables you to optimize your market research operations in many different ways. From enhancing various communications to automating routine tasks, this powerful combination allows you to focus on what matters most – extracting meaningful insights from your data.

Automation of routine tasks is a great way to improve efficiency in any line of work. For market research companies conducting Nfield Online and CAPI surveys, this is easily achieved through integration with codeless tools such as Microsoft Power Automate and Zapier.

The beauty of no-code automation tools is they don’t require specialist expertise to set them up. All that’s necessary is an amount of familiarization with the tool and how it integrates with Nfield Manager via Nfield’s API. For the purpose of this demonstration, we’re showing how sending reports to clients can be automated using Microsoft Power Automate. This task is one of the Five ways no-code automation can improve efficiency in market research operations. 

Essential preparation

Here’s what’s necessary for integrating Microsoft Power Automate with Nfield:

• Microsoft Power Automate Premium Subscription: this provides access to advanced features such as HTTP connections.
• Basic understanding of Microsoft Power Automate: see Get started with Power Automate – Power Automate | Microsoft Learn or A Beginner’s Guide to Automation Using Power Automate
• Familiarity with Nfield Manager: in order to understand specific tasks and endpoints involved in the integration process.
• Access to the appropriate Nfield API help manual: refer to the manual for your region
  

Your region	Nfield API Manual
Asia Pacific	https://apiap.nfieldmr.com
America	https://apiam.nfieldmr.com
China	https://apicn.nfieldcn.com
Europe	https://api.nfieldmr.com

A practical example: automated sending of quota progress reports

Our video follows every step of the process of setting up automated sending of quota progress reports from Nfield Manager using Microsoft Power Automate:

1. Log in to Power Automate (0:00 to 0:25)

2. Create a new flow with a schedule trigger* (0:25 to 1:05)

3. Create an HTTP connection for Nfield API authentication (1:05 to 2:54)

4. Extract and store authentication token (2:54 to 4:09)

5. Create another HTTP connection to retrieve the quota table (4:09 to 7:11)

6. Send an email with the quota table (7:11 to 8:12)

_{*In this example, reports are being scheduled to go out daily at 9am.}

Happy New Year everyone! As we enter 2024, we hope you are looking forward to a positive year ahead. That’s certainly the case for us here at NIPO, where we never stop looking for ways to make Nfield even better aligned with users’ needs.

While we’re hard at work improving our products and developing new features, we thought this would be a good moment to reflect on the changes Nfield underwent during 2023. The 24 releases made over the course of the past year included the following major developments:

Automatic Clean-Up: to streamline data management

Keeping your Nfield domain clean – by deleting outdated surveys to avoid unnecessary data storage –  is vital for your GDPR compliance, security, and efficient operation. Helping you achieve this is all part of our responsibility within Nfield’s ISO 27001:2013 certification.

To make it as simple as possible, we introduced an automatic survey clean-up feature. You can learn all about it in our 30-minute webinar Academy #39 Automatic clean-up feature session recording.

Maintaining a clean, clutter-free domain promotes internal collaboration and enhances teamwork. Doing this will also help you keep in line with Nfield’s acceptable use policy, making it less likely that you’ll incur additional charges from exceeding storage limits.

Survey Blueprints: for faster survey set up

When you’re creating a new survey with the same configuration as one you’ve done before, starting again from scratch is a real waste of time, right? That’s why we introduced blueprints, which let you quickly set up new surveys based on identical channels and quota frames, without having to manually enter the details all over again. Pretty much like a template.

Thanks to blueprints, you no longer need to hold on to old surveys as setup references. Find out how to benefit from the efficiency of blueprints in our 22-minute webinar Academy #40 – Survey blueprints.

CAPI Fieldwork Progress Report and Repository: a streamlined data delivery pipeline

You wanted a more integrated and streamlined data management experience. We responded by developing a way to transmit CAPI data directly into the Nfield data delivery pipeline, enabling instant availability of comprehensive fieldwork progress reports.

This is still a work in progress, but Beta access is now open for integrating CAPI survey data into fieldwork progress reports and repositories.

Enhanced ODIN Developer: optimizing scripting efficiency

Scripting continues to evolve, and so do our tools for checking your scripts are free from logic errors. The NIPO ODIN Developer now incorporates both the legacy (NFS) parser and the new (Nfield) parser for ODIN questionnaire scripts. At the time of writing, both parsers are currently available, but the legacy parser will be phased out during 2024.

While developing the new Nfield parser, we discovered several commands and constructs that are no longer functional in Nfield. To help you transition to updated practices, these commands and constructs are now proactively reported as warnings.

Additional CAPI capability in Nfield Manager: further streamlining survey management

To make your CAPI survey experience even better, we enhanced Nfield Manager capabilities to enable truly seamless management, including for surveys with Sampling Points, Addresses, and Quotas. Day-to-day survey management is now even more streamlined via a more intuitive interface, and includes added support for Excel upload. As a result, the Nfield Manager lets you do more in one place, without having to use separate tools. So you get to enjoy even more convenience, efficiency and user-friendliness. This latest evolution of the Nfield Manager has led to retirement of the Classic Manager.

