Mail vs. Telephone Survey Approach - Which Methodology is Right?
Posted on March 11, 2010 in Featured-writers
by DSS Research
Mail and telephone survey approaches each have their niches where there are compelling reasons to use one methodology over the other:
• Mail surveys are used most frequently when surveying existing customers or some other group where the surveyor already has the names and addresses of the target respondents.
• Telephone surveys are most likely used to reach general consumers, or used in situations where fast turnaround times are required.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Each Approach
MAIL SURVEYS:
Advantages:
• Generally less expensive than telephone surveys
• No opportunity for interviewer bias
• Greater perceived anonymity by respondents may lead to more truthful answers on sensitive questions
• Respondents complete survey on their own time, when it is most convenient
• Respondents can examine entire survey to understand it's purpose before answering any questions
Disadvantages:
• Requires longer lead time to complete project
• Respondent can't ask questions or seek clarification on any issues
• Respondents can selectively answer some questions and skip others
• More difficult to obtain open-ended answers because of the extra labor required
• Can't customize survey to respondent's previous responses (no complicated skip patterns or prompting with previous answers)
• Illiteracy problems with some populations
• Lower response rates
• No control over who actually completes a survey
TELEPHONE SURVEYS:
Advantages:
• Higher response rates with trained interviewers encouragement
• Respondents can not look ahead to see what questions are coming next
• Questions or misunderstandings can be cleared up by interviewers
• Verbal comments are easier for most respondents than written ones
• Survey can be customized to prompt with answers to previous questions and use complicated skip patterns/logic
• With multi-lingual interviewers, you can adapt survey to preferred language of respondent
Disadvantages:
• Generally higher costs per completed interview
• Interviewers can bias responses based on verbal cues or voice inflections
• Difficult to ask personal or sensitive questions
• Answering machines, Caller ID, Call Blocking and other telecom services make reaching people by telephone more difficult each year
• Respondents more likely to give socially acceptable answers when speaking to another person
• Increasing skepticism of telephone surveys due to numerous telemarketing scams
How do I know which mode will produce the right results?
In examining the differences between the two modes in many studies over the years, we've discovered that:
• Studies show consistently higher satisfaction scores for the telephone approach. However, only about 30% of the average ratings are significantly different at the 95% confidence interval.
• Overall satisfaction measures like "overall quality of care" and "likelihood to recommend" are significantly higher in the telephone survey in every instance.
• More specific questions (e.g. satisfaction with the number of providers to choose from) are more likely to produce significantly higher results in the telephone survey than are intangible questions (e.g. satisfaction with thoroughness of treatment).
• Where statistically significant differences exist, the top two response categories (Excellent and Very Good, or Very Satisfied and Somewhat Satisfied) are inverses of each other. If 40% of telephone respondents gave an "Excellent" rating and 20% gave a rating of "Very Good", approximately 20% of mail survey respondents would say "Excellent" and 40% would say "Very Good."
In general, when making a decision to go with mail or phone or some combination of both, you need to use basic common sense and take into account previous experience conducting research with your customers.
Copyright© 2010 DSS Research. All rights reserved.
DSS Research is a national marketing research firm specializing in health insurance and health care. Over the past 27 years, DSS has conducted research and provided insight for health care organizations across the country. The firm's services include product development services, satisfaction research, brand analysis and strategy research, ad testing and tracking, market segmentation research and health risk assessment, giving DSS a high-level view of the evolving health care business. DSS employs more than 300 health care market research specialists.
To learn more about DSS Research, go to www.dssresearch.com.
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