You finish a survey on your phone while waiting for coffee. A “Thanks! Here’s your $10 gift card” email lands in your inbox… somewhere. By the time you need it, you can’t find it. Was it from Panel A or Panel B? Which brand was it again? You didn’t spend it - you just lost track of it.
That tiny moment sums up a big blind spot in market research: we’ve optimized nearly everything around surveys - design, targeting, data quality, panel hygiene - except the participant reward experience.
And yet, rewards are the reason most people participate.
What respondents are really telling us
In our recent Australia study on research incentives and rewards, three truths stood out:
- Rewards drive participation. A majority (57%) ranked the reward as their #1 reason for taking part; 71% ranked it in their top two.
- The engaged core is very active. Among people who did at least one study in the last year, 61% completed 10+ studies - these are committed, everyday respondents keeping the ecosystem alive.
- But the reward experience is messy. Two-thirds (66%) say they’ve hit problems like getting a different reward than expected, losing track of a reward, or letting one slip by. Only 35% feel very confident they received everything they were owed. Meanwhile, 73% resort to DIY tracking - saving emails, taking screenshots, even printing cards or keeping notes.
This isn’t just operational friction; it’s emotional friction. People want to feel valued and in control, not like they’re chasing down $5 and $10 e-cards scattered across inboxes and portals. When that experience is clunky or unclear, it chips away at trust—and at their willingness to take the next survey.
The elephant in the insights room
The Market Research industry has poured so much energy into response rates, sample quality, and fraud prevention. All essential. But if the reward experience is confusing, delayed, hard to track, or hard to use, we’re leaving engagement on the table.
Think about the signals respondents are sending:
- Timeliness matters. The most common unaided frustration is how long rewards take to arrive. Delays cause doubt—and doubt erodes participation.
- Flexibility matters. People rank features like combining small balances and swapping to preferred brands among the most useful - because they mirror how real life works. Many small rewards feel trivial until you can consolidate them into something meaningful.
- Transparency matters. Simple things - seeing gift card balances at a glance, a clear history, gentle reminders - build trust and reduce support tickets (“Did that card arrive?” “What’s left on it?”).
Importantly, this isn’t just an “older vs younger” dynamic. Younger participants (18–34) told us they complete fewer studies than older groups but have more issues with rewards and lower confidence that they received everything due to them - and they’re more interested in tools that make management easier. If we want the next generation to lean in, improving the experience is a lever we can actually pull (and fund) without forever raising incentive amounts.
Stop thinking “bigger”—start thinking “better”
Simply upping dollar values isn’t a long-term strategy. In tough markets, that race never ends. We believe the more sustainable lever is experience quality:
- Make rewards obvious. One place to see everything: what you’ve earned, what’s pending, what’s left on each card. No digging, no guessing.
- Make small things feel big. Let people combine lots of little rewards into something they’ll actually use. That turns “bits and pieces” into a real purchase—and a positive memory tied to participating.
- Make choice a feature. Let them swap card brands to match real preferences or life moments. Choice increases perceived value—even when the nominal amount stays the same.
- Reduce support load with clarity. Clear timelines, status updates, and lightweight reminders prevent “Where is my reward?” emails and rebuild confidence at scale.
If we nail these basics, everybody wins: participants feel respected and in control; researchers see better recontact performance and higher completion rates; brands get more consistent, higher-quality data.
The human side of incentives (why this matters beyond ops)
Rewards aren’t just a payout; they’re the end-to-end fulfilment of the promise we make for people’s time. When that fulfilment is smooth, the whole experience feels fair and professional. When it’s clumsy, people question whether their time is valued—and that doubt lingers into the next invite.
And remember the “lost track” moment? That’s a design problem we can solve. When incentives live across email threads, web portals, and multiple panels, we’re asking participants to act like accountants. Most won’t. Nor should they have to.
Where Giftbee fits
Giftbee was built to make this part easy. - for participants and research teams:
- Accept, swap, or re-gift rewards easily
- Track balances and history in one place
- Combine smaller amounts into something meaningful
- Fewer support tickets because status is transparent end-to-end
We’re not trying to change why people do research. We’re improving how the reward part works - so more people are happy to do it again.
What to do next (even if you don’t use us)
If you manage studies, try these quick wins on your next projects:
- Set clear reward expectations. Tell participants when to expect delivery - and meet that timeline.
- Offer flexible redemption. Where possible, provide brand choice or swap options.
- Provide one place to manage incentives. Even a simple dashboard link reduces confusion and support tickets.
- Consolidate small rewards. Let people roll up $5 and $10 amounts into a single balance.
- Automate reminders. Friendly nudges (“You’ve got $18 to redeem”) recover value people already earned.
None of these increase the headline incentive amount. All of them improve the felt value of participating—and that’s what keeps the flywheel spinning.
Closing thought
If we want better data, we need happier participants. The fastest way to get there isn’t just by paying more—it’s by making rewards feel obvious, flexible, and worth it. When we do, people don’t just complete a survey; they come back for the next one.
