Types of Surveys
Asking people questions is the essence of the survey approach. But what type of survey is best for a given situation? The non-Internet survey alternatives discussed in this chapter are door-to-door interviews, executive interviews, mall-intercept interviews, telephone interviews, self-administered questionnaires, and mail surveys.
Door-to-Door Interviews
Door-to-door interviews, in which consumers are interviewed in person in their homes, were at one time thought to be the best survey method. This conclusion was based on a number of factors. First, the door-to-door interview is a personal, face-to-face interaction with all the attendant advantages immediate feedback from the respondent, the ability to explain complicated tasks, the ability to use special questionnaire techniques that require visual contact to speed up the interview or improve data quality, and the ability to show the respondent product concepts and other stimuli for evaluation. Second, the participant is at ease in a familiar, comfortable, secure environment. Door-to-door interviews began a steep decline in the early 1970s and have now virtually disappeared altogether from the U.S. marketing research scene. The primary reason is the cost of paying an interviewer’s travel time, mileage, and survey time, as well as ever-rising refusal rates. The method is still used in some government research. For example, some of the most recent U.S. Census was done door-to-door. Door-to-door interviewing is also the most popular form of interviewingin many developing countries..
Executive Interviews
Marketing researchers use executive interviews as the industrial equivalent of door-to-door interviews. This type of survey involves interviewing businesspeople at their offices concerning industrial products or services. For example, if Hewlett-Packard wants information about user preferences for features that might be offered in a new line of office printers, it needs to interview prospective user-purchasers of the printers. It would thus be appropriate to locate and interview these people at their offices. This type of interviewing is expensive. First, individuals involved in the purchasing decision for the product in question must be identified and located. Sometimes lists can be obtained from various sources, but more frequently screening must be conducted over the telephone. A particular company may indeed have individuals of the type being sought, but locating them within a large organization can be expensive and time-consuming. Once a qualified person is located, the next step is to get that person to agree to be interviewed and to set a time for the interview. This is not usually as hard as it might seem because most professionals seem to enjoy talking about topics related to their work. Finally, an interviewer must go to the particular place at the appointed time. Long waits are frequent; cancellations are common. This type of survey requires highly skilled interviewers because they are frequently interviewing on topics they know little about. Executive interviews have essentially the same advantages and disadvantages as door-to-door interviews. More and more executive interviews are moving online.
Mall-Intercept Interviews
Mall-intercept interviews are still a common method for conducting personal interviews. This survey approach is relatively simple. Shoppers are intercepted in public areas of shopping malls and either interviewed on the spot or asked to come to a permanent interviewing facility in the mall. Approximately 350 malls throughout the country have permanent survey facilities operated by marketing research firms. An equal or greater number of malls permit marketing researchers to interview on a daily basis. Many malls do not permit marketing research interviewing, however, because they view it as an unnecessary nuisance to shoppers. Mall surveys are less expensive than door-to-door interviews because respondents come to the interviewer rather than the other way around. Interviewers spend more of their time actually interviewing and less of their time hunting for someone to interview. Also, mall interviewers do not have the substantial travel time and mileage expenses associated with door-to-door interviewing. In addition to low cost, mall-intercept interviews have many of the advantages associated with door-to-door interviews in that respondents can try test products on the spot.
However, a number of serious disadvantages are associated with mall-intercept interviewing. First, it is virtually impossible to get a sample representative of a large metropolitan area from shoppers at a particular mall. Even though malls may be large, most of them draw shoppers from a relatively small local area. In addition, malls tend to attract certain types of people, based on the stores they contain. Studies also show that some people shop more frequently than others and therefore have a greater chance of being selected. Finally, many people refuse mall interviews. In summary, mall-intercept interviewing cannot produce a good or representative sample except in the rare case in which the population of interest is coincident with or is a subset of the population that shops at a particular mall. Second, the mall environment is not always viewed as a comfortable place to conduct an interview. Respondents may be ill at ease, in a hurry, or preoccupied by various distractions outside the researcher’s control. These factors may adversely affect the quality of the data obtained. Even with all its problems, the popularity of mall-intercept interviews has declined only slightly in recent years.
Telephone Interviews
Until 1990, telephone interviewing was the most popular form of survey research. The advantages of telephone interviewing are compelling. First, telephoning is a relatively inexpensive way to collect survey data. Second, the telephone interview has traditionally produced a high-quality sample. Ninety-five percent of all Americans have some type of phone.Random-digit sampling, or random-digit dialing, is a frequently used sampling approach. The basic idea is simple: Instead of drawing a sample from the phone book or other directory, researchers use telephone numbers generated via a random-number procedure. This approach ensures that people with unlisted numbers and those who have moved or otherwise changed their telephone numbers since the last published phone book are included in the sample in the correct proportion. The huge disadvantage, as already noted, is the extremely low completion rate.
Predictive Dialing Today, random digit dialing has been merged with software to create predictive dialing. Predictive dialing gives interviewers more time for the actual interviews, since they are not dialing phone numbers; thus, it increases the efficiency of the interviewing process. The dialer automatically calls a number, screens the unnecessary calls such as answering machines and busy signals, then connects a waiting interviewer with a potential respondent. The software will prioritize recalls to meet a preset appointment time and deliver real-time reporting of numbers dialed and attempted, along with completed interviews.
Call Center Telephone Interviews Call center telephone interviews are conducted from a facility set up for that purpose. The reason for the popularity of call center phone interviews is fairly straightforward in a single word, control. First, the interviewing process can be monitored; most call center telephone interviewing facilities have unobtrusive monitoring equipment that permits supervisors to listen in on interviews as they are being conducted. Interviewers who are not doing the interview properly can be corrected, and those who are incapable of conducting a proper interview can be terminated.
