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RESEARCH COMPENSATION

Respect their time. Protect your data. Simplify compensation.

Compensate participants across UX studies, market research, customer feedback, and experience surveys with timely options they can actually use. TruCentive makes participant payments easy to design, global to deliver, and transparent to reconcile. For study-specific workflows, explore clinical trial participant payments.

No credit card required. Build and send branded participant-payment samples before you commit.

esearch compensation workflow connecting UX testing, surveys, customer feedback, insight analysis, and participant reward delivery.
THE EXECUTIVE CASE

Compensation is part of research design—not an administrative afterthought.

Compensation recognizes participants’ time, effort, inconvenience, and expertise. It can improve participation and follow-through, but it must be fair, clearly explained, and proportionate to the activity. Strong programs separate compensation from reimbursement, preserve voluntary participation, and build data-quality controls into the study—not into the payment decision.

46

randomized trials reviewed

A 2023 systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated 46 randomized controlled trials of monetary survey incentives.

109,648

participants represented

The review represented 109,648 participants across 14 countries and a wide range of populations.

25%

higher survey response

Across the included trials, money increased survey response by 25% relative to no incentive (RR 1.25; 95% CI 1.16–1.35).

31.9%

digital incentive value unclaimed

TruCentive reports that 31.9% of digital awards, gifts, and incentives went unclaimed in 2025—value that may never reach participants.
WHY EVEN SMALL COMPENSATION MATTERS

Fair value does not have to mean a large amount.

A modest payment can communicate respect and remove a practical barrier to participation. Its adequacy depends on time, inconvenience, expertise, audience, market, and study design—not on one universal dollar amount.

Acknowledge time

Participants contribute attention, lived experience, professional knowledge, and sometimes emotionally demanding feedback. Compensation makes that contribution visible.

Remove practical friction

Appropriate payment or reimbursement can offset costs and make participation more feasible for people who cannot easily donate time, travel, connectivity, or caregiving coverage.

Match effort and expertise

A five-minute poll and a ninety-minute specialist interview should not pay the same. Use transparent bands based on duration, burden, scarcity, and required expertise.

Preserve participant choice

Offer relevant choices and let participants decline payment. Choice supports different needs across locations, cultures, access requirements, and personal preferences.

BUILT FOR NON-CLINICAL RESEARCH

One compensation engine. Every research format.

Standardize governance and delivery while letting each study retain its own eligibility, consent language, compensation schedule, milestone rules, reward mix, and participant communications.

UX & usability testing

Compensate moderated interviews, prototype evaluations, concept tests, accessibility studies, and unmoderated task completion.

Market & consumer studies

Support qualitative interviews, segmentation work, product studies, concept research, and consumer panels with appropriate incentives.

Customer feedback programs

Thank customers for NPS follow-up, product feedback, journey research, service recovery studies, and customer advisory participation.

Experience surveys

Improve completion for relationship, transactional, employee-experience, alumni, community, and post-event surveys while monitoring sample effects.

Focus groups & advisory boards

Handle scheduled sessions, multi-person groups, expert councils, co-design workshops, and community research with clear payout rules.

Diary & longitudinal research

Deliver compensation at defined checkpoints for diaries, longitudinal interviews, recurring panels, and multi-stage research without manual chaos.

WHY TRUCENTIVE

More respect for participants. More control for research operations.

TruCentive combines participant choice with the controls Research, Finance, Procurement, Security, Privacy, and Legal expect. Build from templates or a blank canvas, personalize the experience, automate reminders, and see the who, what, and when of each delivery.

1M+ participant-friendly options

Mix gift cards, merchandise, payments, prepaid cards, and other options instead of assuming one incentive works for every participant.

Global and local relevance

Reach participants in more than 150 countries, with national brands and 85,000+ local merchant options for market-level relevance.

Delivery that follows through

Send by email, SMS, both, printed links, or bulk links. Add automated reminders that stop after claim and a post-claim thank-you or next-step message.