Nfield Status Page: providing real-time service insights

We know how frustrating it can be when you’re experiencing performance or availability issues and you don’t know if anything is being done to address them. That’s why we introduced our Nfield Status Page to provide real-time information about availability of our main services across different regions. Through this page, you can easily check whether the issue you’re encountering is already known to our team before deciding to raise a support ticket. It’s all part of our commitment to giving you the smoothest and most efficient service possible.

New Nfield API EndPoints: helping you accomplish tasks with even greater efficiency

In 2023, we gave our users a gleaming new toolbox for streamlining the process of Nfield domain configuration. Nfield API Endpoints v2 is a set of meticulously crafted tools, such as DomainEmailSettings, DomainLanguageTranslations, and DomainPasswordSettings, designed to make your work faster, smoother, and better overall.

APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) act as a bridge connecting two completely different programs (e.g. Nfield and CRM / Nfield and Membership database / Nfield and your reporting system. See API – What researchers need to know for further explanation.

With the release of this updated toolbox, the older v1 endpoints have been deprecated, as indicated in the Nfield API help page.

On to 2024, and beyond

Our improvement journey is continual, and Nfield customers can look ahead to yet more innovations aimed at further enhancing the user experience and data collection efficiency.

For every visible change, a significant amount of hardening, performance improvement, security enhancements, and maintenance work also goes on behind the scenes. It all adds up to fulfilling our commitment to delivering a robust and reliable platform for every single one of our valued customers.

Here’s to an exciting, inquisitive, and productive year ahead in market research!

NIPO recently had the pleasure of seeing one of our affiliates recognized by PAMRO (The Pan African Media Research Organization) for a groundbreaking project made possible by Nfield’s API.

Integrate, which is a data and evidence-based agency operating out of Morocco, was awarded the runner’s-up prize at PAMRO’s 2023 annual conference for “A Non-invasive Methodology for Tracking Digital Behavior in Morocco”. This pioneering initiative was designed to delve into Moroccans’ digital behaviors and attitudes, to shed light on their digital interactions and experiences. It was the first survey of the Moroccan population focused on gaining insights into their digital moments, with the aim of gathering valuable data for both marketers and researchers.

Nfield and its API were instrumental in enabling this research to be carried out, and we are delighted to share the details of how these made a difference.

Benefits and challenges of non-invasive market research

Integrate pursued a non-invasive methodology to overcome privacy concerns which often deter respondents from granting permissions, thereby limiting the tracking scope. It was a decision designed to enhance the level of participation.

Compared to other approaches that use real-time monitoring via in-moment tracking tools, such as web analytics, cookies, and software installed on users’ devices, non-invasive market research relies on self-reported data. This presents two challenges: 

• Time-related memory bias: The longer after an event people are asked to recall their experiences or interactions, the more inaccurate their recollections are likely to be. Researchers therefore need to design data collection methods that can obtain relevant information as close as possible to the event concerned.

• Trustworthy respondents: The success of non-invasive research heavily depends on respondents’ consistency and diligence when reporting their experiences. To minimize discrepancies, it’s essential to engage participants who can be relied upon to provide accurate information.

The solution: a job scheduler powered by Nfield’s API

Because non-invasive market research can’t use online activity to trigger surveys, Integrate needed another way to collect data in a timely fashion from trustworthy respondents. Their solution was to prompt respondents, selected from a pre-vetted panel, into voluntarily providing information through time-restricted SMS invitations. To encourage participation, rewards were offered for in-time survey completion.

To carry out these procedures, Integrate implemented a set of strategic rules executed by a job scheduler, while the Nfield API enabled tasks to take place automatically. As a result, Integrate was able to track digital behavior, brand exposure, meal occasions, and other relevant time-related activities without human intervention, while solving the challenges described above. 

	Purpose	Rules	How Nfield’s API helps
Job Scheduler	Real-time engagement: Obtain the most accurate responses possible.	Participants are contacted via SMS, as close as possible to the moment of their experience.	Seamlessly uploads respondent sample group data from a panel database and creates unique survey links for sending via SMS.
	Time-sensitive queries: Minimize risk of memory bias.	Each survey is exclusively focused on events that took place within the last hour. This is assured by invalidating survey links one hour after sending.	Automatically quality-checks submissions (according to Integrate’s custom algorithm) one hour after links have been sent, and invalidates unique survey links for any interviews not completed within that timeframe.
	Motivate respondents: Encourage higher response rates, to acquire more valuable data.	Participants are rewarded for completing surveys.	Triggers the process for sending rewards to respondents who completed surveys within the timeframe, to the desired quality.

In addition to feeding the job scheduler, the Nfield API also helps to minimize memory bias by transferring information from the panel database into Nfield, where it is used to customize how questions are presented to each respondent. This helps jog respondents’ memories in a way which is already known to be relevant.

Nfield’s ability to incorporate visual aids, in the form of pictograms, in the survey design means this knowledge can be presented in a way that makes it even easier for respondents to recognize, and accurately recollect their digital interactions and experiences.

Valuable insights, without invading privacy

Integrate’s study revealed diverse digital segments with associated demographic details, attitudes, key online activities, expenditure, and preferred applications, without resorting to digital surveillance that would discourage respondent participation. The data they gathered is invaluable for businesses seeking to target distinct digital consumer groups in Morocco.

This non-invasive methodology can be extended as required to study other aspects such as brand exposure, moments of consumption, and time and activity diaries. Thanks to Nfield’s API making it easy to carry out, market researchers have another feasible option for reaching diverse target groups.

