If you’ve completed a couple of online surveys, you’ll probably have experienced the dreaded screenout…

At the OpinionPanel Community, we know it can be really annoying to be kicked out of a survey, but if you’re new to market research it can also be confusing. So, we’re here to break down the different kinds of screenouts you might experience while taking our surveys so you know what to do if it happens to you!

Sorry, other members got there before you 🙁

This is the most common screenout that you will encounter and can happen on all the different surveys we offer. You will normally experience this screenout either immediately upon joining the survey or within the first couple of questions. This screenout means that the quota (a specific number of a particular group of people allowed to participate) you fit into has already been filled by other panellists and so you won’t be able to take part in the survey.

We use quotas  to ensure that we hear from a wide selection of people from all different ages, ethnicities, genders, backgrounds etc. This is very important, because we want to make sure that any information gathered in our surveys is representative of our diverse society.

Sorry, this survey isn’t right for you 🙁

You might get this message during any of the surveys we offer. This kind of screenout is the one which we are talking about in our survey invite email when we show you your risk of being screened out. You can experience this screenout even after you’ve completed a few questions (up to 10 questions or approx. 2 minutes). They are used in surveys where we or our clients want to hear from a very specific group of people and so we need to ask more questions than usual to check that the survey is relevant to you.

Unfortunately, if you make a mistake and are select an incorrect option which screens you out, we can’t give you access to complete the rest of the survey, so it’s important to make sure you’re paying attention throughout the survey just in case!

Sorry, your answers are inconsistent…

This is probably the most confusing of our screen outs but is often found in our external client surveys. Some of our clients want to ensure that you are paying attention throughout the survey and so they will include one or several “quality check” questions. These are often done in one of two ways:

1. They will include a question which asks you whether you are paying attention and you just need to choose the answer which shows that you are

2. They will ask the exact same question more than once in the same survey, you just need to make sure that you choose the same answer both times

Unfortunately, if you fail this quality check and are screened out, we are unable to give you the points for the survey no matter how far along you get because this is handled externally. This means that you can complete most of the survey, but you will still not receive any points – so make sure to keep your eyes peeled for these types of questions so that you don’t miss out on your hard-earned points!

Oops something went wrong!

This can happen for a variety of reasons e.g. there’s a server issue or your browser decides to play up. More often than not this will happen if you’re completing an external client survey and there is an issue rerouting you back to our website. If this happens, there can be issues with your points coming through to your account so it’s a good idea to get in contact with our support team right away so that we can make sure you get the points you’ve earned. You can do so by emailing support@opinionpanel.co.uk !

The Screenout Prize Draw

There is some good news though! Every time you are screened out of a survey, you are automatically entered into our Screenout Prize Draw and at the end of the month we randomly select one of our panellists who has been screened out and they are given a £50 voucher. You can see the full list of panellists who have received a voucher as well as a short quote from them on our website. So keep completing surveys and checking your emails, because it could be you this month!

Hopefully you feel that you now know more about the different types of screenout you might encounter while completing our surveys. Of course, if you feel something has gone wrong please do feel free to get in touch with our support team at any time and we can look into this for you. You can do so by emailing support@opinionpanel.co.uk!