Customer Insights Under Threat: The Data Quality Solution

Priscilla McKinney: Hello and welcome to Ponderings from the Perch, the little bird marketing company podcast. I'm Priscilla McKinney, your host as always and mama bird CEO over here. I have a wonderful guest with me today. Let me introduce you. This is Alexandrine de Monterra and she leads data quality initiatives. She leads global panel strategies and strategic partnerships for online sample provider full circle research. And I hope you would know them already if you've been in and around this industry. Great friends of mine, Alisa and Adam over there, but what an amazing leadership group. And with decades of experience, Alex leverages her background in panel management and research integrity to help protect and propel this company forward. They are truly an industry leader. It has been fun to listen to her on stages as we've met in many places all over the world. So I will give a little bit of context about where we just recently met, but welcome to the show, Alexandrine.

Alexandrine de Montera: Thanks, Priscilla. Thank you for having me. I'm very pleased to be here.

Priscilla McKinney: Yes, well, I'm even more excited that right after this podcast, you're jetting away to Paris. Okay, people, you can hate her later. You'll want to hear from her this time though. I was just so impressed. I just recently was able to catch you speaking at the Insights Association Ignite. I know we're going to talk about it a little bit more in the conversation as we get going, but just to give people some context of who you are and what you were doing, I just recently saw you on the stage with a couple of initials that are interesting, P and G and A and E. So these are a lot of letters, but very important ones. And it's really great to hear very specifics about ISO 20252. Again, we're going to talk about this a little bit more. So thank you so much for joining me. And I wanted to hear from a chief product officer because I think some of the products that are happening in sample and the scrutiny that they're getting is it's facing challenges, right? And so I'd love to hear from you as the Chief Product Officer at Full Circle Research. How have the shifts that you've seen recently in the industry really impacted the way you speak with clients about data quality and about trust? Because something's just been harder as of late.

Alexandrine de Montera: Yes, especially fairly recently. I want to say that over the past two years, we have seen a massive acceleration and concern around data quality, but the nature of that concern has actually changed. Previously, clients were focusing on feasibility on incident rates or costs, and data quality was sometimes a checkbox or something assumed to be handled. Today, it's really front and center. Clients are looking for defensibility. They're asking if they can rely on the data. If it's challenged by a stakeholder, they are asking if they can trust the respondent. If the respondent really exists, did this person actually see my ad or consume my product?

Priscilla McKinney: Yeah, these are really big questions. This to me seems like it would make your team really shift the focus. So what have you changed? What's been different as of late?

Alexandrine de Montera: So at Full Circle, we've shifted from talking about quality as a back-end function to making it a strategic differentiator. That means way more transparency about our sources, our cleaning protocols, and our use of tech. And that includes both what's automated and what still requires human oversight. Because AI and fraud detection, for example, are double-edged swords. AI can help us detect patterns upscale, but it can also be used by bad actors to generate good-looking bad data. And this is where human validation and manual spot checking remain essential.

Priscilla McKinney: Oh, I just love what you just said there. I'm going to underscore it. There's good-looking but still bad data out there. And I think that's really something that only someone who's been around the block a few times could really know about. So if clients are asking deeper questions and want that kind of transparency, what kinds of questions are they asking?

Alexandrine de Montera: Well, they have become way more curious and also way more cautious. And we also become educators. That consultative role built long-term trust and better outcomes for everyone involved. And so we're therefore now spending more time talking about proactive measures like link security, respondent validation, cleaning protocol, or source diversification.

Priscilla McKinney: And I heard you speaking about this ISO 20252 at length. So it seems like whether it's kind of what you're talking about, which is internal processes, or if there's external kind of governing body processes, you're having to have both of those conversations. Is that right?

Alexandrine de Montera: Yes, but we also need to talk about the limits of automation. Again, where a human eye is still essential, how AI can both support and threaten quality if left unchecked. And ultimately, all these shifts basically force us to become more transparent with our clients, not just about what we do, but what about what they can do, especially those who program their own surveys or purchase sample without embedded protection. And it's no longer enough to ask, well, how fast can I fill this? Or let's do it quickly. Now the question is, can I actually defend these insights if they're challenged?