If you’d like to know more about this particular case, please contact mehdi.aman@k-integrate.com at Integrate.

Share your Nfield success stories

Here at NIPO, we’re always thrilled to learn about our clients’ successful research endeavors. As well as giving us an opportunity to celebrate your achievements, knowing about your experiences contributes to our continuous improvement. Plus, your successes inspire and support fellow researchers, fostering a community of innovation. So don’t hesitate to share your successes using Nfield. Together, we can continue to push the boundaries of market research, and Nfield will be there to support you every step of the way.

Quality data is the very bedrock of worthwhile market research. Survey results that are skewed through inappropriate responses are helpful to no-one. And the insights derived from these could potentially do more harm than good if used as a basis for strategy.

That’s why we’re excited to introduce a new tool to the Nfield armory:  ReDem® AI-powered quality control for survey responses. ReDem AI automatically scans every survey answer for integrity, identifying and disqualifying those which are likely to be invalid due to respondent laziness or deliberate falsification. Our team has worked together with ReDem to integrate their service with Nfield, so you can hook up their capabilities directly with your Nfield surveys.

This is in addition to Nfield’s manual facility for identifying and disqualifying responses which show evidence of being falsified, as described in Upholding Survey Quality: How to Remove ‘Bad’ Interviews from Results.

The Power of ReDem AI

ReDem uses artificial intelligence to check data quality, doing everything you can do through Nfield’s manual facility, but in a fraction of the time. And without the risk of human error that increases as concentration gets lost.

• Open-ended answers: ReDem acts as a proofreader for open-ended answers, using advanced AI-based context checkingto assess whether responses actually make sense.

• Time check: ReDem pays attention to how long respondents have taken to answer each question. If answers are being completed too fast, this could indicate a lack of appropriate thought.

• Noticing differences: ReDem checks whether respondents are giving similar answers to different questions. This is another indication of whether they’re really paying attention or just clicking the easiest option.

Learn more about ReDem-Score – The quality checks performed by ReDem and AI-powered quality checks for open-ended responses.

Automated disqualification process

ReDem AI swiftly identifies any survey responses that fall below user-specified benchmarks, and flags them as rejected within Nfield. It also marks good quality interviews as approved. This proactive approach guarantees your results only contain high-quality data, which safeguards the integrity of derived insights.

Find out how to use ReDem with Nfield – See our webinar!

Want to see exactly what the Nfield-ReDem integration can do for your surveys? We organized a webinar in 2 sessions on 30 and 31 October 2023. See the session video below.

NIPO and ReDem are proudly working together to shape the future of market research by ensuring top quality data that’s suitable for deriving genuine insights. Join us on this journey transforming how we understand the world through data.

Market research is all about helping organizations stay ahead of their competition. To be successful, market researchers themselves need to lead by example, using tools which leverage cutting-edge technology to produce thorough insights, in any given situation. 

NIPO’s Nfield platform does all this, at the same time as considering research companies’ own business needs. With unwavering commitment to security and compliance, robust architecture, user-friendly design, and seamless API integration, Nfield provides a game-changing package for even the most complex data collection and analysis projects.

Data security and compliance – fully assured

Data security is paramount in every business situation, and carries a whole new level of responsibility when data from a large number of third-parties is involved. Nfield is as prepared for this as it is possible to be. Certified to ISO27001, the international standard for information security management systems, Nfield guarantees all data is safeguarded against any unauthorized access, theft, or damage.

This highest-level certification is complemented with GDPR compliance, meaning Nfield adheres to the stringent General Data Protection Regulation set forth by the European Union (and CCPA).

For market researchers and their clients alike, this combination of data security and privacy compliance gives full peace of mind that everybody’s valuable and sensitive information is in safe hands. To learn more, visit the NIPO Data Security page.

Read More:
Faultless ISO 27001-2013 audit for Nfield
Keeping your Nfield domain clean for compliance, security and efficient working

Robust and scalable – for every situation

Market research clients come in many different forms and seek insights from all kind of places. That’s why Nfield has been designed to seamlessly accommodate every eventuality, without missing a beat.

Leveraging the power of the Microsoft Azure PaaS environment, Nfield scales automatically as and when necessary to provide the right capacity for every size of project. And, thanks to strategically positioned servers across Europe, Asia Pacific, China and America, offers the fastest possible response times for researchers and respondents alike, wherever they’re located.

Nfield’s dedicated operations team continually maintains the platform to ensure reliability and uninterrupted access. Making the most of Microsoft Azure’s features and capabilities, including high availability and disaster recovery, Nfield delivers consistent and reliable performance to every size of company, all around the world.

Read More:
Seamlessly Migrating a High Volume Online Survey
Nfield sets new activity record, with 104,758 interview completes in 24 hours

Perfectly-presented access via any device

Market research doesn’t all take place at a desk. That’s why Nfield is as mobile as the world we live in. The platform, complete with its responsive, user-friendly design, is effortlessly accessible via smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops. So there are no limitations to where and when responses can be gathered.

Read More:
Bringing True Mobility to your Surveys
Customer Satisfaction Surveys: Nfield brings you Closer to Impactful Outcomes
Employee Satisfaction Surveys: Superior Nfield Capabilities leave Clients more Satisfied too!

