Nichols Research

I arrived to 44 Montgomery for my focus group activity. The front desk asked me to wait next to the desk as they let us be able to go up in secured fashion. Out of the elevator doors after getting to the 15^th floor, I headed towards 1550 and the door was wide open and the receptionist asked me to sign in and wait in the little seating area. There were a few snacks (M&Ms, Gardetto’s snack mix, Chex Mix) and a few drinks (sodas and coffee… unfortunately no water that I could find).
We were then ushered into a conference room and saw the one way mirror of course knowing that there were people on the other side who wanted to hear our feedback. The facilitator was great. She provided the background, got everyone’s input as well as drew more insight from things people said.
Overall a pleasant experience though a reminder call 30 minutes before the actual event was probably not very helpful as it would’ve taken me an hour to get into the city. Perhaps an email or call the day before for a reminder would’ve been a little more effective.

To the person who complained about «called and cancelled, called and cancelled…» It’s NOT Nichols Research who has cancelled the focus group, paid interview, etc. It’s the CLIENT who used Nichols to recruit. Often the companies that Market Research firms use will change criteria, or cancel a project for lack of qualified recruits. It can be hit or miss. That is just the nature of these clients, not the recruiters!

Can you imaging spent 2 hours of your time participated in a research and was promised to receive payment and only found out that’s not true? Be aware of what you getting into with this company.

So, for those of you who think this company is a «scam», you’ve obviously never done one of their research studies. The info they glean from that phone call really is just the tip of the iceberg just to see if you fit the demographic they want.
I have done a study in SF and also in Sunnyvale. They are very involved, and you are compensated with the amount that they promise. The compensation is high because the people that they need are very specific… they may want a certain ethnicity/​gender/​income combination that isn’t YOU, but just keep trying!
In all of my interactions with their staff, I’ve always encountered a fairly high level of professionalism.
If you’re going to a study in SF… omg, figure out a way to TAKE BART. This place is in the heart of the financial district and if you think, «oh, I’ll just park in a garage»…that’s not as easy as you might think. I finally found a garage (White House Garage) after driving around in circles for a half an hour, and ended up paying $ 26 by the time I got back to my car. BART literally drops you off RIGHT UNDER the building you need to go to! I was ready to tell them where they could shove their survey by the time I finally walked in the door… I had some peanut M&M’s, some bar mix, and calmed down. :D

This place is a legitimate business, but their tactics are less than ethical and even veering to the side of a scam. I signed up with them a couple of months ago. I’ve filled out several of their online surveys (which take anywhere from 5 to upwards of 20 minutes). I’ve also had one of their agents call me to ask even more questions. They promise you some decent money to participate in in-​person market research, but what they’re really doing is getting all the info they need from you in their so-​called ‘pre screening” stage.
You end up filling out free online and phone surveys for them and don’t get a dime for it. They get you to do this with hollow promises of in-​person surveys that pay decent money. My advice? Tell them you’re not filling out anything after your initial intake info. They’ll get way more information out of you for free by dangling some money in front of you which you’ll rarely — if ever — get.

So far that I have experienced in working with them is that they are pretty cordial when i meet with the receptionist in the lobby in charge of sign in and payments.
But there was an incident where the topic of the study was about technology, long story short, the person who called to confirm and collect more study related questions seems to not know much about technology/​internet usage himself.
So i was worried about whether or not my answers will qualify/​disqualify me because he didn’t seem sure what my answers meant nor how to interpret my answers. So i was a little unsure how that would effect my eligibility with the recruiting responder not knowing too much about the subject in that situation.
(End result; I did not qualify because my of smartphone; from how he responded to me, it was because my phone already had a built in internet browser (don’t all phones now have that feature as since 2005?)
But overall I’ve had a fairly positive experience with this organization. But I hope that they do switch to paying out their participants with Cash or Gift Cheques/​checks which is VERY MUCH more useful and consumer friendly.
Having received Visa gift cards for the past few group studies that i have been with them, the amount is useful in terms of going to commercial vendors i suppose, but I think many among the general public consumers would prefer compensation that we have much more of a free range of use without restriction. (Cash/​Check)
Not to sound ungrateful or anything of that sort. But at least with checks you can deposit or cash out, and with cash you don’t have to worry about your gift card being denied for some unseen or unprecedented reason.
It’s simply more convenient for both us as consumers as well as the companies.