Priscilla McKinney: Oh, that's a painful one. Like they're walking into the stakeholder meeting and their reputation is on the line and that is what is putting your reputation on the line as the sample provider. So I see this shift as very real. I feel a little bit sorry for you in that you're becoming a massive educator and I saw it on stage. Luckily you were joined by other thought leaders from those two companies and they really saw it as a major shift that needed to happen. But what I love about Full Circle is that you all saw it as an opportunity. So tell me more about that.

Alexandrine de Montera: Yes. So I just said the shift is real, but it's also a great opportunity because companies that are very proactive and transparent in their quality processes are not just staying compliant. They really are becoming preferred partners. And we've seen this with our existing clients and more and more new clients that come to us when they hear when I speak on stage at Ignite or at SampleCon. Again, we're ISO certified. We've been certified since 2014 and ISO certification, yes, means a lot of internal processes, but also means transparency. We're sharing with our annual third party auditor, everything we're doing. We're opening the hood. We're not hiding anything. And we're there now to also share it with our clients. And I think that's what they love because I think that for a very long time, a lot of sample partners have, did not wish to share anything. And I think that's Today, it's no longer acceptable for a sample supplier not to be transparent.

Priscilla McKinney: So we alluded to this at the beginning. You and I were standing in New York at Three World Trade Center, having really great conversations with really great business leaders about ISO 20252. And boom, the next day the news drops about a major Department of Justice indictment. So let me back that up a little bit and tell people about how you are on the board. You are a board chair actually of CERC, and that is the Certification Institute for Research Quality. This is a big deal because this is an outside third-party verification of who is getting certified. So as a board chair there, tell me a little bit about your thoughts of the impact of that OP4G and slice MR indictment and what that is doing to people's conversations about ISO 20252.

Alexandrine de Montera: Yes, let's be honest. The OP4D Slyte MR indictment did rock the industry. It exposed serious breaches in sourcing practices and due diligence. And when something like that happens, people naturally ask, well, how did this get past the system? And as chair of the CIRC board, I've heard those concerns firsthand. But it's critical to separate the failure to comply from the framework itself. ISO 20252, for example, isn't a silver bullet. It's a governance system, one that only works when it's actively implemented and monitored. And so the companies involved in that case had multiple opportunities to check their sourcing and stop contracting practices. What failed was not ISO, it was actually the lack of enforcement, the lack of auditing and perhaps most concerning, an internal culture. But here's where the story shifts from erosion to evolution. I've seen a sharp uptick interest in ISO, especially ISO 20252, again, which is the market research standard when Procter & Gamble went public to mandate that all their online quant suppliers must be ISO 20252 certified by July 1st, 2025. That was really a watershed moment. It signaled that one of the world's most respected brands is no longer willing to take quality on faith alone.

Priscilla McKinney: Yeah, which has been kind of surprising that they have this whole time, right?

Alexandrine de Montera: The reason why they did, by the way, is because they realized that what they were expecting from their online quant supplier were actually very similar to the ISO 20252 mandates what's inside this certificate. And so they said, well, the only difference between us, P &G, asking our suppliers to comply with all the lists that we have provided them, which they say, yes, we comply. The only difference between us giving them this list and them being ISO certified is that third party external audit that is actually telling any supplier or client using an ISO certified company that yes, what they claim is actually true. Those who adopt robust quality frameworks now will be far better positioned for what's coming. And honestly, it has opened up so many interesting conversations with clients with suppliers and just us at Full Circle, we've had since this whole indictment, we've had so many conversations with our clients, requested from our clients to expose basically all our fraud prevention measures. And those conversations have been honestly amazing. We're always extremely happy to share because we're very transparent. We don't have anything to hide. And so we're always extremely happy when clients ask for more transparency. Right. Because we're willing to give more transparency.