API Integration

Nfield’s API enables seamless connection with other software solutions of your choice, such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems and analytics platforms, to streamline workflows and enhance data accuracy. With endless possibilities for automation, data transfer and generation of custom reports, Nfield’s API integration can supercharge productivity while facilitating next-level customization.

Read More:
API – What researchers need to know

An empowering market research platform – for companies that really mean business

In our fiercely competitive world, speedy ability to leverage data-driven insights is key. Leaving no stone unturned in this highly complex task, Nfield is the ultimate industrial-strength survey platform for market research companies that really mean business. Nfield’s scalability and reach mean companies of every size, and in any location, can be empowered by fast, user-friendly processes that take our industry to the next level.

Nfield is a powerful cloud-based platform that’s specifically designed for conducting Online and CAPI surveys. Its ability to support high respondent numbers and complexity makes it an invaluable tool for professional market researchers in every field, whether working for businesses, authorities or in academia, to name just three examples.

Nfield functionality: what you can do

Nfield provides comprehensive, end-to-end solutions, all the way from survey design to data collection and review. It facilitates fast, efficient working, while being highly customizable to individual requirements. And, very importantly, it’s easy-to-use.

Let’s take a look at the range of functionality Nfield offers:

Survey design

Nfield’s user-friendly interface brings simplicity to designing complex surveys. It supports a wide range of question types to cater to every need, including multiple choice, rating scales, grids, and open-ended. Nfield also enables easy handling of complex survey logic by providing features such as skip patterns and branching.

Responsive design, which is all part of the Nfield experience, ensures surveys are displayed in the right way for every screen they’re viewed on, whether that’s a mobile phone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer.

With Nfield, you’ve therefore got everything you need to create surveys that are engaging, interactive, and tailored to each specific target audience. Which ultimately delivers better response rates and more comprehensive data to work with.

Survey distribution

Nfield Online surveys can be distributed via email invitations, web links, and social media, so you can choose the most suitable method(s) in every case.

Nfield CAPI surveys, which facilitate offline survey data collection from face-to-face interviews, can be distributed to field interviewers according to your chosen sampling method, whether that be address-based, free intercept or something else. Nfield CAPI enables surveys to be conducted even in remote areas without reliable internet access, while being flexible enough to collect data via various devices, including mobile phones and tablets. With all this, Nfield CAPI offers a truly efficient solution for fieldwork, in whatever location or form it takes place.

Interviewer management

For CAPI surveys, Nfield’s Interviewer Management feature enables management of interviewer workloads and monitoring of whether interviews are being conducted as specified. It has tools for assigning interviews to specific interviewers, monitoring progress, and tracking performance.

Data collection

Collecting survey data is, of course, as essential as getting well-designed surveys in front of the right respondents. Nfield runs in the highly reliable and scalable Microsoft Azure cloud, which robustly supports the handling of large volumes of data and smooth survey execution.

At the same time, Nfield security measures ensure participant data is protected at all times, so both you and your respondents can have peace of mind that their data is safe and secure.

Fieldwork monitoring

Nfield’s Fieldwork Monitoring features give researchers the ability to track and view survey progress in real-time. As well as monitoring response rates, completion rates, and interview durations, it’s also possible to view the collected data via filters which can be set to things such as demographics or response patterns.

Data reporting

Nfield’s Data Repository feature provides a centralized location for storing and managing survey data. This is very advantageous, as it means custom reports can be generated in real-time. By automating the reporting process and enabling fast creation of reports in a variety of formats, this feature saves researchers a lot of time and effort.

Nfield uses: types of surveys

Nfield’s versatility makes it ideal for all kinds of different sectors and purposes, where market research might cover anything from commercial insights to practical user studies, political leanings and employee satisfaction. Here are just a few examples of survey types that can be conducted using Nfield:

• Market research surveys: To gather target audience insights such as preferences, behaviors, and attitudes. These can be used to identify market trends, opportunities, and challenges, and make data-driven decisions for improving products or services. Surveys are easy to design and distribute, while collected data can be viewed and analyzed in real-time.

• Product testing studies: To get user feedback on specific products, with the aim of gaining understanding of how they are perceived, what users like or dislike about them, and how they can be improved. Surveys can be designed as appropriate for specific products and target audiences.

• Brand perception studies: To get insights into how consumers perceive a brand, so the information can be used to identify areas of strength and weakness. These kinds of surveys can incorporate questions relating to things such as brand awareness, brand loyalty, and brand associations.

• Political polls: To ascertain respondents’ political preferences or opinions. These polls can aid understanding of how voters feel about specific issues or candidates, and can provide valuable insights into the political landscape. Questions can be asked about things such as voting behavior, party affiliation, and policy preferences.

• Customer satisfaction surveys: To measure how satisfied customers are with specific products or services. These surveys typically ask respondents to rate their experience on a scale and provide feedback on areas for improvement. The collected data can help with identifying trends and making data-driven decisions for improving customer satisfaction.

• Brand awareness surveys: To measure a brand’s awareness and perception among a specific audience. These surveys typically ask respondents to compare the brand-in-question against a list of competitors and describe how they feel about it. The collected data can aid understanding of how a specific brand is perceived in the market and data-driven decisions for improving brand awareness.

