FAQs

Signing up and applying to take part

How do I sign up?
Really easy! Simply click on the Sign Up button to register and receive email updates about new opportunities.

What happens then?
Once you have signed up, you will receive emails from us notifying you of new paid market research and usability testing opportunities, plus referral offers and our quarterly newsletter. The frequency of emails you receive will vary depending on your location, how much of your profile is complete, and therefore how many relevant emails we can send to you.

We are most often asked to find people in the larger cities, so if you live in Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, London or Manchester you will receive on average 0-5 emails per week. In the smaller towns or villages, this will be less. We often have UK wide projects, which we send to everyone.

When you spot an opportunity you are interested in, apply to take part.

How do I apply to an opportunity?
If you want to apply to take part, please click on the ’Apply here’ button on one of our emails or log in to your account on our website and apply to any of the opportunities there. Don’t forget to press the ‘Submit’ button at the end.

You will then be taken through a short questionnaire; we use the answers to these questions to determine who may be eligible to take part.

How do I refer someone to take part?
If you received an email or spotted an opportunity on our website that made you think of a friend or family member, then that person could be suitable to take part in paid research and you could win a reward for referring them.

We only offer rewards for specific projects, so please check each email or webpage to find out if this is the case. If the webpage or email does not specifically mention a referral fee, this means we are not offering a reward for referrals. You can still share that study with a friend or family member and they are welcome to apply via their own PFR account (never through yours).

If the webpage or email invite you to refer someone who could be suitable and specifically mention a referral fee, please follow the correct process. Share the webpage link with them or click the ‘Refer’ button on each opportunity webpage to send them a message via our website. They will then have to create their own account and apply to the pre-qualifying questionnaire, which will help us determine if they are suitable.

At the beginning of the questionnaire, there will be a text box in which they will be prompted to enter the name and email address of the person who referred them. This is how we connect the referee to the participant and ensure you can get paid for your referral.

We cannot accept referrals of participants without their consent, so please do not send us their contact details directly. Your referee must sign up and apply themselves.

For more information on what constitutes a suitable referral, please read our Referral Scheme terms and conditions.


About the research session

Where does the research takes place?
The majority of our usability testing and market research takes place in major cities (London, Bristol, Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Cardiff, Swansea) and larger towns, as this is where our clients are based.

Some projects may take place in smaller towns, villages and more remote areas, but less often. To get the most out of signing up, pick your closest city or large town so that you do not miss out on any paid research opportunities.

We are also often asked to source participants to take part in remote testing (usability test, survey or diary study) which means you can make money from home, work… anywhere really, providing you have a laptop or PC, a good phone signal and an internet connection (all fully charged).

How old do I need to be to take part?
We recruit people of all ages for paid research projects. However, the legal age to take part in paid research without consent from a parent is 16 years old, and the majority of our research is relevant to those aged 18+. Anyone under the age of 16 will be recruited via a parent or guardian, who will also be required to attend the research session (and will also receive an incentive).

What is an incentive?
The incentive is what you will get in return for participating in the research. The incentive is usually cash and this can range from £25 – £250, the average is £40 for one hour.

What topics of research are there?
Topics for discussion can range from car insurance, holidays, education, investments, business banking… the list goes on. Whatever the topic, there is always a piece of research suitable for you.

If you have any particular interest, please go online and tweet us with your dream research subject @Research4People.

What time does the research take place?
A large proportion of the usability testing takes place during the daytime (working hours), whilst market research focus groups tend to be in the evening. Each project is different and we can also offer evening or weekend slots, depending on the availability of the research team and the project in hand.

How long does a research session last?
The majority of our projects require people for an hour (plus 15 minutes to sign you in first). The length of the session depends on the project; a short paid survey may last five minutes, whilst a focus group could be up to three hours. Diary studies on the other hand, could last a month or longer but would not require constant participation (e.g. you may need to only carry out a short task for five minutes, once a day). When we notify you of a research session, we will always let you know how long the session will last.

Who is commissioning the research?
We work with a number of clients and they are all very different. Some clients we work with are companies and brands you would easily recognise, other clients are usability, marketing, branding or market research agencies working on behalf of clients. Sometimes we work for government bodies, local authorities or educational establishments and, occasionally, clinical or pharmaceutical companies.

Who conducts the research?
Sessions are led by moderators (professionals within their chosen field of usability, market research or branding). You may meet one or two moderators; any more is rare and if there were a number of researchers conducting the research, we would let you know when we send the email notifying you of the opportunity.

What happens during the session?
Each project is different: typically, during a usability session you will be asked to either talk about your experiences during an informal 1-2-1 interview, look at a website, application, device or game where you will be set some short tasks followed by your feedback on how easy or difficult you found them to use. Research may also involve larger group activities or discussion – card sorts, online (remote testing) or diary study.

