With an annual revenue of $38 billion and over 16 million customers, businesses and consumers across North America have been depending on Allstate for more than 85 years to protect their homes, automobiles, families, and more. To do this effectively, Allstate is constantly researching the needs of their customers so that they can build better products that help them accomplish their goals. Whether websites, mobile applications, agency software, or even AR tools, Allstate uses research extensively to make sure their designs communicate what their customers want.

Allstate uses an integrative approach to research that combines on-site testing with remote sessions, which meant they were juggling several local and national recruitment firms before turning to Respondent. Not only was this complicated, but costs were often high, many candidates were unqualified, and cancellations and no-shows were both common. This was distracting them from building the next generation of insurance products that Allstate has become known for.

Reaching the right people

To test the design of a product built for business analysts, Allstate needed to recruit participants who could give them useful feedback. However, the firms that could find this type of specialized recruit were expensive and unable to even provide qualified participants. In contrast, Respondent allowed Allstate to easily locate the exact participants they needed for a fraction of the cost.

When sourcing for both in-person and remote research interviews, Allstate appreciated the amount of visibility Respondent gave them. After setting up a screener survey and finding several potential participants, for instance, they could check each person’s qualifications and look at their LinkedIn and Facebook profiles to verify who they are before making a final decision. Allstate could also gain access to any individuals who did not qualify and make exceptions where necessary.

“Having the control, but in an easy way, has been insanely helpful,” said Matt Hay, Senior User Experience Researcher at Allstate. “We can hold onto people. We can message people. Setting up the bookings on the calendar has been great, too.”

The entire process was easy to integrate into Allstate’s existing research methods as well. For example, Allstate’s research team could simply complete their sourcing with Respondent, then include a link to their internal testing platform when scheduling each participant. They could even utilize services such as UserZoom alongside Respondent to easily source and set up quantitative surveys. This helped them increase efficiencies throughout their research processes.

Getting to know their customers better

After using Respondent for five months, Allstate was able to reduce the average time it takes to recruit qualified participants from two weeks to just one. But that’s just one of several benefits.

The consistently high quality of participants Allstate is able to find through Respondent, as well as the ability to verify who they say they are, has helped improve their ability to anticipate their customers’ needs. In addition, Allstate has been able to reduce the number of cancellations and no-shows, helping make their research team more focused and efficient. The cost of Respondent is also much lower than other recruitment tools, which has allowed Allstate to increase the amount of research they do and better understand what their customers want.

The results of these improvements have translated into better products. Because Allstate can now reach out to qualified participants to get the feedback they need within days, they are able to test out new features, streamline designs, and adapt quickly to their customers’ changing needs. What’s more, other researchers at Allstate have even begun working with the User Experience team for their recruiting needs, improving internal collaboration and helping the company transform how they reach new audiences.