Why do they bother with profiles?

[Not-a-Sucker]

Maybe one of the survey company shills can answer this. What is the point of having you spent hours (literally, GTM took me two hours) filling in their profiles, when they just send out mass invites to anything and everything? They don't even bother to try to match you to the survey topic. When I say there are no kids in the household, why send me surveys for children, or diapers. You get the picture. Answer, anyone?

[Whatatay]

I have asked this question many times. The fact is, survey makers are some of the stupidest people around. If you look around here you will see my posts where I stated we should never have to give or age, sex, etc, since they already have that info.

[KBLover]

I have asked this question many times. The fact is, survey makers are some of the stupidest people around. If you look around here you will see my posts where I stated we should never have to give or age, sex, etc, since they already have that info.

Absolutely.

Of course, they give reasons like "to verify your identity" or "ensure an accurate response". It's probably more like "we didn't bother with passing on/pulling from your information so we just make you type it again".

It's the same thing with the "mark your place in the survey" stuff. Mark my place? It's on the computer! Why not just say what it really is, a check to see if you're really reading.

Evidently, GTM has been getting asked about the "giving the same information again" because some of their pre-survey screens ask this as a "FAQ" and they give the "ensure accurate response" type answer - i.e. the survey world version of a cliche.

[SurveyBang]

i think SurveySavvy may actually use their profiles to match of some of their users. Most of the surveys that ask for demos are required by the company requesting the information. And since the majority of members dont fill in their profile information, you get surveys floods to everyone and those who are lucky to match up win. Unless a company is willing to pay to complete the profiles, I suspect that most people will never do them and thus it will never be a penalty to the rest who havent either.

[KBLover]

i think surveysavvy may actually use their profiles to match of some of their users. Most of the surveys that ask for demos are required by the company requesting the information. And since the majority of members dont fill in their profile information, you get surveys floods to everyone and those who are lucky to match up win. Unless a company is willing to pay to complete the profiles, I suspect that most people will never do them and thus it will never be a penalty to the rest who havent either.

While I'm sure that's true - it's still silly to fill in that, say, requests a child/teenager's opinion when my profile clearly states - I have no kids and there are no kids in the household.

So....why am I getting sent a survey for teens/kids?

Just tells me they don't use them (if they do, they really need to tweak their filtering or whatever).

As far as our demographics - I know they are required and used to match, but the company already has them. So why not just submit that info when I click the link? Or if the survey company filtered out properly, only people who qualify would even see the survey, so then it wouldn't be necessary. If the research company wants to hear from people over 40, why would the survey company send the survey to me (33) or all the people under 40 years old?

I mean, they have all this information on us, why do we even DQ from surveys? We shouldn't even see surveys we can't possibly complete. At least, I thought that was the whole point. If it's just going to be treated as if I don't - then why even put them up there? What are they actually doing for us?

SurveySavvy, I would agree seems to use them (though I don't qualify for all that many), and Pinecone uses something because I've NEVER once DQ from a Pinecone survey.

[SurveyBang]

i dont know why they have them. Maybe to market themselves to potential companies by stating that they have this many members etc.

[KBLover]

That's the only thing I can think of too.