• Employee satisfaction surveys: To measure employee satisfaction, engagement, and feedback. These surveys typically ask employees to describe how they feel about their work environment, job satisfaction, and overall experience with the company. The collected data can aid identification of areas for improvement and data-driven decisions for improving employee satisfaction and retention.

Want to know more?

You’re never on your own with Nfield, as we provide a wide variety of supporting materials and resources.

The NIPO Academy section offers a range of training videos and webinars that cover topics such as Academy #33 – Nfield Online introduction session, and Academy #25: CAPI in the new Nfield Manager II. These videos provide a great starting point for those who are new to Nfield or want to refresh their knowledge.

In the Nfield Manager, you’ll find a range of support materials, including user guides and technical documentation.

And for further personal assistance and guidance, you can always reach out to NIPO’s customer support team.

Among the many decisions you have to take as a market research professional, choosing whether to distribute each online survey via a generic or unique links is more important than it might at first seem. However, armed with the right guidance, you should be able to identify the best option in each case, without too much difficulty.

Here are the benefits, drawbacks and reasons to choose each option, together with how to generate these links in Nfield.

Unique survey links

Unique survey links are when every invited respondent is assigned their own personalized URL to access the survey. The overarching benefit of using unique links is that you can track individual responses and identify which participants have completed the survey. Because unique links can only be used once, they also reduce the chance of your survey being infiltrated by robots.

Situations where unique links are the best choice include:

1. When you need to track individual responses and identify which participants have completed the survey. This is particularly useful when you are offering incentives for completion.

2. When you need to ensure data quality. Because unique links can only be used once, they prevent participants from responding multiple times and/or sharing them with multiple other people. So your results are not skewed by duplicated responses and you maintain better control over who’s contributing to your data.
   
   You can tighten this up further in Nfield by turning on the “allow only known respondent” option when setting up your unique link survey. (See image under “How to generate unique survey links in Nfield”, below.)

3. When you need or want to personalize the survey experience by using the participant’s name or other personal details within it to create a more engaging experience that increases response rates.

How to generate unique survey links in Nfield

You will need to include individual respondent keys as part of your sample upload, then add these keys to the end of your generic survey URL – so genericURL/[respondentkey] – to create all the unique links. Alternatively, you can get Nfield to automatically generate the links when sending out the email invitations. When you have an integration between Nfield Online and an external source, such as a panel provider, your panel provider can easily arrange it in the panel system. This ensures each participant receives a unique link that can only be used once.

The “Allow only known respondents” option.

Generic survey link

A generic survey link is when all potential respondents receive the same link to enter the survey, regardless of their identity or demographic. The overarching benefit of using a generic link is that it’s quick and easy to distribute to a large number of people, because you can simply share the same link via emails, social media, or any other channel you want to use.

A couple of pointers for when to opt for a generic link:

1. A generic link should only be used when you don’t need to track individual responses nor identify which individual participants have completed the survey.

2. A generic link is the best option when you want to maintain participant anonymity.

However, it’s worth noting that online surveys can sometimes suffer from high dropout rates, which can impact the overall quality of the data collected. If you’re interested in learning more about the reasons behind high dropout rates in online surveys, we recommend checking out this insightful blog post on Online surveys suffering from high dropout rates? This may be why. It provides valuable insights and strategies to mitigate this issue, ensuring a higher completion rate and more reliable survey results.

Because a generic link gives you less control over who’ll respond, it’s important to set a survey quota target. This will ensure you receive a representative sample of responses from your target audience and reach your desired sample size, while helping prevent the survey from being over-subscribed.

To set up a survey quota target in Nfield, simply navigate to the Quotas tab and define your target based on the relevant criteria (e.g. age, gender, location). Further information can be found in NIPO Academy #27 Quota: Existing features and new additions.

How to generate generic survey links in Nfield:

Simply navigate to the Nfield Launch panel and select “Copy Live Link” under the “Copy Interview Links” session to retrieve your survey’s generic link.

In conclusion

Whether you should opt for a generic or unique links for each online survey depends on your specific goals and objectives. If you need to track individual responses or personalize the survey experience, then unique links are the way to go. On the other hand, if you need to reach a large audience quickly or maintain participant anonymity, then a generic link is the best option.

If you have any questions about survey link types and how to generate them in Nfield, please feel free to contact helpdesk@nipo.com.

As a highly responsible SaaS provider to market research companies, NIPO, the company behind Nfield, fully understands the importance of protecting personal data and safeguarding against potential data breaches. Alongside our own comprehensive measures to prevent data breaches and swiftly lock down in the event of these being bypassed, we are also committed to helping our clients do all they can to protect their valuable data within the Nfield platform.

Prevention

NIPO has the following measures in place to prevent data breaches:

• Encryption – All sensitive data stored in our servers (in the Azure cloud) is encrypted via strong algorithms. This means that even if an attacker gains access to the data, they will not be able to read it without the encryption key.

• Access Controls – We have strict access controls which ensure only authorized personnel can get into our servers and databases. We also have regular reviews of access rights to make sure they are up-to-date and appropriate.

• Network Security – We have robust network security measures in place, including firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems, and other security tools. These help us to detect external threats and prevent malicious parties from gaining access to our network and systems. Nfield runs in the Microsoft Azure cloud, which is, itself, highly secure and monitored 24/7 by Microsoft’s own engineers.

