We would say that panels are the future of research, but they do have some demonstrable advantages.  The main two are that they are quicker and cheaper than other methods but three are other advantages, not least that with opt in panels, respondents are far more willing to provide answers than some poor soul mugged with a telephone survey after a hard day’s slog.

- Speed – everything’s stored electronically and ready to go.  We can now “pull” a sample in just 5 minutes.  Panels are quick quick quick.

- Cost – this is more a general benefit of online self completion research than panels, but online panels save significant money because data collection is automated.  This is particularly attractive on large samples as the incremental cost of each new interview is neglible.

- Permission based – opt in panel members are more willing and motivated respondents than people interrupted with a survey request in the street or at home and so data is better.

- Large samples – online panels make big, varied samples feasible.

- Excellent geographic coverage – panels make location irrelevant in data collection.  It doesn’t matter whether interviewees are in the Orkneys or central Berlin.

- Automated handling of data reduces errors quite substantially (not that we ever made any of course).

There are of course some other advantages of online research in general that are also worth mentioning again…

- Respondent friendly – respondents can do surveys at their convenience (or just delete them without guilt).

- Complex logic and question routing can be made very simple (which reduces respondent fatigue as unnecessary questions are skipped)

- Order bias in questions is eliminated through randomisation of answers and or questions if needed.

- Multi media options make surveys more interesting and allow more insight to be harvested

- Embarrassing issues – most people (especially the English) find it difficult to answer questions on incontinence with a real live interviewer – an online survey is far less intrusive!

- Data accuracy – online surveys with clear routing make it impossible for respondents to overlook questions so data sets are far more complete.