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Chapter 10
Survey Research: Communicating with Respondents
AT-A-GLANCE
I. Interviews as Interactive Communication
A. Noninteractive media
II. Personal Interviews
A. Advantages of personal interviews
Opportunity for feedback
Probing complex answers
Length of interview
Completeness of questionnaire
Props and visual aids
High participation
B. Disadvantages of personal interviews
Interviewer influence
Lack of anonymity of respondent
Cost
C. Door-to-door interviews and shopping mall intercepts
Door-to-door interviews
Callbacks
Mall intercept interviews
D. Global considerations
III. Telephone Interviews
A. Mobile phone interviews
B. Phone interview characteristics
Speed
Cost
Absence of face-to-face contact
Cooperation
Incentives to respond
Representative samples
Callbacks
Limited duration
Lack of visual medium
C. Central location interviewing
D. Computer-assisted telephone interviewing
E. Computerized voice-activated telephone interview
F. Global considerations
IV. Self-Administered Questionnaires
A. Mail questionnaires
Geographic flexibility
Cost
Respondent convenience
Anonymity of respondent
Absence of interviewer
Standardized questions
Time is money
Length of mail questionnaire
B. Response rates
C. Increasing response rates for mail surveys
Cover letter
Money helps
Interesting questions
Follow-ups
Advance notification
Survey sponsorship
Other techniques
Keying mail questionnaires with codes
D. Global considerations
V. Self-Administered Questionnaires Using Other Forms of Distribution
A. Fax surveys
B. E-mail surveys
C. Internet surveys
Speed and cost-effectiveness
Visual appeal and interactivity
Respondent participation and cooperation
Representative samples
Accurate real-time data capture
Callbacks
Personalized and flexible questioning
Respondent anonymity
Response rates
Security concerns
D. Kiosk interactive surveys
E. Survey research that mixes modes
F. Text-message surveys
VI. Selecting the Appropriate Survey Research Design
VII. Pretesting
VIII. Ethical Issues in Survey Research
LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Summarize ways researchers gather information through interviews
2. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of conducting door-to-door, mall intercept, and telephone
interviews
3. Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of distributing questionnaires through the mail, the
Internet, and by other means
4. Discuss the importance of pretesting questionnaires
5. Describe ethical issues that arise in survey research
CHAPTER VIGNETTE: Mobile Surveys Catching On, and Catching
Respondents “On the Go”!
Mobile surveying technologies now integrate SMS text messaging (“texting”) with electronic surveys.
Respondents answer single or multiple choice questions, or even provide open-ended responses to
questions. These “instant feedback” types of survey responses can have many different business
applications. Researchers interested in experiential surveying use mobile surveys to capture people’s
feelings at that particular instant, and thus can create a longitudinal understanding of people’s attitudes
and emotional states over time.
SURVEY THIS!
How would you classify the survey you participated in as part of this class? Which approach did it use?
What media type was involved? What do you think the response rate for this survey is? Students are
instructed to e-mail the survey link to 10 friends not taking this class. How many actually responded?
What factors of this survey contribute to either a relatively high or relatively low response rate?
RESEARCH SNAPSHOTS
Being Good Neighbors Means Learning About Them First
In 2004-2005, students from a community college engaged in a service learning project and
captured information from an often missed demographic in our society—the elderly. They
established a door-to-door survey of older adults, and their hard work led to the inclusion of
elderly adult needs as part of the Good Neighbor Initiative, which included programs for literacy,
hunger, homelessness, and health. Without going from house to house, it may not have been
possible for the community to capture the specific needs of this important population in their city.
Automated Phone Surveys of Teens
Computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) and computerized self-interviewing, in which
the subjects listen to prerecorded questions and then respond by entering answers with the
telephone’s keypad, have been used to ask teens potentially sensitive questions. For example,
teens were more likely to say they had smoked or lack a firm commitment not to smoke in the
future using this method. However, when a parent was present, their responses were less likely to
indicate smoking desire or susceptibility. This suggests that teens might be underreporting their
smoking behavior.
