What is a Radius Recruit? | Explaining the Definition, Benefits, and Uses

Recruiting for qualitative and quantitative market research is an integral component in the success of a research study.

Oftentimes it can be challenging to pin down the exact audience necessary to offer the accurate and high quality feedback businesses need to move the needle and see an increase in sales. This is extremely apparent when conducting market research for brick and mortar organizations.

Is it possible to find market research participants that have recently visited a store location, made a purchase, spoke with customer service, or a variety of in-person activities? By implementing a radius recruit or geofencing – it is!

In this blog post, our geofencing market research firm will discuss the definition of a radius recruit, the benefits of using this form of recruitment, and how you can use a radius recruit for your next market research study.

what is a radius recruit roads intertwiningA radius recruit is the solution to a brick and mortar's challenge of finding exactly who visited their store and asking for feedback in order to accurately test levels of satisfaction.


What is a radius recruit?

A radius recruit is the act of creating a virtual radius or geofence around a store or site location(s) to target participants for both qualitative and quantitative research. The selected radius around the brick and mortar location can be created through GPS location devices or other location-based software.

The radius around the location of interest can be as small or as large as you would like. It can be a series of different pinpoints outside and inside the store, such as the parking lot, the entrance, the customer service desk, the changing room, etc.

Based off the objective of your research, a radius recruit can be used in a variety of ways. For example, a customer satisfaction survey can be sent directly to a visitor of a store within minutes or hours of their visit. This allows for instant feedback about the customer’s experience and what was memorable in a positive or negative way.

Learn more about how geofencing is used for market research surveys.


What are the benefits of a radius recruit?

A radius recruit is a newer and evolving form of recruitment for various types of market research methodologies. As the mobile market research trend continues to grow, new benefits and advantages are being discovered.

One major benefit of a market research firm using a radius recruit is the cost savings for their clients. Typically, businesses who wanted to collect in-the-moment feedback for their recent site visitors would turn to intercept or exit surveys. This type of methodology involves a qualified interviewer to stand outside a store or location and collect customer feedback as they are leaving the store. While intercept surveys are extremely advantageous for brick and mortar businesses, it can be costly.

A cost savings alternative to intercept surveys have been the use of a radius recruit. With a radius recruit, a market research firm can set up a geofence around a location and send a push notification to visitors while onsite, inviting them to take a survey. This eliminates the need to hire an interviewer onsite. It also encourages more survey responses for visitors who don’t want to be stopped by the interviewer.

A radius recruit still has the benefit of collecting in-the-moment feedback, similar to intercept surveys or accompanied shopping trips. A push notification can be sent to a customer within minutes or hours of their visit. This encourages customers to take a survey while in their true shopping environment.

Even better, using geo-fencing in market research helps eliminates an bias or a misrepresentation of their experience by sending a survey weeks or months after their visit has already happened.


How can I use a radius recruit?

Many businesses today are using a radius recruit for a variety of market research projects as it is an easy and cost effective way to collect data from their exact target audience. Geo-fencing is also popularly used as a promotional tool to encourage in-store visits and purchases.

For example, customers who have the Target app and enter the geo-fenced area as set by Target receive a 20% off coupon for an in-store purchase. This helps encourage customers who are close in proximity to Target feel more inclined to stop and run an errand in their store.

More specifically for market research, as referenced above, a radius recruit can be used in place of intercept surveys. This helps collect instant feedback about their recent experience in the form of a customer satisfaction survey.

This survey can be as general or as specific as you want. It can be as general as collecting feedback about visitor’s experience as a whole, or something as specific as collecting data on customers who made a return in the store and left immediately without shopping or exchanging their item.


Contact Drive Research

Drive Research is a geofencing market research company located in Syracuse, NY. Our team has the knowledge and tools to design a robust market research study, should it be the right fit for your business.

Interested in learning more about our market research services? Reach out through any of the four ways below.

Message us on our website
Email us at [email protected]
Call us at 888-725-DATA
Text us at 315-303-2040

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