Priscilla McKinney: So you're in the thick of it, and I think everything that you know about this underscores the fact that we need to take action. So you have involvement in panels at SampleCon, the Insights industry, obviously, where I just saw you. I see you at IIEx. I see you all over. But tell me, when you are there and you're representing the voice of reason and the voice of practicality, what do you think that we need to do as an industry? What's the practical next steps forward?

Alexandrine de Montera: I think that the most pressing challenge that we face today is scale without sacrifice. We're being asked to move faster, to reach harder to find audiences, to stretch budgets further, all this without compromising on quality or ethics. And that tension between innovation and integrity is the core issue. So yes, I'm speaking to all these conferences, but I always hear the same theme over and over again. How do we keep up with the pace of technology? How do we ensure data quality across decentralized sourcing? How do we verify identity in a world of synthetic content and AI? And these aren't really abstract problems. They show up in real field work. Open ends that are clearly AI generated, respondent fraud at scale, and the mislabeling of sample source. And the damage is cumulative. Again, bad data leads to bad decisions.

Priscilla McKinney: Right. Well, we were talking about this earlier and you sent over to me four things that you think that we need to be doing and that we could really hone in on this podcast. The first thing was you mentioned that we need to share some defenses, like the industry needs to get together, have the right tools and the protocols to detect fraud and really have an understanding at a platform level and then take it all the way to the respondent and content level. So I love that. So number one, we've got to share some defenses. Number two, better buyer education. I see you and the whole team at Full Circle Research just going big for this. The third thing you mentioned was stronger collaboration. And I think you know that I love a good collaboration, wrote a book on it, love it. And I love really even seeing you collaborating with your clients from the stage in IA. And last thing you mentioned to me was that we just really have to be open to change. So tell me a little bit more about these things and the core challenges happening.

Alexandrine de Montera: I think that everyone is uncomfortable with change, but sadly, we don't have a choice but to remain open to this, which means experimenting, which means sharing learnings, and above all, staying rooted in the principle that high quality research is worth protecting, even if it takes more effort. The core challenge I see, and it's echoed across every panel and forum, is the following. How do we scale responsibly? Again, we're being asked to go faster, to reach more niche audiences, and meet increasingly complex demands. All while fraud is increasing, and attention spans of participants are decreasing.

Priscilla McKinney: I hear that from everybody who comes on the podcast. They are serving their client, but that client is under pressure. And it is what you mentioned at the very beginning, that consultative approach to say, wait a minute, hey, let's stop, let's think about this. I know we all need to go fast, but what are we gonna do to still get some quick insights, but being mindful of that quality? And I know we already talked about Ignite, what you presented there. And we will put in the show notes a link to that presentation for you. But tell me what you said at SampleCon this year and what that panel was about that you moderated.

Alexandrine de Montera: So at SampleCon this year, I talked about panel on innovation versus scale. And one thing became very clear. We all understand clients want innovation, but not at the expense of integrity. And the appetite for new approaches like lending panels, programmatic dealings, or synthetic data is real. But so is the anxiety about what's under the hood. Because again, everyone, yes, clients, agencies, they all have the pressure, but the pressure to deliver quick insight has also created what I would call a quality squeeze. And so unless we tackle it head on, the long-term credibility of an online research is at risk. So it really is, yes, we need to innovate. I mean, no industry survives without innovation, but it doesn't mean that we need to innovate without foolproofing everything that we're doing.

Priscilla McKinney: At any cost, right? Okay, so we need to wrap up here a little bit, but I wanted to ask you another question, and I hope I don't put you too much on the spot with this, but I am curious with so many people talking about transparency, with all of your years of experience, what does real transparency look like in the insight space, and how can companies build into their operations, but still not lose their competitive edge. And this is kind of referencing what you talked about, the quality squeeze, right? The insight squeeze. Well, let's bring that over. Like, how do you do it as a company? Let's be transparent, but we still need to be able to make money and be profitable and really showcase ourselves as competitively priced and also delivering amazing product at the end of the day.

