Telephone surveys

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A Telephone survey is survey conducted over the telephone system and is a flexible research method, particularly in consumer research

Aspects

• • use of interviewers encourages sample persons to respond, leading to higher response rates.
  • interviewers can increase comprehension of questions by answering respondents' questions.
  • fairly cost efficient, depending on local call charge structure
  • good for large national (or international) sampling frames
  • cannot be used for non-audio information (graphics, demonstrations, taste/smell samples)
  • three types:
    • traditional telephone interviews
    • computer assisted telephone dialing
    • computer assisted telephone interviewing
• Mail
  • response rate 5% - 30%^{[How to reference and link to summary or text]}
  • the questionnaire may be handed to the respondents or mailed to them, but in all cases they are returned to the researcher via mail.
  • cost is very low, since bulk postage is cheap in most countries
  • long time delays, often several months, before the surveys are returned and statistical analysis can begin
  • not suitable for very complex issues
  • no interviewer bias introduced
  • large amount of information can be obtained: some mail surveys are as long as 50 pages
  • response rates can be improved by using mail panels
    • members of the panel have agreed to participate
    • panels can be used in longitudinal designs where the same respondents are surveyed several times

See also

• Automated telephone survey
• Consumer surveys
• Mail surveys
• Questionnaires