Frequently asked questions by customers

We do! And the incentive payments are always included in your total price. Use our easy and transparent online calculator to see how much your total comes to now.

Your price depends on the study method, the number of test users, and the desired profile. Use our easy and transparent online calculator to see how much your total comes to now.

Yes, it is a yearly or monthly subscription model. The price depends on the modules you need (incentive management, long-term pool, etc.). There are also set up cost for the co-branding and personalisation.

You can subscribe on a monthly basis and we don’t charge for the setup costs if you abort within 3 months. If you continue past 3 months, we will then charge you the setup costs.

Test user candidates are screened from a pool/database with contacts from you. E.g. imported list or acquired contacts through the landing page. You will own these contacts and not us. We’ll only use them for the recruiting of your studies. Private Pool is sold as a monthly/yearly license. It includes unlimited recruitments and is not paid as you go.

Yes, it is guaranteed. Your private pool will be uploaded in a separated database collection and your test users will only be contacted for your studies. On top, they will always see your logo thanks to the co-branding feature (on all emails and pages).

With Private Pool you have the choice to incentive or not your test users and how (wire transfers, coupons, vouchers,…). If you want us to take care of the incentives we would gladly do it, as we did before, we just charge the incentives to test users on top of your subscription. You are required to purchase the incentive management module.

You are responsible to create and send the vouchers to participants after the study’s end. You can download the list of participants and their email addresses at the end of each study (using the print function on the lineup page). We kindly request to send the vouchers within 10 business days after the test is over, as participants are really eager to receive them quickly.

With an advanced screening you can add specific criteria (e.g. owns a tesla) for free. With a basic screening you have to pay for the specific criteria on top of the subscription.

We do not refund expired credits. However, we do remind you to use up any leftover credits well before they expire. You can also opt to purchase a new package. In this case, your leftover credits will remain valid and simply be transferred to your new package.

We do not refund expired credits. If you’re unsure how many test users you will need, we recommend purchasing a PrePay package with fewer credits for the first time. You can easily top up your credits at any time and expand the due time for another 12 months at the same time. That way, you will be able to estimate which package is right for you.

Absolutely not! When you purchase a package, it is only valid for 12 months. There is no subscription or automatic renewal to worry about. If, at the end of 12 months, you would like to continue to benefit from our PrePay packages, you must necessarily purchase a new one.

You may either pay through invoice, credit card, or through PayPal within 30 days.

Absolutely! All you have to do is add them to your team.

Apart from the size and the discount you get on your credits, all of our PrePay packages are identical: the same terms and conditions apply and you get the same great service.

It takes approx. one hour.

Schedule a call with one of our experts or send us a message with the desired package, and we will activate your credits as soon as possible. 

Recruiting test users is our core business. Our pool consists of more than 985,000 test users and we put a lot of time and effort into quality management. So not only can we provide you with the test users you need – we can do it fast and at a fraction of the cost.

Typically, a market research company will offer test user recruiting as a supplementary service. Consequently, their test user pool will be lacking in terms of size and representativeness and their limited recruiting staff won’t be able to match TestingTime’s speed, price, or test user quality.

Our services are neither limited to particular types of projects nor to particular industries. TestingTime’s client base consists of companies in various industries, e.g. retail, banking, insurance, and hospitality. Ranging from short, one-off surveys to diary studies that span several months, the projects are diverse.

Our offices in Zurich, Cologne, London, and Paris serve our core markets: Switzerland, Germany, the UK, and France. Upon request, we do recruit test users in other locations. You can choose the tool yourself. For moderated studies, however, we recommend using Lookback or Zoom.

Recruiting test users is our core business. Our pool consists of more than 985,000 test users and we put a lot of time and effort into quality management. However, if we feel we cannot recruit your desired profile, we will get in touch with an alternative solution.

We named our packages after our UX idols: Steve Krug, author of “Don’t make me think,” Kim Goodwin, author of “Design for the digital age,” Jakob Nielsen, inventor of the golden 5-people-per-test rule, and Don Norman, the father of user experience and author of “The Design of Everyday Things.”

An order can be classified as “best effort” for several reasons: e.g. tight deadline, very difficult profile, … If an order is categorised as “best effort”, it means that we will do our best to recruit the profile(s) you’re looking for within the given timeframe. However, it is very likely that we will find few to no suitable candidates. Of course, you only pay for the participants we are actually able to recruit.

Our core markets are Switzerland, Germany, the UK, and France. In these countries, our pool consists of more than 985,000 test users of all ages, working in different industries, and interested in a range of topics. New people sign up every single day and, in certain cities, 1% of the total population is already a part of our pool.

We are always adding new people to our pool of more than 985,000 test users. We use a combination of organic and paid methods, enabling us to recruit the test users you need – even if they aren’t yet in our pool at the time you place your order.

Following the tests, our customers rate each and every test user individually. Based on that information, our sophisticated quality management system automatically disqualifies unreliable and/or dishonest test users, preventing them from causing no-show or misfit issues in the future.

If you still want to be on the safe side, you can always book additional backup test users for your study to guarantee an immediate replacement.

Booking one or more backup test users can be useful if it is necessary to ensure that the test takes place on a specific time slot without major delays. Therefore, TestingTime recruits an additional person and assigns them to the selected time slot in order to provide an immediate replacement in case of last-minute cancellations or no-shows. We aim to match the profile as closely as possible to the original candidate – however, depending on the complexity of the order, we can’t guarantee any deviations in terms of criteria or criteria distribution. Further details about the process with backup test users

Before we select a test user for a test, they have to overcome several hurdles: they must verify their phone number, complete an online screener, and confirm that they meet all the criteria. Then, our sophisticated quality management system reviews the candidate and gives them the green light, if applicable. Unreliable and/or dishonest test users, as well as those who have tested too recently or for the same company, are automatically disqualified.

