At the very core of Respondent is quality, verified, legitimate participants that spend their time, effort, and knowledge contributing to our platform through research studies. At a time where Artificial Intelligence (AI), security, privacy, and human interaction are front of mind, we lean on advanced phone number and email verification to help confirm and approve participant accounts.
Phone Number Verification will come via SMS text messages (standard text messaging rates do apply) and will require actioning and confirmation via that automated text message.
Email Address Verification has two main parts, tied to two different parts of your participant profile.
First, your primary email address will be verified when you join, confirming your account and confirming your login details (your login and Tremendous virtual gift card payments will be tied to this email address). Verifying your primary personal Email address and your phone number will enable you to take "B2C" or "general population" studies on the platform.
Second, is work email (or professional email) verification. This is an additional email verification that specifically looks at your work/professional email with a unique business domain (this means @gmail, @aol, @hotmail, @yahoo, @protonmail, etc. domains that are standard and consumer grade will not be accepted). Verifying your work or professional email, in addition to your personal email and phone number, will enable you to "B2B" or "verified industry professional" studies on the platform.
We will send a verification email to your business email address every ninety (90) days to re-verify that it is active. Other than these verification emails, we will not email your work email and we will not use it for marketing material, alerts, or follow up communication unless the same address is also used as your primary registration email on the platform.
What if I am having issues verifying my Email address?
If you are unable to verify your email address, please troubleshoot as you would a normal email related issue. Ensure you are connected to the network, internet, or Wi-Fi, ensure you are receiving other emails from other senders, and check your spam, junk, and trash folders for missed messaged.
For security, privacy, and authenticity reasons, we are unable to manually approve, verify, or "push through" email address verifications (this includes both personal and work email addresses).
What if I am having issues verifying my phone number?
If you are having issues verifying your phone number, or if the verification SMS text message is not delivering to your device, please try the following troubleshooting steps:
Ensure your device is connected to the cellular network and/or Wi-Fi and that you are not on Airplane Mode, roaming or data roaming, or disconnected from the network.
Verify that your device and/or cellular carrier is not blocking unknown phone numbers, and that you do not have unknown numbers filtered to a "spam" or "junk" messaging folder than may not be pushing an alert to your device.
Try reaching out to your cellular carrier directly, and/or resetting your devices Network Settings. As a good practice, you will want to ensure you have a data backup of all important information on your cellular device before resetting your Network Settings.
Ensure that your cell phone number and cell phone service are with traditional cellular carriers, and not internet-based phone providers, Voice over IP (VOIP) carries, Google Voice, or similar services. We do not verify phone numbers tied to nontraditional or internet based carries.
Are you located in a country or region where SMS based verification text messages are blocked by local, state, or federal governments, or where participant in such a service is against the law? If so, we will be unable to verify your phone number.
For security, privacy, and authenticity reasons, we are unable to manually approve, verify, or "push through" phone numbers or SMS verifications.
Phone Number and Email Verification FAQs:
Question: I am unable to receive or verify my phone number and/or email address. Can you do it manually for me? Can you override this verification?
Answer: For security, privacy, and authenticity reasons, we are unable to manually approve or override SMS phone verifications or email verifications (for personal or work email addresses). Unfortunately, if you are unable to verify your phone number and/or email address, we will be unable to complete your participant account creation at this time.
Question: My work does not offer a dedicated professional email address, and I do not have one to verify. What can I do?
Answer: You are welcome to continue using the Respondent platform with your primary personal email address, which will still enable you to participate as a "B2C" participant in "general population" studies. Down the road, you can add and verify a work email at anytime to open up "B2B" studies!
Question: I am a small business owner and/or a sole proprietor, or I work for a small business, and our work email is based on Gmail (or similar). Can I verify this email address for B2B participation?
Answer: If it has a unique domain that is tied to the business website, yes! This means that your work email cannot be @gmail , but instead matches the company website (Example: if the company website is "www.companyabc123.com" , your email address would need to me "yourname@companyabc123.com"). If your email address ends in @gmail, @yahoo, @aol, @msn, or similar, it cannot be used as a verified work email address.
Question: I do not have a unique business email, but I do have a LinkedIn and/or many years of experience in a specific field. Can we override the professional email verification as a result of my professional experience?
Answer: At this time, the only way to qualify for B2B Industry Professional studies is you have a verified business email connected to your Respondent participant profile. That said, we do use LinkedIn and experience data to match your profile to B2C studies, as applicable. We are actively looking into ways to incorporate LinkedIn verifications for B2B studies, and alternate verification measures, and we will announce those feature releases as they become available.
Question: I have tried everything you have listed in the article and still cannot verify my phone number through SMS (or, I am not receiving the SMS at all). Can you help?
Answer: Since we are unable to manually verify your phone number (or email address), we are unlikely to be able to help further in these situations. There are multiple variables as to why an SMS is not delivering to your phone, even if other messages come through without issue, and your best path of action is to contact your cellular carrier directly and/or wait a few days and try to verify your phone number again.
Question: I still have questions or issues with my phone number and email verification, what can I do?
Answer: Using the in-app chat functionality (small, blue chat bubble in the bottom right hand corner of the screen), reach out to our Support Team with you first name, last name, email address, and phone number in question and we will try to take a closer look!