Focus Group about Women's Perception of Down Syndrome - incentive letters

VIA E-mail:

slh@rti.org

DATE:

December 11, 2009

TO:

Shelly Harris, RTI International

FROM:

Terri-Lyn Hawley
Schlesinger Associates
617.542.5500 / 617.542.5590 (fax)
terri@schlesingerassociates.com

RE:

Incentives for Mothers bid

cc:

Hello Shelly–
Thank you for your email today asking about the possibility of decreasing the incentives to $50. Unfortunately we would not be able to
take on this study if the incentives were decreased below the $75/$100 I had initially bid for a 90 minute focus group. We have tried in
the past to get respondents for less and they either refuse in advance or you end up getting a very poor show rate. The cost of gas
has increased that it takes that much just to get them to travel to our location. We also strive to get you broad demographic mix so in
order to get women with a certain income level you need to pay them more. If the groups are during the day time, we do need to pay
$100 to entice people to take a long lunch hour, go in to work late or leave early. In this economy most households do have both
individuals working so it is very difficult to find non working women. If it is in the evening we can get away with a little less ($75).
Please let me know if you have any questions at all. Thank you!
Regards,

Terri-Lyn
Terri-Lyn Hawley
Vice President
Schlesinger Associates – Boston

Great Recruiting…Great Service…Great Results.
L&E Research
5505 Creedmoor Road, Suite 200
Raleigh, NC 27612
December 11, 2009
Shelly L. Harris, M.P.H.
RTI International
Research Public Health Analyst
Health, Social, and Economics Research Division
3040 Cornwallis Road
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
slh@rti.org
Re: project incentives
Dear Ms. Harris,
Thank you for following up with me regarding your project.
The recommended incentive for projects is based upon the type of respondents, numbers of respondents,
inclusion/exclusion criteria, and duration of participation. For 1 ½ hour duration focus groups our standard incentive is
$75 for evening time groups and $85 for day time groups. Typically we would consider a $50 incentive appropriate for
focus groups or interviews lasting 30-60 minutes.
To recruit these moms and future moms, from my experience, will require a higher incentive of $75, at a minimum, to get
them to agree to participate and to ensure they show up for the group. We do not have childcare facilities, so the moms
will possibly have to pay for childcare elsewhere. Finding the mix of ethnicities desired will be a challenge with or without
the higher incentive, especially finding Hispanic women to participate. A $75 incentive will help to convince them to
participate.
While recruiting, we can certainly begin recruiting at a $50 incentive, however may have limited success at this rate. I am
not confident, nor could I guarantee, that we would be able to find all of the recruits needed to participate in a 1 ½ hour
group for $50.00. Based on our experience, lower incentives often result in decreased show rates for respondents.
Beginning the recruiting process at a lower incentive likely will require a longer recruitment time to contact, screen, and
schedule those that would agree to participate based upon the incentive amount and duration of the group. We have
found that most people do not find $50 for 1 ½ hours of their time “worth” their effort and time. To account for the more
difficult and time-consuming recruiting, we would have to raise the recruitment fee per recruit by 10% from what is
originally quoted on the bid document. If recruiting efforts exceed the allotted recruiting hours (determined by the cost per
recruit), we would need to move to an hourly recruiting rate of $40 per hour to complete the recruit. This cost is in addition
to the cost to recruit for the scheduled respondents up to the time the hourly rate is executed. This can significantly add
increased costs to the recruiting process.
I hope this clearly explains the recruiting process and necessity of the incentive being set at $75 for a 1 ½ -hour group. If
you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Christine Conrad
General Manager
919-256-9602
cconrad@leresearch.com