CONSUMER PULSE WITH A VERY HEALTHY BEAT! (consumerpulse.co.uk)

Member Name: hazydaze123

Product:	consumerpulse.co.uk
Date:	06/03/09 (406 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Points build up quickly; good choice of gift vouchers

Disadvantages: You have to wait to be invited to join

A widely used phrase at the moment seems to be "in the current economic downturn". It's a well known fact at the moment that many of us have to consider very carefully whether we are able to afford to treat ourselves to that extra little something whilst out shopping. Well, my motto in life is "always look on the bright side". I take advantage of each and every opportunity to either earn a little bit of cash, or alternatively, lay my hands on some nice juicy shopping vouchers where I can buy something for me, rather than everyday items like food and household products. Well, I decided long ago that I was never going to make a fortune writing reviews and answering online surveys, but I have found a way in which I can earn some very useful gift vouchers and spoil myself on quite a regular basis.

Somewhere half way through 2008, I registered with a market research company called TNS, a name which I am sure many readers will be familiar with. The company provides marketing information to numerous companies within the UK, and uses various panels, comprising a broad section of people, to furnish them with information on their regular shopping habits. TNS use various methods of obtaining this information, including Shop and Scan, where members scan their weekly food shop and transfer the information to TNS via their computer. However, the service I am reviewing, Consumer Pulse, is a little less time consuming than Shop and Scan, and involves the panel member, i.e. me, simply recording non-food purchases and sending the information through to the company via their website.

~~~GETTING STARTED~~~

To apply to join Consumer Pulse, you have to register with TNS directly. Unfortunately, becoming a member is by invite only, so once you register your details with TNS, you are asked to state which of their panels you are interested in joining. If you are one of the lucky ones to be chosen, Consumer Pulse will send you an invitation via e-mail with a link to their site. Before getting started, new members are required to complete a short questionnaire detailing basic information such as name, address, e-mail address, and how many people live in your household. The advantage of this panel is that you can also choose to record items purchased for other members within your household, in addition to items bought for yourself. Therefore, you will earn more points than you would if you only 'purchased' for yourself! I would add at this point that you can get away with a certain amount of cheating in this respect. For example, if my husband purchased two or three things for himself, I could log them down as if I had purchased them on his behalf. I am sure the company are aware that this happens, but none of the items I have purchased on someone else's behalf have ever been declined.

Once you have completed and submitted the questionnaire, you receive a further e-mail confirming that you are now free to begin recording your shopping.

~~~ENTERING YOUR SHOPPING~~~

Once you have logged in, you are taken straight to the Home Page. From here, you are required to follow a link which is easily recognised by the symbol of a red shopping bag. Incidentally, the red shopping bag is available to click on via any of the pages within the site, so you do not have to be on your Home Page to access it.

The shopping page itself is broken down into six categories, with various sub-categories within each one. The categories are as follows:-

Clothes - outerwear
(Dresses, Babywear, Footwear, Sportswear etc.)

Clothes - underwear
(Boys, Girls, Women & Men)

Entertainment
(Books, DVD', Cinema Visits, Music Downloads etc.)

Phones & Accessories
(Airtime bought, Sim Cards, Pay a Phone Bill)

Health & Beauty
(Skincare, Fragrances, Cosmetics etc.)

Beauty Treatment (provided by a beauty professional)
(Nail Care, Body Treatments, Piercing etc.)

It is your own personal choice how often you complete your shopping record. You can keep all the information to one side and send it through on a weekly basis, or like me, log everything down as soon as you have purchased it so that you don't run the risk of forgetting something.

So, to record your items of shopping, you simply click on the relevant category. Here, you are required to confirm how many of this particular item you purchased. Once you have gone through the list of categories and completed all the relevant items, a separate page automatically opens referring to the first item of shopping you recorded. Here, you must fill in precise details of that particular item. For example, if I was logging in a pair of shoes, the general points required to be noted down are:-

Range (i.e. boy's, men's)
Type of shoes
Date purchased
Colour
Size
Bought for school or home
Brand name
How many were purchased
Total price
Where did you pay for it (i.e. shop, online)
Name of shop
Was the item on offer
Who was it bought for
Material

This process is then repeated for each individual item you have purchased.

