Telephone Surveys

We conduct thousands of telephone surveys every month, from 5-minute recall surveys with television viewers, through to 45 minute depth interviews with factory plant managers overseas. We have also won acclaim for our telephone mystery shopping exercises.

PEXEL is becoming the first choice for a number of well known research agencies outsourcing their fieldwork. Our researchers are recognised as well above the industry standard, invariably of graduate and post-graduate calibre, and coming from a wide range of disciplines, whether medicine, law, business, technology, science, social science or engineering.

We run

Snapshot Surveys

Snapshot surveys consist of very short questionnaires, usually less than 10 minutes’ duration, and sometimes considerably less than that. Whilst they provide headline research their main disadvantage is that responses cannot be adequately probed or analysed for strength or consistency of opinion provided by the respondent.

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Depth Telephone Surveys

Depth surveys consist of questionnaires that can run anywhere from 10 minutes to 3 hours, although most depth surveys run somewhere between 20 minutes and 1 hour. Depth surveys allow you not simply to ask questions, but to probe and gauge the strength of opinions given by respondents.

The characteristics of depth surveys include the initial requirement to recruit respondents – few will agree to devote considerable time to a survey without some notice and diarising. Secondly, it is not unusual to offer some incentive to respondents, although a common exception is where the respondent has a strong relationship with the Client (for example, as a customer or supplier).

A potential pitfall with depth surveys is respondent fatigue. If the questionnaire is too long, the integrity of the responses given in the latter stages of the survey may be suspect.

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Tracking/Continual Tracking

Tracking surveys are simply questionnaires which are asked at regular intervals to the same profile of respondent to measure any changes to responses. Tracking surveys are particularly common where an advertising campaign is taking place: the first wave of surveys will measure respondent awareness prior to advertising taking place, a mid-wave will measure respondent awareness arising from concurrent advertising, and a post-wave will measure awareness once the advertising has stopped. It is the norm for questionnaires to vary only slightly from wave to wave.

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Mystery Shopping

Telephone-based mystery shopping is a common research tool and consists of interviewers contacting organisations on your behalf and asking the types of questions that a typical customer might ask. By coding responses you can measure how effectively those organisations are responding to these enquiries. Some organisations use mystery shopping on a regular basis to measure any changes in their own customer service provision; others may test the service agreements of their re-sellers or suppliers.

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Focus Group Recruitment

Whereas most telephone surveys are essentially quantitative studies, a large body of research will precede these with quantitative studies such as focus groups.

Participants of focus groups first need to be recruited, and screened to ensure they meet the required profile of respondent. It is important that the recruitment phase is well planned and executed. In particular we suggest leaving an adequate amount of time for the recruitment phase, adequate incentivisation for participants, letter dissemination to participants before and after the recruitment phase, and a POP3 email facility to enable your research recruitment supplier to send emails to potential participants on your behalf.

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Panel Recruitment

Respondent panels are another quite popular research tool, where the same group of individuals respondent to questionnaires over a period of time, whether in person, via telephone or via the internet.

Again, as with focus group recruitment, it is vital that the recruitment phase is properly planned. Added complications arise from an inevitable drop-out from the panel.

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IVR Surveys

Respondents can simply call a dedicated 0800 telephone number and complete a survey according to voice prompts. Answers are keyed by respondents using a touch-tone telephone or have their verbal answers recorded. Particularly useful for customer satisfaction and product feedback within the Retail sector.

More information on IVR surveys provided by PEXEL can be found here.

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Prompt Calls

Prompt calls are simply quick calls to respondents who have previously agreed to a certain action such as attending a focus group. Prompt calls allow you to remind respondents of the coming event and confirm their attendance.

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Omnibus

Omnibus surveys are conducted on a regular basis by some fieldwork companies (such as PEXEL). Omnibuses are surveys run at regular intervals (eg. quarterly) targeted at particular profiles of respondent. The cost of running the surveys is shared by all companies contributing their own questions.

More information on the types of omnibuses run by PEXEL can be found here.

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