Mixed Mode Data Collection: The Case of Web and Telephone Surveys
While the advantages in time and cost efficiencies of Internet-based surveys are apparent, a major
criticism is the low response rate. This gives rise to the question, “Would the information
provided by sample members that did not respond to the web survey differ from that provided by
web survey respondents?” Research investigated this using a “sequential mixed-mode data
collection” procedure that compared web-based surveys and telephone surveys of
nonrespondents. While response rates were much higher for telephone the telephone survey,
comparison of the responses revealed very few significant differences. It appears that web-based
surveys are not only fast and cost-effective, they provide the same information as the far more
costly telephone surveys.
OUTLINE
I. INTERVIEWS AS INTERACTIVE COMMUNICATION
Human interactive media are a personal form of communication.
Electronic interactive media allow businesses to reach a large audience, personalize
individual messages, and interact using digital technology.
Largely controlled by the users themselves.
No other human need be present.
The Internet is radically altering many organizations’ research strategies, being the prominent
form of new electronic interactive media.
Electronic interactive media also include DC-ROM and DVD materials, touch-tone telephone
systems, touch-screen interactive kiosks in stores, and other forms of digital technology.
Noninteractive Media
Self-administered questionnaires printed on paper are noninteractive.
Less flexible than surveys using interactive communication media.
II. PERSONAL INTERVIEWS
A personal interview is a form of direct communication in which an interviewer asks
respondents questions face-to-face.
This versatile and flexible method is a two-way conversation between interviewer and
respondent.
Advantages of Personal Interviews
Opportunity for Feedback
Offer the lowest chance that respondents will misinterpret questions because the
interviewer can clarify the instruction or questions.
Probing Complex Answers
Although interviewers are expected to ask questions exactly as they appear on the
questionnaire, probing allows them some flexibility.
Personal interviews vary in the degree to which questions are structured and in
the amount of probing required.
Personal interview is especially useful for obtaining unstructured information.
Length of Interview
General rules of thumb:
Mails surveys should not exceed 6 pages.
Telephones interviews should not exceed 10 minutes.
Personal interviews can be much longer (i.e., 1 ½ hours).
Should be clear about how long participation should take when requesting
participation.
Online surveys should include a completion meter that shows a respondent’s
progress.
Completeness of Questionnaire
The social interaction between a well-trained interviewer and a respondent
increases the likelihood that the respondent will answer all of the items on the
questionnaire.
Item nonresponse – failure to provide an answer to a question—is least likely to
occur when an experienced interviewer asks questions directly.
Props and Visual Aids
Face-to-face interviews allow the showing of new product samples, sketches of
proposed advertising, or other visual aids.
High Participation
Presence of an interviewer generally increases the percentage of people willing to
complete the interview.
All respondents have to do is talk.
Disadvantages of Personal Interviews
Interviewer Influence
Some evidence suggests that demographic characteristics of the interviewer
influence respondents’ answers.
Differential interviewer techniques may be a source of bias (i.e., tone of voice,
appearance).
Lack of Anonymity of Respondent
Because a respondent is not anonymous, researchers often spend considerable
time and effort to phrase sensitive questions to avoid social desirability bias.
Cost
Personal interviews are expensive.
Cost is influenced by:
geographic proximity of respondents
length and complexity of the questionnaire
number of people who are nonrespondents because they could not be
contacted
Door-to-Door Interviews and Shopping Mall Intercepts
Door-to-Door Interviews
Because door-to-door interviews increase the participation rate, they may provide
a more representative sample of the population than mail questionnaires.
Can reach people who do not have telephones, who have unlisted numbers, or
who are otherwise difficult to contact.
May underrepresent some groups and overrepresent others based on the
geographic area covered.
May exclude individuals who live in multiple-dwelling units with security
systems or executives who are too busy to participate.
Some people simply will not open the door when a stranger knocks.
Becoming a thing of the past.
Callbacks
Callbacks, or attempts to recontact individuals selected for the sample, are the
major means of reducing nonresponse error.
Important in door-to-door interviews because not-at-home individuals (e.g.,
working parents) may systematically vary from those who are at home (e.g.,
nonworking parents, retirees).
Mall Intercept Interviews
Personal interviews conducted in shopping malls are referred to as mall
intercept interviews, or shopping center sampling.
Typically intercept shoppers at a central point within the mall or at an entrance.
Costs are lower.
No travel is required.
Can be conducted quickly.
