I don't want to teach my team anything else besides Ethnio.
Queeny NalyanyaResearch Operations Manager
Future Partners is a travel and tourism-focused creative insights firm shaping winning marketing strategies for travel, tourism, and hospitality leaders through market research. futurepartners.com →
The challenge: disjointed tools
Recruiting participants, managing multi-phase studies, and paying out incentives are all part of the job. But the unseen tasks behind a research study can feel like an operational nightmare. The time spent switching between platforms, manually consolidating data, and troubleshooting inconsistencies creates a bottleneck that impacts your team's efficiency and data quality.
Queeny Nalyanya, Research Operations Manager at Future Partners, knows this struggle firsthand.
We used separate applications for focus groups, IDIs, scheduling, and incentives. It felt like a million steps!
Queeny NalyanaResearch Operations Manager
Disjointed tools at each stage of the research process led to several challenges for Queeny's team:
📉 Reduced efficiency
🔧 Manual mayhem
👓 Limited visibility and compromised data quality
Let’s get into each one in more detail next.
📉 Reduced efficiency
Managing an average of four studies per month with diverse formats such as 1:1 interviews (with up to 40 participants) and focus groups (10 per session), and even live streams, made scheduling a constant struggle.
🔧 Manual mayhem
The lack of a central participant pool resulted in hours combing and deduping spreadsheets in Excel to find participants for each study.
👓 Limited visibility and compromised data quality
Scattered research activities across different platforms made it difficult to track progress, identify bottlenecks, and ensure data quality. Inconsistent screening and participant no-shows further complicated things.
If only there was an end-to-end solution that leverages research ops’ existing tools while centralizing their entire research process - from sending invites to managing incentives - in one reliable platform…
Solution: Future Partners takes flight with a first-class research ops upgrade
Ethnio's dedicated enterprise account management team provided Queeny with the support needed to implement a user research CRM (designed for researchers by researchers).
Ethnio makes everything a breeze. Now, when I do recruiting, all I keep open is Ethnio, Calendly, Dropbox, and Excel.
The user-friendly interface also allows for easy onboarding of new team members.
Saving time with streamlined workflows
With Ethnio as their central hub, Future Partners conducts research ops with:
Precise targeting
Advanced filtering capabilities eliminates manual spreadsheet combing. Recruit participants by leveraging demographic filters and custom tags to target ideal travel personas for richer data and actionable insights for client success.
For new participants, I use the Ethnio screener link for ads. I love the feature where you can see their Twitter and Linkedin and directly add them to the participant pool!
Enhanced data quality
A single source of truth for participant information? Yes, please!
Ethnio ensures all data is centralized and secure, minimizing inconsistencies and improving overall data quality. Queeny loves Ethnio's MVP (Most Valuable Participant) filtering for internal studies. It quickly identifies and targets the right participants for feedback.
Additionally, Ethnio's flexibility allows Future Partners to manage projects for various destinations - whether it's a bustling city like San Francisco or a resort town like Hilton Head Island.
Boosted attendance & schedule management
Ethnio's automated text message reminders have increased participant attendance at focus groups. Plus, seamless integration with existing calendar applications eliminates the need for manual juggling across platforms. Saving time associated with pesky scheduling conflicts.
Deliver a superior participant experience
Incentive management
Participants receive clear instructions, updates, and prompt incentives. With different payment options.
Professional communication
Branded pool emails with your logo project a professional image, building trust and encouraging participation. This is particularly important for Future Partners, who work with discerning audiences like professional meeting planners.
The pool email is fantastic because it allows us to put our logos, information and an unsubscribe link. It looks like it’s coming from Future Partners rather than Ethnio when inviting participants to the study.
How these functionalities benefit their different research projects:
Identifying Ideal Demographics for a New Travel Destination
Ethnio allows Future Partners to target individuals who frequently travel to similar destinations (e.g., Caribbean islands, ski resorts), have specific activity interests (e.g., scuba diving, hiking), and fit within a desired age range.
Gathering insights from the most relevant audience and leading to more effective marketing strategies for Future Partners' travel & tourism industry clients.
Website Usability Studies
Evaluating a new site design for travel clients? Ethnio streamlines the recruitment process for usability testing. Queeny can target frequent site users, create tasks within the platform to assess how users navigate the new design, and schedule interviews for in-depth feedback.
Enabling Future Partners to identify any potential usability issues before launch. Resulting in a user-friendly experience for their clients' customers.
The Ethnio effect
Streamlined recruitment, data accuracy, and boosted attendance have freed up valuable time for Future Partners to focus on analysis and strategic planning. Optimized workflows and automated tasks allow Future Partners to dedicate more time to the research itself – uncovering deeper travel consumer insights.
Empowering Future Partners to focus on what they do best – delivering exceptional solutions for their clients in the travel industry.
Ready to centralize your research operations?