Our customer success team reviews your order. If they have any questions or concerns, they will reach out to you within 24 hours. Otherwise, they will go ahead and initiate the recruiting process.

Yes! Thanks to the personalised link you get when you place an order, you can check on our progress anytime you like. Alternatively, you can log in to your TestingTime account and use the dashboard to view all of your active orders at once.

We will email you as soon as the recruiting process is complete. At the very latest, 1-2 days ahead of the deadline. Of course, you needn’t wait for us to notify you: just use the personalised link you get when you place an order to check on our progress anytime you like.

In this case, you will only be charged for test users we have already recruited. The exact amount depends on the workload involved in altering the original profile (please see our General T&Cs for details). The sooner you let us know about any changes, the better the chances are that you won’t be charged at all because we won’t have recruited anyone matching the original profile yet.

In this case, you will be charged in full for all test users we have already recruited (please see our General T&Cs for details). The sooner you cancel, the better the chances are that you won’t be charged at all because we won’t have recruited anyone yet.

We will send you an email and a text (if we have your cell phone number) should we need to make any last-minute changes. Unfortunately, it is possible that a test user will need to reschedule or cancel altogether. We will do everything in our power to reschedule or replace that test user immediately, meaning we may need to use some of the alternative time slots you provided.

If a test user doesn‘t show up (e.g. due to illness) or doesn‘t match the desired profile (e.g. because they misunderstood a screener question), we‘ll gladly make sure to find an appropriate replacement. A replacement can be requested directly in the participant overview after reporting a problem.

Most important: Please inform us within 48 hours after the session which of the assigned testers have finally participated in the user test, in order to adjust and arrange the compensation accordingly.
Each recruited and assigned backup tester of a slot is indicated in the participant overview of the customer dashboard. If the initial participant doesn’t show up and can’t be reached by phone or email, please report this user as a “no-show” immediately. After that, please contact the respective backup candidate directly in order to continue with the test. All information relating to the test users can be found in the dashboard under the tab “Participants”. Every backup test candidate was informed in advance about their role and conditions and is already waiting to step in.

Yes, check the “Document to be signed” option in our order form, under the ” Add-ons” section, to upload a document of your choice. Afterwards, we integrate the document to be signed directly into our recruitment process. For this we use a third-party provider called Xodo sign. Each document will be legally signed and include the test user’s full name, date, and electronic signature. Before the study starts you will get access to all signed documents in your order overview. For further requirements or questions please get in touch with our sales department.

Would you like to have an insight into the process a test user has to go through to sign your document? Then read more in the FAQs for test users.

The recruitment of test users depends on the number of test users needed as well as the complexity of the desired profile (screener criteria).

For unmoderated studies such as online surveys or unmoderated user tests, we usually recruit your test users within three working days after you have placed your order.

For moderated studies such as interviews or moderated user tests, we recommend placing the order at least one week before the study. With simple profiles, we can also ensure faster recruitment.

You can check the earliest possible date directly in our order form.

We use the completion link to track when a test user successfully participated in an unmoderated study or a survey. This link should be added at the end of your study as an hyperlink or if possible (depending on the tool used) as an automatic redirection. Once clicked the test users get redirected to the TestingTime platform and moved to the completed column.

If test users do not have access to this link, we will not be able to know that they have completed the survey/unmoderated study and therefore, they could be expelled from the study without the incentive even though they participated.

Without a built-in completion link, we can not set your order live for recruitment. Without this link, neither TestingTime nor you as a customer have an overview of which test users have successfully completed your study. It is also confusing for test users because if they do not use this link they will not be considered as completed and will not be able to receive the incentive.

The experience of including a completion link differs from tool to tool. Please check with your provider of the tool you are using on ‘How to insert the completion link in your survey or unmoderated tool’ or lookup for a step-by-step guidance online on how to successfully insert the completion link. The completion link is also called in some tools redirect link or completion URL. Please note that for some tools, the option of adding the completion link may require upgrading your plan or changing to a paid version.

Every test user who clicks on the completion link at the end of your study will be sent back automatically to TestingTime and recorded in our system as “participated” and will therefore receive the incentive. Whereas with a screen-out link, test users would be marked as unqualified and therefore would not receive the incentive. Please note that screen-out links are not supported by TestingTime. Consequently, if you want to screen out test users, please do so while creating your survey/unmoderated recruitment order in the screening step.

When a test user participates in an unmoderated study and a survey via a specific tool, we can send an ID for each participant via an URL parameter, so you can uniquely identify them. The parameter’s name is defined in each tool differently (please reach out to the tool to know how it’s called). The parameter’s variable is the test user ID provided by TestingTime (--PARTICIPANTID--). The parameter needs to be added at the end of the public link (study link provided by the tool) in the order form. As an example, if the parameter name in your survey tool is userID the public link will look as following:
www.exampletool.com/w23iou2?userID=--PARTICIPANTID--

You are not permitted to request the test users’ contact information (e.g. email, phone number, last name etc.), nor are you permitted to give any type of incentive (e.g., gift cards), as this is covered by the incentive payment.

While we work with all online tools, we recommend using a tool that provides a completion link for best results. Typical tools include RapidUserTests, Loop11, SurveyMonkey, OptimalWorkshop, Typeform, Google Forms, etc.