• Security Measures for Programming Code – Like many other organizations, we use a variety of security tools to check our programming code and test it for security vulnerabilities. In addition to these, we also have security checks carried out by external third-parties, such as Secura, to ensure our code is thoroughly tested and secure.

• Employee Training – We provide our employees with regular training and awareness programs to ensure they are kept up-to-date on the latest security threats and how to prevent them. This includes training on topics such as phishing emails, social engineering attacks, and password security.

Data breach handling

In the unlikely event of a data breach, NIPO has a dedicated incident response team that follows a well-defined plan to mitigate the impact. This plan includes the following steps:

• Investigation – We immediately launch an investigation to determine the cause and extent of the breach.

• Containment – Once we have identified the source of the breach, we take immediate steps to contain it and prevent any further unauthorized access to our systems.

• Notification – We notify any affected clients as required by law or contractual obligations. We are committed to being transparent and open with our clients about any potential security incidents.

• Remediation – We take steps to remediate any damage caused by the breach, such as restoring backups or implementing new security measures. We also conduct a post-incident review to identify any lessons learned and make improvements to our security measures.

What you can do to protect your respondent data

It is also vitally important that market researchers implement all available measures to protect respondents’ personal data and adhere to GDPR, or other applicable local regulations. At NIPO, we provide resources to help our clients with this, including our GDPR and Nfield Toolkit.

Here are some other simple steps you can take, which include making use of tools and features included in our Nfield platform:

• Data Minimization – Collect only the minimum amount of personal data necessary for each research project. Once you have it, this data should only be kept for as long as absolutely necessary, and then securely disposed of.
  
  We also advise clients to store personal identifiers in the sample table, which will enable you to easily delete sample data from the survey by pseudonymizing or anonymizing it. You can do this for all the sample data, for only specific sample data fields, for all interviews, or for a selection of interviews. This allows you to maintain detailed management of which data you keep in Nfield.
  
  Recently, we also introduced a new automatic survey clean-up feature into Nfield, which deletes inactive surveys that have reached their expiration date. For information about this, see keeping Nfield domains clean helps clients ensure compliance, security, and efficient working.

• Use Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) – This gives accounts an extra layer of security, so that even if an attacker does obtain a password, they still won’t be able to gain access because they won’t have the second code necessary. Read Protecting your Nfield login with two-factor authentication.

• Use the latest Anti-Virus Software – Installing and keeping anti-virus software up-to-date can help protect against malware and other security threats.

• Be Security-Aware – Market researchers should be aware of the latest security threats, such as phishing emails, and take steps to avoid them. This includes not clicking on suspicious links or downloading attachments from unknown sources.

Committed to protecting data

At NIPO, we are committed to protecting personal data and safeguarding against potential data breaches. By implementing a comprehensive security strategy and incident response plan, we are prepared to handle any potential security incidents quickly and effectively. We also provide resources and guidance to help our customers protect themselves and adhere to GDPR regulations. With our commitment to data security, NIPO remains a trusted partner for market researchers looking to conduct research in a secure and compliant manner.

IMPORTANT: suspected data breach?

If you suspect a data breach or security incident related to your use of NIPO’s services, please report it immediately by contacting our Data Protection Officer at helpdesk@nipo.com. Reporting a suspected data breach promptly helps us to take swift action to contain and mitigate the impact of the incident. We take all reports of data breaches seriously and have a dedicated team in place to investigate and respond to incidents as quickly as possible.

Since the launch on 29 March 2013, Nfield has grown to a large scale platform used for data collection around the globe. Nfield is NIPO’s cloud-based Online and CAPI survey solution for market research professionals

Keeping your Nfield domain clean, as in removing all outdated surveys and corresponding data, is essential for maintaining compliancy with data regulations. But that’s not the only reason to stay on top of things. Limiting what you store to what’s absolutely necessary is also better for both data security and efficient working. Here’s why.

1. Regulatory compliance

Standards such as GDPR mean all kinds of businesses around the world need to ensure some form of data compliance. As these regulations typically include restrictions on how long you’re allowed to hold on to third-party data, having a regular clear-out is essential. This is especially the case for market research companies, whose business is all about third-party data!

2. Minimizing exposure to security breaches

The more data you have stored in your system, the more there is to steal. Which means any security breaches will have a bigger and further-reaching impact. Given the large amount of sensitive personal data that’s typically associated with market research, surveys are a highly prized target, as explained in our recent article about the value of Nfield logins on the Dark Web.

It therefore makes sense for your survey respondents and your business reputation to delete surveys, and all their corresponding data, as soon as you’re finished with them.

Good to know: Nfield upholds the highest security standards, adhering to the protocol established in ISO 27001:2013. Read more about Nfield security. However, users still need to take responsibility for protecting passwords, deploying 2-factor authentication and ensuring there are no unprotected “back doors” into their systems.

3. Improved internal collaboration

The less clutter there is within your system, the less likely it is that any of your team members will refer to the wrong information. Clearing out outdated surveys helps keep everybody on the same page, making it easier to work together on updating surveys and making decisions. A practice which can result in better teamwork, improved efficiency, and better outcomes for your business.