$ 225 dollars for participating in a research study? YES PLEASE!
The opportunity for such a thing couldn’t have came at a better time. I’m in between jobs, so I wasn’t missing out on a days work and if anything got more money!
The study I was included in was a hefty 7 – 8 hours long, but heck I wasn’t going to do anything anyways. I took BART here since their office is smack off of Montgomery. They provided breakfast (bagels and muffins) and lunch (sandwiches and salads) since we were going to be there awhile. We were given a bunch of breaks since it was a lot of sitting and having to watch presentations.
You have to be adamant about staying th

Either all the people that work at Nichols Research are incompetent or they’re a tele-​survey company seeking free consumer research.
I’ve registered to be a participant on their site 3 years ago and within that time, I have spent hours filling out numerous «pre-​screening» online surveys emailed to me for various focus groups that fit my demographic. Each time after spending 25 – 30 minutes filling out a pretty comprehensive survey about my personal shopping habits. The most recent was regarding Digital Music (ex. How many songs have you purchased? How much do you spend on digital music per month? On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely would you purchase a Sony MP3 player, …a Sansa MP3 player… Creative… Apple…)
After completing the online survey, I was told I would be contacted via phone if I was a match. Kid-​you-​not, the following has happened 4 – 5 times now: I will receive a call from Nichols a couple days later saying they just have a «few» more questions. I then spend another 20 – 25 mins on the phone responding to questions, some that I have already spent a good 25 – 30 minutes filling out online, as well as additional follow-​up questions.
After spending a good hour+ on an online survey and a phone survey and after providing what I believe as pretty useful consumer insight of my likes and dislikes, I was informed that unfortunately I was not a match as they have already reached their quota for the study. Don’t you think they could have told me that before I spent another ½ hour doing a phone survey? If anyone has experienced the same deceitful research practices, please review.

This company sucks. My father filled out a preliminary survey and Nichols sent him a confirmation by email for a $ 200 study however days later canceled the study and never told him– he showed up downtown after clearing his whole day (the study was 5 hrs long) and paying for parking. The office was closed. They gave him some lame excuse over the phone and told him he wouldn’t get the $ 200 after they confused my fathers account with my brothers in their database.

I’m actually a customer. We do a lot of market research where I work and Nichol’s always does a great job. Very professional and well catered (gotta have good food while listening to customers!).
Very easy to get set up and very accommodating for any special requests.

Unilocalers! Sign up for Nichols Research!!! Since you obviously like giving your opinion, why not do it and get a little cash on the way? You can only do two of these a year, but they really are fun and a great way to make a few bucks. They make sure you have some background in what the panel is on, so it’s always interesting.

Did two short focus groups here (one on newspapers, one on body wash). Cash (tax-​free) compensation is good.

Focus reseacher probe your opinion on their client’s products. Paid in cash, no tax, free appetizers and beverages. I have been a panelist for many years (there are 5 focus consumer locations). I have been paid $ 100 for health issues, cars ($ 150 – 300), alcohol beverages, ice cream, advertisements, etc. If you reserve your appointment for interviews around lunch or dinner hours (they will serve sandwiches, cookies, candies, coffee, tea and sodas) You can register by email and can only do two opinions a year. My first time was trying out a new credit card (Discover) to see the stores awareness on their card. I charged merchandise that accepted the card and kept the purchase for free. Another focus group panel company was famous for the Tide commertcial. The woman who claimed she’d rather have the Tide than $ 50 — made over $ 200,000 in commercial residue. Of course, you must qualify for the consumer researchers questions/​answers to be eligible to participate.