Telephone surveys are one method market researchers use to collect information. Telephone surveys can be formal or informal and are used to interview both businesses and consumers. They are distinguished from telemarketing by the fact that the surveyor is not attempting to sell anything but is only gathering information. Some market researchers companies use telephone surveys to fill in missing information about consumers in their database. Information about the number of dependents, their ages, and other demographics is useful in target-marketing consumer groups.
The advantages of telephone surveys are they allow for quick collection of data, centralized control over data collection, and are less expensive than personal-interview surveys. Telephone-survey work is often contracted out to specialized companies with the equipment and expertise to conduct surveys. The survey questionnaire is loaded into computer software programs that allow interviewers to enter respondents’ answers directly into a database. Results can be tabulated and analyzed quickly with predetermined statistical measures generated from the database. More than 500 telemarketing and telephone-survey firms operate in the United States.
The disadvantages of telephone surveys are the limited amount of information that can be collected, consumer resistance to being questioned, unlisted numbers, and caller ID and message machines that can block calls. Telephone surveys frequently collect information from a disproportionate percentage of elderly consumers. If the target population of the survey is the general public, therefore, telephone surveys often are not representative.
While five minutes is typically the longest time for a telephone survey, with a well-organized survey, an interesting topic, a motivated interviewer, and sponsorship from a credible organization, surveys can be used to collect large amounts of information. A computer company once surveyed businesses to ask only the names of the people involved in making computer purchasing decisions. The company was acting on the buying-center concept—the fact that a number of people with a variety of interests would likely be involved in computer purchasing decisions.
While telephone surveys do not allow the use of visual materials or observation of respondents, they do provide a degree of anonymity for respondents and allow for some probing and follow-up questioning.
See also questionnaires.
Further reading
Pride, William O., and O. C. Ferrell. Marketing Concepts and Strategies, 12th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003.