4. Compliance with Acceptable Use Policy and avoiding additional charges

Nfield’s acceptable use policy includes domain limits on storage and the number of active surveys for each license level. Keeping your survey system clean can help you avoid exceeding your limits and incurring additional charges.

Introducing an easy solution: automatic clean-up

As solid as the reasons for keeping your system clean are, actually doing it can be a cumbersome task, especially when dealing with outdated or expired surveys. This is why Nfield introduced a new automatic survey clean-up feature which deletes inactive surveys that have reached their expiration date.

Further details about Nfield’s automatic clean-up feature can be found in our Nfield update published recently. Or see the NIPO Academy #39 session recording on this topic.

Voice and video recordings are often used in Online and CAPI surveys to extract deeper responses. But what respondents say and do in these recordings doesn’t always tell you what they really think. You can, however, use voice analysis software to reveal the true emotions behind spoken words.  

Politeness isn’t always a virtue

Social norms mean people tend to behave politely when answering survey questions. And busy lifestyles mean they may not have fully thought through their responses.

Considering that 95% of purchasing decisions are subconscious¹, and 38% of vocal communication comes from tone of voice, rather than words themselves², it becomes clear that relying on words alone for market research can miss a lot of essential details. Consequentially, most researchers aren’t getting the information they need to understand what really matters to people and drives their behavior.

Unlocking emotional content

In our continual quest to keep Nfield at the forefront of professional market research, we came across a voice analysis solution called Phebi and decided to put it to the test.

Phebi analyzes speech and breaks it down into what has been said (sentiment) and how it was said (emotion). It does this by checking voice characteristics, such as pitch, rate and tone, every 3 seconds to detect and quantify the underlying emotions. Phebi’s methodology is based on well-accepted social science research and validated via 38,000+ hours of testing.

Phebi’s emotion analysis examines many factors to determine levels of five underlying emotions:

Having put it through its paces, we concluded that Phebi is a useful complement to Nfield Online and CAPI surveys instantly delivering accurate, quantified analysis of people’s nonconscious responses that goes beyond the words they say.

We were also impressed by Phebi’s auto transcription and translation function. In CAPI interviews, we found it could differentiate between interviewers’ and respondents’ voices.

Phebi features include:

• See the emotional landscape with a one-click set of summary reports
• View items of interest in rank order by positive emotional response
• Get summaries that reveal the most intense emotion by topic and more
• Understand respondents by listening to them and seeing emotions
• Easily manage and search within audio and video responses. Uncover ‘micro-moments’ of peak emotion in longer answers. Tell stories and highlight key findings by dragging and dropping to create show reels.
• Work cross-border with local language voice capture and translation
• Instant, accurate, affordable transcription & translation
• Exchange data bi-directionally via CSV or SPSS files, export via PDFs

Connecting Nfield & Phebi

Phebi can easily be used to analyze Nfield voice recordings via a simple connection.

Recordings from Nfield Online surveys can be automatically uploaded to Phebi’s server. For Nfield CAPI surveys, you should continue using the built-in Nfield recorder and upload all your audio files to Phebi in batch.

After feeding your audio recordings into Phebi, you’ll immediately be able to see various reports, such as the ones shown below, in the Phebi portal.

If you are interested in using Phebi’s software, please contact them directly at marketing@phebi.ai for a live demonstration and answers to all your questions about their product.

Note: Phebi’s servers are located in the USA, Europe (Germany) and Australia.

^{1 G. Haltman
2 A. Mehrabian, UCLA}

It is our pleasure to report that the Microsoft Partner Network has upgraded NIPO’s Security competency status from Silver to Gold. This means we now have Microsoft’s highest possible recognition for four competencies: Application Development, Cloud Platform, Application Integration and Security. A quartet of achievements which reflect our commitment to having our team members certified to the most up-to-date standards, as we determinedly adopt the latest Microsoft technology and standards within our Nfield platform.

We want to wholeheartedly thank all our team members for their ongoing support and commitment towards continuous training and certification, in the course of growing our status within the Microsoft Partner Network.

Jeroen Noordman, NIPO Managing Director: “This latest status upgrade is great news for Nfield users, who can confidently reassure their own customers that their data is 100% safe and secure by referring to this recognition, in tandem with our ISO 27001 certification. In my experience, sharing evidence of leading external recognition has a hugely positive impact. Everyone will understand Microsoft’s authority in the field of security.”

Gavriella Schuster, corporate vice president at One Commercial Partner (OCP) at Microsoft Corp.: “Achieving Gold Competency confirms that partners have demonstrated the highest, most consistent capability and commitment to the latest Microsoft technology. These partners have deep expertise that positions them at the top of our partner ecosystem, with a proficiency which can help customers drive innovative solutions.”

A Kish Grid is a mechanism for randomizing who to interview within a household when going door-to-door. Its purpose is to eliminate bias that can be created by just interviewing whoever happens to answer the door, because younger and older household members are less likely to do this.

How a Kish Grid is used

Knowing what a Kish Grid looks like, and how it’s read, is helpful for understanding how to script one. 

• The left-hand column shows the sequence of households being visited. There is no specific guideline for the order of assignment. This can be by house number, by the number of visits the interviewer has made or by the order in which addresses were added to the list.
• The top row shows the number of eligible people in a household.