Door-to-Door Interviews
Door-to-door interviews, in which consumers are interviewed in person in their homes, were at one time thought to be the best survey method. This conclusion was based on a number of factors. First, the door-to-door interview is a personal, face-to-face interaction with all the attendant advantages immediate feedback from the respondent, the ability to explain complicated tasks, the ability to use special questionnaire techniques that require visual contact to speed up the interview or improve data quality, and the ability to show the respondent product concepts and other stimuli for evaluation. Second, the participant is at ease in a familiar, comfortable, secure environment. Door-to-door interviews began a steep decline in the early 1970s and have now virtually disappeared altogether from the U.S. marketing research scene. The primary reason is the cost of paying an interviewer’s travel time, mileage, and survey time, as well as ever-rising refusal rates. The method is still used in some government research. For example, some of the most recent U.S. Census was done door-to-door. Door-to-door interviewing is also the most popular form of interviewingin many developing countries..
Executive Interviews
Marketing researchers use executive interviews as the industrial equivalent of door-to-door interviews. This type of survey involves interviewing businesspeople at their offices concerning industrial products or services. For example, if Hewlett-Packard wants information about user preferences for features that might be offered in a new line of office printers, it needs to interview prospective user-purchasers of the printers. It would thus be appropriate to locate and interview these people at their offices. This type of interviewing is expensive. First, individuals involved in the purchasing decision for the product in question must be identified and located. Sometimes lists can be obtained from various sources, but more frequently screening must be conducted over the telephone. A particular company may indeed have individuals of the type being sought, but locating them within a large organization can be expensive and time-consuming. Once a qualified person is located, the next step is to get that person to agree to be interviewed and to set a time for the interview. This is not usually as hard as it might seem because most professionals seem to enjoy talking about topics related to their work. Finally, an interviewer must go to the particular place at the appointed time. Long waits are frequent; cancellations are common. This type of survey requires highly skilled interviewers because they are frequently interviewing on topics they know little about. Executive interviews have essentially the same advantages and disadvantages as door-to-door interviews. More and more executive interviews are moving online.
Mall-Intercept Interviews
Mall-intercept interviews are still a common method for conducting personal interviews. This survey approach is relatively simple. Shoppers are intercepted in public areas of shopping malls and either interviewed on the spot or asked to come to a permanent interviewing facility in the mall. Approximately 350 malls throughout the country have permanent survey facilities operated by marketing research firms. An equal or greater number of malls permit marketing researchers to interview on a daily basis. Many malls do not permit marketing research interviewing, however, because they view it as an unnecessary nuisance to shoppers. Mall surveys are less expensive than door-to-door interviews because respondents come to the interviewer rather than the other way around. Interviewers spend more of their time actually interviewing and less of their time hunting for someone to interview. Also, mall interviewers do not have the substantial travel time and mileage expenses associated with door-to-door interviewing. In addition to low cost, mall-intercept interviews have many of the advantages associated with door-to-door interviews in that respondents can try test products on the spot.
However, a number of serious disadvantages are associated with mall-intercept interviewing. First, it is virtually impossible to get a sample representative of a large metropolitan area from shoppers at a particular mall. Even though malls may be large, most of them draw shoppers from a relatively small local area. In addition, malls tend to attract certain types of people, based on the stores they contain. Studies also show that some people shop more frequently than others and therefore have a greater chance of being selected. Finally, many people refuse mall interviews. In summary, mall-intercept interviewing cannot produce a good or representative sample except in the rare case in which the population of interest is coincident with or is a subset of the population that shops at a particular mall. Second, the mall environment is not always viewed as a comfortable place to conduct an interview. Respondents may be ill at ease, in a hurry, or preoccupied by various distractions outside the researcher’s control. These factors may adversely affect the quality of the data obtained. Even with all its problems, the popularity of mall-intercept interviews has declined only slightly in recent years.
Telephone Interviews
Until 1990, telephone interviewing was the most popular form of survey research. The advantages of telephone interviewing are compelling. First, telephoning is a relatively inexpensive way to collect survey data. Second, the telephone interview has traditionally produced a high-quality sample. Ninety-five percent of all Americans have some type of phone.Random-digit sampling, or random-digit dialing, is a frequently used sampling approach. The basic idea is simple: Instead of drawing a sample from the phone book or other directory, researchers use telephone numbers generated via a random-number procedure. This approach ensures that people with unlisted numbers and those who have moved or otherwise changed their telephone numbers since the last published phone book are included in the sample in the correct proportion. The huge disadvantage, as already noted, is the extremely low completion rate.
Predictive Dialing Today, random digit dialing has been merged with software to create predictive dialing. Predictive dialing gives interviewers more time for the actual interviews, since they are not dialing phone numbers; thus, it increases the efficiency of the interviewing process. The dialer automatically calls a number, screens the unnecessary calls such as answering machines and busy signals, then connects a waiting interviewer with a potential respondent. The software will prioritize recalls to meet a preset appointment time and deliver real-time reporting of numbers dialed and attempted, along with completed interviews.
Call Center Telephone Interviews Call center telephone interviews are conducted from a facility set up for that purpose. The reason for the popularity of call center phone interviews is fairly straightforward in a single word, control. First, the interviewing process can be monitored; most call center telephone interviewing facilities have unobtrusive monitoring equipment that permits supervisors to listen in on interviews as they are being conducted. Interviewers who are not doing the interview properly can be corrected, and those who are incapable of conducting a proper interview can be terminated.
No comments:
Post a Comment