A major problem is that individuals usually are in a hurry to shop, so refusal is
high (i.e., around 50%).
More conducted than door-to-door interviews.
Researcher must recognize that he or she is not looking for a representative
sample of the total population.
Can show large, heavy, or immobile visual materials (e.g., television
commercial).
Can give an individual a product to take home to use and contact later by phone.
Appropriate when a consumer durable product must be demonstrated.
Global Considerations
Willingness to participate in a personal interview varies dramatically around the world.
In many Middle Eastern countries, women would never consent to be
interviewed by a man.
In some countries, discussing grooming behavior and personal-care products with
a stranger would be highly offensive.
Norms about appropriate business conduct also influence businesspeople’s
willingness to provide information to interviewers (e.g., Japanese managers will
not conduct interviews during business hours due to responsibility to oversee
their employees while on the job).
III. TELEPHONE INTERVIEWS
The mainstay of commercial survey research for decades.
Quality of data may be comparable to that of data collected in personal interviews.
Respondents are more willing to provide detailed and reliable information on a variety of
personal topics than they are with personal interviews.
Cellphone adoption and no-call laws limit the ability to generate a representative sample.
Mobile Phone Interviews
In the U.S., no telemarketing can be directed toward mobile phone numbers by law.
Respondents have to “opt-in” before their phone number would be made available for
such calls.
The recipient of a mobile phone call is even more likely to be distracted than the recipient
of a home or office call.
The area codes for mobile phones are not necessarily tied to geography, so a researcher
may be unable to determine whether or not a respondent fits into the desired geographic
sampling population simply by taking note of the area code.
The phones have varying abilities for automated responses and differing keypads.
Phone Interview Characteristics
Speed – hundreds of interviews can be collected literally overnight.
Cost – estimated to be less than 25 percent of the cost of door-to-door personal
interviews; travel time and costs are eliminated.
Absence of Face-to-Face Contact – respondents may answer embarrassing or
confidential questions more willingly, but interviewer and respondent cannot see each
other, resulting in a greater tendency for interviewers to record no answers and
incomplete answers than in personal interviews.
Cooperation
Telephone response rates have been falling due to caller ID and answering
machines used to screen calls as well as more phone lines dedicated to fax
machines and computers.
It is illegal in the U.S. for researchers to contact anyone who would have to pay
for the call (i.e., cellphones).
Incentives to Respond – respondents should receive some incentive to respond.
Representative Samples – practical difficulties complicate obtaining representative
samples based on listings in the telephone book.
Well over 95% of U.S households have land-line telephones.
People without phones are likely to be poor, aged, rural, or living in the South.
People have unlisted phone numbers for two reasons:
they have moved recently
by choice
Random digit dialing eliminates the counting of names in a list and subjectively
determining whether a directory listing is a business, institution, or legitimate
household.
Callbacks – an unanswered call, a busy signal, or a respondent who is not at home
requires a callback, which is much easier to make than callbacks in personal interviews.
Limited Duration – respondents who run out of patience can hang up.
Lack of Visual Medium – medium is not appropriate if need to show respondent
something (i.e., package, advertisement) or if using certain attitude scales and measuring
instruments (i.e., semantic differential that requires the respondent to see a graphic scale).
Central Location Interviewing
Central location interviewing allows firms to hire a staff of professional interviewers
and to supervise and control the quality of interviewing more effectively.
Can benefit from cost economies.
Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing
Computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) allows response to telephone
interviews to be entered directly into the computer by the interviewer.
Telephone management systems select phone numbers, dial the numbers automatically,
and perform other labor-saving functions, such as generating an automatic callback
schedule.
Researchers can request daily status reports on the number of completed interviews
relative to quotas.
Interviews can also be conducted by a pre-recorded voice with the respondent answering
by punching buttons on the phone.
Computerized Voice-Activated Telephone Interview
Allows researchers to conduct telephone interviews without human interviewers.
Works best with very short, simple questionnaires.
Entire data collection process can be automated because a recorded voice is used to both
ask the questions and record answers.
Global Considerations
Different cultures have different norms about proper telephone behavior.
Latin American businesspeople will not open up to strangers on the telephone.
Japanese respondents consider it ill-mannered if telephone interviews last more
than 20 minutes.