The Kish Grid is read by cross-referencing the Household Sequence number (e.g. 7) against the Number of eligible people in that household (e.g. 4). In this example, the resulting answer is 3. This indicates the interviewer should interview the 3^rd youngest eligible person in the household.

How to create a Kish Grid script in Nfield

The complete Kish Grid script can be downloaded from a link at the end of this article. The extracts below are just a selection of examples to help you understand how the script and variables are constructed.

Setting up the randomization
This starts with creating arrays for each of the eight columns. Using a household size of 100 provides good scope for randomization.

*VARS EligablePeopleNum1[100], EligablePeopleNum2[100], EligablePeopleNum3[100],
EligablePeopleNum4[100], EligablePeopleNum5[100], EligablePeopleNum6[100],
EligablePeopleNum7[100], EligablePeopleNum8[100]

Specify an array of 8 counts. These counts will be used for looping in each column to populate its value. As we have 8 columns to represent a maximum of 8 eligible people in a household, 8 counts are needed.  

*VARS Count[8]

Set each of count value to 1 as initialization for counting.

*REPEAT 8
*PUT Count[?R][1]
*ENDREP

The script will now populate the table by repeating a simple loop 100 times to fill in each row, one after one. In each loop, it fills in each column.

*REPEAT 100
*PUT EligablePeopleNum1[?R] [1]
*IF [Count[2] <= 2] *PUT EligablePeopleNum2[?R] [Count[2]] *PUT Count[2] [Count[2]+1]
*IF [Count[2] >2] *PUT Count[2] [1]
*IF [Count[3] <= 3] *PUT EligablePeopleNum3[?R] [Count[3]] *PUT Count[3] [Count[3]+1]
*IF [Count[3] >3] *PUT Count[3] [1]
*IF [Count[4] <= 4] *PUT EligablePeopleNum4[?R] [Count[4]] *PUT Count[4] [Count[4]+1]
*IF [Count[4] >4] *PUT Count[4] [1]
*IF [Count[5] <= 5] *PUT EligablePeopleNum5[?R] [Count[5]] *PUT Count[5] [Count[5]+1]
*IF [Count[5] >5] *PUT Count[5] [1]
*IF [Count[6] <= 6] *PUT EligablePeopleNum6[?R] [Count[6]] *PUT Count[6] [Count[6]+1]
*IF [Count[6] >6] *PUT Count[6] [1]
*IF [Count[7] <= 7] *PUT EligablePeopleNum7[?R] [Count[7]] *PUT Count[7] [Count[7]+1]
*IF [Count[7] >7] *PUT Count[7] [1]
*IF [Count[8] <= 8] *PUT EligablePeopleNum8[?R] [Count[8]] *PUT Count[8] [Count[8]+1]
*IF [Count[8] >8] *PUT Count[8] [1]
*ENDREP

The script will generate a question in the CAPI survey asking how many eligible people the household consists of.

*QUESTION 10 *NUMBER 61L1 *SAVE FamilySize *MAX 8
How many people live in this household?

And ask for their names, in ascending age

*QUESTION 2 *FORM *CONTROL Q11 W
Name them in ascending age (youngest first)

1: 1-*ALPHA 71L30 *SAVE Name[1]
2: 2-*ALPHA 101L30 *SAVE Name[2]
3: 3-*ALPHA 131L30 *SAVE Name[3]
4: 4-*ALPHA 161L30 *SAVE Name[4]
5: 5-*ALPHA 191L30 *SAVE Name[5]
6: 6-*ALPHA 221L30 *SAVE Name[6]
7: 7-*ALPHA 251L30 *SAVE Name[7]
8: 8-*ALPHA 281L30 *SAVE Name[8]

Let’s look at an example where we’ve just used a random number as the household sequence number.

*PUT HouseHoldSeq [RAN(8)]
*PUT HouseHoldSeq [HouseHoldSeq + 1]

Or you can choose a Household Sequence number from your respondent table. In this case, make sure the array sizes are also adjusted in the script.

Next, we refer to this table to find which person should be interviewed.

*VARS ans
*IF [FamilySize = 1] *PUT ans [EligablePeopleNum1[HouseHoldSeq]]
*IF [FamilySize = 2] *PUT ans [EligablePeopleNum2[HouseHoldSeq]]
*IF [FamilySize = 3] *PUT ans [EligablePeopleNum3[HouseHoldSeq]]
*IF [FamilySize = 4] *PUT ans [EligablePeopleNum4[HouseHoldSeq]]
*IF [FamilySize = 5] *PUT ans [EligablePeopleNum5[HouseHoldSeq]]
*IF [FamilySize = 6] *PUT ans [EligablePeopleNum6[HouseHoldSeq]]
*IF [FamilySize = 7] *PUT ans [EligablePeopleNum7[HouseHoldSeq]]
*IF [FamilySize = 8] *PUT ans [EligablePeopleNum8[HouseHoldSeq]]

*PAGE
Family size: *?FamilySize
means to use array EligablePeopleNum*?FamilySize

Household Seq: *?HouseHoldSeq
means to use row *?HouseHoldSeq

So you should pick the family member *?Name[ans] in the *?ans (-th) position to interview

The following animation gives an idea how it looks from interviewer’s perspective.

We hope this helps you understand how to set up your own Kish Grid in Nfield CAPI, based on our Kish Grid script. If you have any questions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Download Nfield CAPI Kish Grid script