Costing Your Telephone Survey

For any telephone research study the cost elements can be broadly categorised as follows:

      1. Set-up
      2. Fieldwork
      3. Output

1 Set-up
Set-up costs do vary considerably, depending on a number of factors, such as complexity of questionnaire (which needs to be programmed onto a computer platform), or volume of calls (which impacts on staff administration). There may be Technical/Regulatory/Service Level requirements which will impact on costs, as may the amount of briefing/training required of our staff. We do have a policy of keeping set-up costs as low as possible.

2 Fieldwork
The 6 main elements influencing costs for fieldwork are, in decreasing significance:

  1. How easily the respondent can be contacted. [This includes the integrity of the data lists used for the study.]
  2. The relationship between the respondent and the commissioning client.
  3. Participation Incentives.
  4. The nature of the questionnaire (in terms of commercial sensitivity)
  5. The length of the questionnaire (For questionnaires of a longer duration it is usual to have to recruit participants for a particular day and time. This can have an impact on costs).
  6. Particular language, geographical and time zone requirements.

These 6 elements however dove-tail to the essential costing issue: how many completed interviews can be conducted per hour per research interviewer. When we put forward a quotation, we put our costs forward on a per completed interview basis – which gives you a fixed price.

A separate cost associated with fieldwork is that of data lists.

    • If the Client is providing the list of businesses we are to contact, this avoids additional costs. However, all costs that we put forward are based on the data lists provided to us having no more than 10% invalid telephone numbers. Where this percentage is exceeded, there can be additional costs imposed. This is an issue that is resolved prior to any fieldwork commencing so as to eliminate the need for re-costings.

    • Where PEXEL is requested to source data, we generally purchase more data than is required. The reason for this is (a) to enable us to put more interviewers on the project simultaneously and thereby enhance turnaround (b) to take into account interviewee respondents who either do not wish to participate in the study or are absent during the timeframe of the project. Data costs are, in most instances, relatively low.

3 Output
Data output costs can vary. The raw data file itself is free, and comes with a decode worksheet. This arrangement is ideal for clients who have their internal analysis team who can feed the data into SPSS, SNAP, or any other analysis tool.

However, even with raw data files there may be associated costs. The most likely instance of this is where the questionnaire has a number of open questions, from which subsequently you wish to code any shared verbatims. This can be a time-consuming task and you may find a cost if the questionnaire has a large component of such requirements.

If you require tabulation, you will need to specify the precise output (such as number of cross-tabs, and so forth). If you require a comprehensive report with complex analysis and charting, and presentation of the report to your colleagues, this will inevitably be more expensive than requesting standard tabulation or top-line summary report.

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