Chapter summary

Interview modes: Personal-call-send

Survey information is obtained from respondents through communication in several alternative media
modes. Respondents may be interviewed in person, by telephone, or they may be sent a questionnaire.
Mail, FAX and the Internet surveys are similar in that non-personal self-reporting is involved.

Personal interviews interview consists of an interviewer asking questions of one or more respondents in
a face-to-face situation. The interviewer’s role is to get in touch with the respondent(s), ask the desired
questions, and record the answers obtained. Recording of the information may be done either during or
after the interview. In either case, it is the interviewer’s responsibility to ensure that the content of the
answers is clear, unambiguous and that information has been recorded correctly. The Problems with
personal interviews arise from its very nature in that it is a social interaction between strangers, often on
the respondent’s territory, initiated by an interviewer who may have little in common with the
respondent. The telephone interviews are often used in lieu of personal interviews, especially when
personal contact is desired, when the information must be collected quickly and inexpensively, and when
the amount of information required is relatively limited. Compared to e-mail or mail surveys, telephone
interviews often are costlier in terms of total costs of data collection. However, when cost is figured on a
per completed questionnaire basis, telephone interviews may be less costly than mail, but costlier than
e-mail. In addition, telephone surveys offer the opportunity to probe for clarification or further
information. The likelihood of the potential respondent refusing to be interviewed is always present when
starting a telephone interview. Telephone surveys are unique in that they allow the interviewer to
respond to the potential respondent and attempt to turn a refusal into a completed interview. The mail
interview questions provide great versatility at relatively low cost and are particularly cost effective when
included as part of a scheduled mailing. A questionnaire may be prepared and mailed to people in any
location at the same cost per person. Anonymity of Respondents remain intact while ethically-
questionable practice is employed. Timeliness of responses is critical in mail surveys. When designing a
survey, the researcher must consider issues that can affect response rate and data quality.

Online Nonprobability sample surveys, generally for entertainment or to create interest in a Web site,
are self-selected by the respondent from survey Web sites either for interest or compensation, or are
provided to members of volunteer panels. Probability based surveys allow the researcher to estimate the
effects of sampling error and thereby provide inferences about the target population through hypothesis
testing. Coverage errors, nonresponse errors, and measurement errors still apply and may reduce the
generalizability of the data. Online probability samples generally result where e-mail surveys are sent to
comprehensive lists that represent the target population. Mixed-mode designs provide another
alternative for the researcher, presenting respondents with a choice of responding via online survey or
via another mode. Respondents contacted by mall intercept, telephone, mail, or other probability-based
sampling mechanism, are given the opportunity to respond in several modes, including online. Pretesting
Surveys is an activity related to the development of the questionnaire or measurement instrument to be
used in a survey or experiment. In contrast, a pilot survey is a small-scale test of what the survey is to be,
including all activities that will go into the final survey. As new technologies continue to be developed,
they are tested for applicability in marketing research settings, and refined so that marketers are able to
better identify the needs and wants of today’s consumers.