Visibility without breakage games

Track recipient activity and claim status. With Pay as You Go, TruCentive returns unclaimed compensation value to your account.

A BETTER RESEARCH OPERATING MODEL

Compare what Research and Finance actually get.

Decision factor

Manual or single-reward approach

TruCentive Pay as You Go

Unused compensation value

May be trapped in purchased cards, retained as provider breakage, or difficult to return to the study budget.

Returned to your TruCentive account under Pay as You Go.

Participant choice

One gift card or separate vendors by participant group and country.

1M+ gift card, payment, merchandise, prepaid, and other options.

Research operations

Manual purchasing, code inventories, spreadsheets, and one-off participant emails.

Reusable branded projects, individual or list-based sends, email/SMS, and bulk links.

Participant follow-through

One payment message with no claim-aware communication.

Automated reminders stop after claim; post-claim messages can confirm receipt or next steps.

Reconciliation

Limited recipient-level visibility and difficult closeout reporting.

Track delivery, recipient activity, claims, reminders, and unclaimed value.

TruCentive reports 14%–32% waste in research compensation and says 31.9% of digital incentives went unclaimed in 2025. It also says most Pay as You Go customers save 23% after fees. Results depend on study design, compensation value, audience, timing, and claim rate. See current pricing and features.

FROM PROTOCOL TO PAYMENT

Build a process participants trust—and administrators can govern.

01

Set compensation principles

Define whether each payment is reimbursement, fair compensation for time and effort, appreciation, or a completion incentive. Set bands, approvals, withdrawal rules, tax handling, and ethics or institutional review requirements.

02

Design the participant experience

Explain the study, privacy expectations, eligibility, payment amount, timing, milestones, and what happens after withdrawal. Choose accessible channels and participant-relevant options.

03

Deliver by milestone

Deliver after the activity or at approved checkpoints for multi-stage work. Use automation for repeatable studies while keeping participant records appropriately separated and protected.

04

Monitor and reconcile

Monitor delivery, claims, failed messages, duplicates, quality flags, partial completions, and unclaimed value. Close the loop with Finance without exposing unnecessary research data.

QUESTIONS RESEARCH LEADERS ASK

Compensate fairly without compromising rigor.

Is compensation the same as reimbursement?

No. Reimbursement repays participation-related expenses such as travel or connectivity. Compensation recognizes time, effort, inconvenience, or expertise. Study materials and approvals should describe each clearly.

Could payment create undue influence?

Payment is generally permissible, but it should be fair and not so excessive that it compromises voluntary decision-making. HHS guidance notes that reasonable reimbursement, fair compensation, and token appreciation do not inherently create undue-influence concerns. Follow applicable institutional review.

What if a participant withdraws?

State this before enrollment. For multi-stage work, consider prorated or milestone-based compensation so payment does not pressure participants to remain. Follow the approved protocol, consent language, and institutional policy.

Can incentives bias the data?

Incentives can change who participates and may encourage speed or duplicate attempts. Keep payment independent of particular answers, use neutral wording, monitor completion time and consistency, deduplicate, and compare sample composition where possible.

Can we support global studies?

Yes. TruCentive offers international options in more than 150 countries. Confirm availability, privacy, consent, tax, sanctions, employment, and research-ethics requirements for every market and participant type.

What happens to unclaimed compensation?

Under TruCentive Pay as You Go, unclaimed compensation value returns to your account. That supports cleaner closeout and lets approved funds be reused instead of becoming provider margin.

MAKE PARTICIPANT RESPECT OPERATIONALLY SIMPLE

Design your first research compensation workflow today.

Bring one real study and participant profile to a TruCentive design session. Leave with a branded sample, a practical compensation schedule, and a clearer workflow for delivery and reconciliation.

1M+ options · 250+ countries and territories · Email, SMS & bulk links · Automated reminders · Unclaimed value returned with Pay as You Go