Telephone Surveys
Telephone Surveys Overview
For the last decade telephone interviews were probably the most common form of market research. This is a market research methodology that hasn't really kept up with technology, although it still has it's strengths for certain types of research. As everyone has continued to cram more into their lives, they have also become more protective of the few hours that they have at home to relax, and are much less likely to agree to give away some of their time to some unknown person on the phone. This isn't to say that phone interviews don't take place anymore, they still do, but the response rates have continued to decline (which means that market research firms have to place more phone calls before they find a person who is willing to answer the survey questions.)
The way that telephone interviews work is that there are banks of call agents, with a PC in front of them that automatically anticipates when the next call agent should finish, and as soon as the call ends it already has the next potential respondent online and he/she beeps into the available agent's headset and the computer screen changes to the first questions to be asked. As interviewer (who are often college students working part time) gets an answer from the respondent the press the appropriate keys he screen switches to the next question and the interviewer starts all over again. That's the simple process that takes place for telephone interviews. The answers are put in a database and when the quota is met, the data file is sent to a person with some statistical training and the analysis begins and a couple of weeks later the draft report is delivered to the person who commissioned the study.
Telephone Survey Training
In general conducting telephone interviews is typically the first step for a person wanting to get into the market research world. However, there are telephone interviews with higher level respondents (large company officers, attorneys, doctors) in which more seasoned interviewers handle the discussions. Most of the time when you talk about an "executive interviewer" it's more of a discussion about a certain product category or an unaddressed business need - something that's too complex to be handled by a rigid questionnaire and a relatively unseasoned interviewer. In this case you'll usually get the same type of researcher who would manage a focus group or other more challenging research projects.
Telephone Surveys Pros
- Telephone Interviews allow a great deal of detail as there is only one respondent, and most Telephone Interviews last for 30 to 60 minutes - although keeping someone on the phone for an hour means that you're either offering a significant incentive or the topic is something that the respondent is really interested in.
- There is less pressure on the respondent to consider whether their answers are socially acceptable as they only have the interviewer on the phone with him/her (unlike focus groups where these considerations may tend to play a larger role.)
Telephone Surveys Cons
- The cost of an opinion falls somewhere in the middle of market research costs - depending on how hard the respondent is to find.
- There are certain sensitive issues (personal or otherwise) that may not get the most candor, simply because the respondent doesn't want to admit certain things directly to a complete stranger, especially if the call is being recorded.
Telephone Surveys Timing
A single interviewer can easily conduct a dozen interviews in a single day, so telephone interviewing can go pretty quickly, especially if they have a good list of qualified respondents. That means that the fielding of a series of Telephone Interviews can take one to two weeks and when you add planning time, time to go through the results and put together a presentation, a single region telephone interviews project may take 5 to 10 weeks depending on how strict the qualification criteria is, and how good of a list can be purchases.
Special Considerations
Telephone Interviews are very good for sensitive topics (personal or professional sensitivities) and people may discuss things that they wouldn't be willing to discuss in a focus group full of 6 or 8 complete strangers. For example I know that one of major companies that sell drugs for male impotence conducted a number of Telephone Interviews to understand how to advertise their drugs.