Market Research interviews are very similar to usability interviews and will normally be an informal discussion – just yourself and a researcher (or two) – whilst focus groups involve more people (groups tend to include six to ten people) and these are far more interactive. The moderator leads the discussion, but everyone in the group will be asked to contribute at various points. For any research to be successful, you will need to be confident meeting a new person or people and willing to share your thoughts and ideas.

If you would like to read our privacy policies, please click here. If you have any other questions, please check our Common Questions section.


Unsubscribing, complaints and closing your account

How do I unsubscribe?

You can unsubscribe at any time from our opportunity emails or our newsletter. To unsubscribe from opportunity emails, simply log in to your account and at the top of your profile choose to ‘Unsubscribe from emails’ or click on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any of our emails. Please allow up to 7 days for the unsubscribe to take effect due to already scheduled emails.

If you unsubscribe from receiving emails about research project opportunities, you will still be able to log into your account and apply via our website. There is an opt-out option on all of our texts if you wish to unsubscribe from our messages.

If you want to close your account, which will delete all the personal profile data we hold for you, simply log in to your account and at the bottom of your profile you can choose the option ’Close account’. You will then no longer receive emails and you will not be able to apply to opportunities via our website.

Any data we have collected from you if you have applied and completed a questionnaire or if we have called you to confirm this information will be kept for up to two years so that we comply with our industry regulatory body, the Market Research Society (MRS) and the MRS Code of Conduct.

How do I change my details?
You have access to your data, so you can amend your data at any time. Just log in to your account to make the necessary changes. We will ask you every two years if you wish to remain a part of our database or if you want us to close your account and delete your information.

How does People for Research deal with complaints?
We are very lucky in that our team of recruiters are experts at providing a high level of customer service to our participants, however we understand that from time to time participants have concerns they would like to raise.

General enquiries can be directed to anyone on the team on 0117 921 0008, however if you have a complaint about any element of our process or service, please contact our support team on support@peopleforresearch.co.uk, who will fully investigate the matter.

If you would like to read our privacy policies, please click here. If you have any other questions, please check our Common Questions section.

What happens if I close my account?

If you close your account, you will not be able to log in again and will lose access to research project opportunities via the website. All your account profile data will be deleted from your profile on our database and you will not receive any further communication from People for Research.

If you have applied to take part in research within the last two years, we will keep any information collected on the questionnaires and surveys you have completed or during our phone calls with you, to comply with our industry regulatory body, the Market Research Society (MRS) and the MRS Code of Conduct, which you can find here. The information is only ever accessed if we think we can get you involved in similar further research at a later date. After two years, it is deleted.

If you just want to unsubscribe from our research opportunity emails, please log in to your account where you can unsubscribe from all emails. You will then still be able to apply to research opportunities via our website. Please allow up to seven days for the unsubscribe to take effect due to already scheduled emails.

There is an opt-out option on all of our texts if you wish to unsubscribe from our messages.

If you would like to read our privacy policies, please click here. If you have any other questions, please check our Common Questions section.

How is my data protected?

All data is handled in accordance with current data protection legislation. We will never sell your details to any third-party and we will never try to sell you anything.

We do share your first name and relevant information collected in questionnaires, surveys and phone calls with our clients, but only if you are successful in applying and are asked to take part in research. This information is deleted by the client no later than seven days after the research or testing session takes place.

We either contract with our clients so that they delete this information within seven days of the testing dates, or we set expiry dates on documents that we share with them. Our clients range from user research agencies to Government bodies or private sector companies.

When you do take part in research, we may ask you for your bank details in order to pay you. We will ask you for this via email and not over the phone. The details are used to pay you by BACS (bank transfer) after you have successfully taken part in research. Your bank details are then deleted from our system no later than 24 hours after payment.

Confirmation of payment is only kept securely on record for seven days after payment in case there are any issues with the payment. This confirmation is then destroyed.

All personal data that is captured on your profile is encrypted and, when stored on our websites, it is also encrypted and secure. If you are selected to take part in research, any further information we collect is also encrypted when uploaded to our system, encrypted when at rest, and then safely stored. Any data transferred is done so via encrypted email or via a Microsoft Office 365 product, which is also encrypted.

To verify our status as a data handler, we are registered with the Information Commissioners Office.

How does People for Research Ltd deal with complaints?

General enquiries can be raised with anyone on the team on 0117 921 0008. However, if you would rather email us, please email support@peopleforresearch.co.uk and someone will get back to you  within two working days.

If you have an enquiry about your data or have an access request for the data we hold on you, please email our Data Protection Officer, who can be reached at GDPR@peopleforresearch.co.uk.

If you would like to read our privacy policies, please click here. If you have any other questions, please check our Common Questions section.