Looking at the page itself, initially, you think that there is an awful lot of information required. However, it's not as painful or time consuming as it sounds. Each piece of information is simply a tick box, with the exception of the name of the shop, where you have to add this in manually.

In cases where you have purchased an item for someone who is not on your list of household members, you are required to click on the option marked 'other', in which case, you are simply asked whether the item is for a male or female, and the age of that person. This is so that the company can ascertain the group of people for whom this particular type of product was purchased.

~~~EARNING POINTS~~~

It is exceptionally easy to earn points on Consumer Pulse. You are even awarded free points when you join.

So, you are ready to enter your weekly shopping items. Each item you enter earns you 500 Consumer Pulse points. In other words, you are getting 50p per item. However, although you are asked to enter all relevant items purchased, you are only awarded 500 points for the first twenty items entered from the beginning of each month. Fortunately, I find that I don't usually buy more than twenty categorised items within the space of a month. Although I have never really had cause to do it, I am sure that some people with a higher shopping count could quite easily carry some items over to the next month so that they earn points on everything! Moi - not guilty!

I would add that you are also awarded 500 points per week, whether you are recording purchases or not. For example, if you have not purchased anything during the space of a week, which is very possible, you simply go through the list and click on 'no new purchases'. Although you will not be awarded any shopping points, you will still receive your 500 points just for 'checking out'. Can't be bad!

~~~BONUSES~~~

In addition to receiving points for your shopping, Consumer Pulse also offer bonus points. In January, I received an extra 500 points on my birthday. Now and then (though not very often in my case) I have received some simple questionnaires via the site which have related to anything from t.v. viewing preferences to other shopping habits. The points earned for these extra questionnaires can vary, but the minimum is usually 500.

~~~'YOUR PULSE'~~~

This section of the website is basically a newsletter, but includes additional items such as polls, members' top tips, quizzes and general information updates on the site.

~~~SO, WHAT REWARDS DO YOU GET?~~~

As I mentioned earlier, each item of shopping registered will earn you 500 Consumer Pulse points. Once you reach 10,000 points, which often takes hardly any time at all, this can then be converted into £10.00 and you are free to claim your reward. You can request vouchers for any amount in multiples of ten. Rewards can be in the form of either a donation to a charity, or gift vouchers, which is the option I usually choose. The gift vouchers are broken down into three separate types:

High Street
Travel and Experience
Entertainment

Gifts include Thomas Cook, Virgin, Marriott, Beefeater, Amazon, Hmv, Alton Towers, Chessington, The London Dungeon, plus many high street shops like Debenhams, Next, W H Smith, Waterstones, Burton, and absolutely tonnes more! My only gripe is that they haven't yet started to offer M&S vouchers!

To claim your vouchers, it's a very quick click on the link and make your choice. In my experience, vouchers can take up to about ten days to arrive, but I have never not received any of my orders from them.

~~~HAS IT BEEN SUCCESSFUL FOR ME?~~~

Absolutely! I have been a member of Consumer Pulse for well over six months now and, thinking back, have probably earned in the region of £100 in gift vouchers. I have bought things that I probably would have delayed until I really needed it. For example, just before Christmas, I purchased a very smart black raincoat from Debenhams for £45. Nowadays, I tend to spend most of my spare cash on my four year old son, so it made a very nice change to be able to treat myself to something that I liked, rather than needed.

I must admit that, when I first became a member, I wasn't sure how long I would continue with filling in my purchases every week. I thought I would get bored with it all and give up. But, as yet, I am still enjoying the whole process and find it quite exciting watching those points build up .

As mentioned earlier, the only drawback to this site is the fact that you cannot just 'join'. You have to wait to be invited by Consumer Pulse. Their own website freely states "Please note at present it is not possible to ask to join the panel, the panel is by invite only and invites cannot be requested. Also we do not allow any referrals".

~~~FINALLY, WOULD I RECOMMEND?~~~

Most definitely. If you are lucky enough to receive an invite to join the panel, I would say don't hesitate. For just a few minutes of your time each week, it's amazing how quickly points can build up, especially over Christmas time when you are buying presents and have extra items to record!

Finally, I would just like to say good luck to anyone who applies to join Consumer Pulse, and thanks for reading this review.

To apply, contact: www.volunteer4panels.com

Also on Ciao (matthewsmum)

Summary: A great way to earn some good shopping vouchers