Alexandrine de Montera: First of all, I would say that transparency doesn't mean that you're revealing your entire playbook. It just means giving your clients and partners confidence in how you operate. So in practice, it means naming your sources, not just saying these panels and exchanges, but providing details. What kind of panels? How are respondents recruited? Are they double-upped in, triple-upped in? What quality assurance measures do you have in place? It really means also documenting your cleaning rules. What flags be? How do you define straight lining or speeders or gibberish open ends? What would be your threshold for removal? It really means owning your limitations. No sample will ever be perfect. If your incidence rate dropped or you had to lose some quotas, it's okay to say so. Transparency about challenges build, I believe, because it shows that you're not hiding problems, you're actually managing them.

Priscilla McKinney: I love that. I love that. Now I've also heard you talk about traceability. So tell me a little bit about that as well.

Alexandrine de Montera: Well, traceability goes hand in hand with transparency. If one of our clients comes back six months later and asks, well, can you tell us where this respondent came from? We should be able to show that paper trail. And this is where standards like ISO 20252 really shine. They ensure that documentation and auditing aren't just occasional. They're really baked into the process.

Priscilla McKinney: I love that. Okay, but let's get to that nugget that I think really with your expertise, you can help us understand. So that sounds great, transparency, traceability. How do we do this and not give away our competitive edge?

Alexandrine de Montera: So I don't agree with the common fear that is if you're too transparent, you're giving away your competitive edge. I think it's the opposite. Real transparency actually attracts better clients. It reduces friction in QA conversations. It lets you focus on the strategy instead of defending your methodology. And in short, it builds long-term and high-value relationships. And increasingly, I think that buyers are now rewarding transparency. They're asking for it in RPs. They're building it into scorecards. And they're comparing notes across vendors. So the question is no longer should you be transparent, but how quickly can you get there?

Priscilla McKinney: I love that. I love that. And I do think you and I have talked about how this is such a pivotal moment in the market research industry. So with that in mind, what are some of your last words that you would say to this industry and your challenge, what we can do and what we should do?

Alexandrine de Montera: So I think that the decisions that we make now about quality standards and transparency will shape how our work is valued in the years to come. We have the tools, we have the framework. What we really need now is the collective will to use them consistently and courageously and to all come together and work together. In all the conferences I have been attending and I've been complaining about it every single year, to my peers is that everyone talks about the problem, but when asked the question, well, do you experience this problem? Everyone seems to minimize the problem and not really want to talk about it. And when someone finds a fix or a solution, it feels like they don't want to share it with the wider group because they still believe that it's their secret sauce and it is what will make the difference. I think it's the opposite. We all work in the same industry. We should all be doing the right thing. We should all be using the same best practices. And if someone finds a great way to attack a specific fraud, then let's share it with a wider group. I love that. At the end of the day, we all have the same client.

Priscilla McKinney: Exactly. And this is our future that we're all dealing with. But I want to point out one thing that you said very, very early on that you felt was missing and why this company got in so much trouble and why they should have gotten in so much trouble. And you said it really quickly in passing, but I want to underscore it. And that was that they didn't have a culture that would keep that kind of fraud from happening. I just want to say I love your leadership. And I think at Full Circle Research, there is that culture that says we are going to be excellent. We are going to side on being transparent, side on sharing the knowledge. And that case in point, when you moderate panels or you go up and talk about very openly your experience with ISO 20252 and bring your own clients, you're being vulnerable and saying, these are two of our very good clients. You're letting the whole industry know that. But yet you're able to help those clients get on stage and vocalize their concerns, their challenges, and help the entire industry understand what's really at stake here. Alexandrine, I really appreciate your leadership in this. I want to put in the show notes, your LinkedIn profile. Please reach out to her if you have questions. And then also, like I said, I will link a presentation that she did at Insights Association Ignite. I think it's just so appropriate for this conversation. And if you need to follow up with, you're gonna be glad you watched the video. Let me tell you that. So Alexandrine, thank you so much for joining us.

Alexandrine de Montera: Thank you so much for having me. It's really been a privilege to be part of this conversation.

Priscilla McKinney: From all the peeps at Little Bird Marketing, have a great day and happy marketing.