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Telephone

1 December, 2015 - 09:16

Trained interviewers call potential respondents on the telephone, often through random / automated dialing, and ask them a set of survey questions.

Advantages:

  • lower cost than face-to-face

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  • non-response rate is relatively low because interviewers can keep calling back until the respondent is home
  • interviewers can collect a large amount of data in a short time

Disadvantages:

  • some portions of the population do not have access to a telephone
  • increasing numbers use a mobile phone exclusively and FCC rules say that automated dialing to mobile phones is illegal
  • many respondents are suspicious of telephone interviews, consider them a sales pitch
  • long or complicated questions are inappropriate over the phone
  • increasing numbers of people have put themselves on federal “do not call” lists that prohibit researchers from calling

Evaluating telephone interview survey data:

  • Were the questionnaire and individual questions appropriately brief?
  • Were the telephone banks staffed in a central location? (Telephone interviewers who work from home are subject to less supervision, obviously)
  • What instructions were the interviewers given about who in the household they should interview?