Reserve participants, floaters and drop-outs

Even with confirmations and reminders, drop-outs can never be fully prevented. To keep your study on track, you can choose to include either reserve participants or floaters. For both, we recommend a ratio of one extra participant for every five regular participants.

Most customers schedule either reserves or floaters — not both. The main difference:

• A reserve attends a scheduled session and is only charged when the session actually takes place.
• A floater is kept on stand-by and is always charged in full, whether they are used or not.

What is a dropout?

A participant is considered a drop-out when one of the following situations occurs:

• Late arrival: The participant is more than 10 minutes late and you decide to cancel the session.
• Last-minute cancellation: The participant cancels less than 48 hours before the start of the study — for example, due to illness or other personal circumstances.
• No-show: The participant does not show up.
• Technical issue: The participant experiences a technical problem with their device and is unable to resolve it within 10 minutes.

No costs will be charged for drop-outs themselves.

Option 1 – Include reserve participants

A reserve participant is an extra participant who is fully scheduled into your study, alongside the regular participants. They attend their session as planned and act as a back-up in case another participant drops out.

How it works:

• If there are no drop-outs, you will be charged for all scheduled participants, including the reserves.
• If there are drop-outs, the cost of those sessions will be deducted from the invoice, or the corresponding credits will be refunded to your account.

Example: 5 participants + 1 reserve, no drop-outs

All 6 sessions take place as planned. You will be invoiced for all 6 sessions.

Example: 5 participants + 1 reserve, 1 drop-out

One regular participant drops out, but the reserve attends as planned. You end up with 5 completed sessions and will be invoiced for 5 sessions. The drop-out is not charged.

Option 2 – Include floaters

A floater is an extra participant who is recruited and kept on stand-by, but not scheduled into a fixed time slot. If a regular participant drops out, the floater can be contacted and is expected to join the session immediately.

Because floaters need to stay available for a longer period and be ready to participate on short notice, they receive a higher incentive than regular participants. The full cost of the floater — both the recruitment fee and the incentive — is always charged, regardless of whether the floater is ultimately used. You are paying for guaranteed availability.

How it works:

• If there are no drop-outs, the floater is not called in, but is still invoiced in full.
• If there is a drop-out and the floater steps in, the floater is invoiced in full. The drop-out itself is not charged.
• If there is a drop-out but the floater is unreachable or unable to join, no costs are charged for the floater. The drop-out itself is also not charged.

Option 3 - No reserves or floaters

You can also choose not to include reserves or floaters. In that case, we only recruit and schedule the regular participants. If drop-outs occur, you can decide after the final scheduled session how to proceed:

• Accept a lower sample size (n). The cost of the drop-out(s) will be deducted from the invoice, or the corresponding credits will be refunded to your account.
• Request replacement participants. User Sense will start a new recruitment round. Replacement sessions can be scheduled within our standard lead time of 5–10 working days. For managed service projects, project management costs are charged again for the additional recruitment round.

Example: 5 participants + 0 reserves/floaters, 1 drop-out

One participant drops out. This falls within the expected no-show rate of 1 in 5. You have two options:

• Accept 4 completed sessions. The drop-out is not charged.
• Request a replacement. For managed service projects, project management costs are charged again for the additional recruitment round, since the drop-out falls within the expected no-show rate.

What if drop-outs exceed the expected rate?

The expected no-show rate is 1 drop-out per 5 participants. If the number of drop-outs is higher than this rate, User Sense arranges replacement participants free of charge — including project management costs where applicable.

Example: 5 participants, 2 drop-outs

Two participants drop out, which is more than the expected 1 in 5. The first drop-out falls within the expected rate, but the second exceeds it. User Sense will arrange one free replacement participant to bring you back in line with the expected no-show rate. Replacement sessions can be scheduled within our standard lead time of 5–10 working days.

This applies regardless of whether you chose reserves, floaters, or neither.