We conduct the three primary methods of surveying – telephone, mail and web-based, online surveys – as well as in-person interviews and telephone/web survey combination surveys.
The audiences we survey include:
- General population
- Targeted business decision makers/buyers – B-to-B
- Targeted consumer buyers, specific demographics – B-to-C
- Customers/Clients
- “C-level” executives/other “difficult audiences
- Client company employees
The table outlines the benefits and drawbacks of the telephone surveys, mail and web surveys, telephone/web combination, and in-person interviewing such as mall intercepts or door-to-door interviews. Typically, a given project’s particular requirements will tell us which method is most appropriate.
Typically, a given project’s particular requirements will tell us which method is most appropriate.
| Element | Telephone | Regular mail | Web | Phone/Web Combination | In-person* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ability to handle complex questions | Good | Fair | Fair | Good | Excellent |
| Ability to collect large amount of data per respondent – to “go in-depth” | Good | Fair | Good | Good | Good |
| Full disclosure on "sensitive" issues questions | Fair | Good | Good | Fair | Fair |
| Degree of sample control | Good | Fair | Good | Good | Excellent |
| Timeliness | Excellent | Fair | Excellent | Good | Good |
| Response rate/Non-response bias | Good | Fair | Fair | Good | Fair |
| Ability to use visuals | Poor | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent |
| Ease of set up/Preparation time & effort | Fair | Poor | Excellent | Fair | Fair |
| Cost | Fair | Good | Excellent | Fair | Poor |
* “In-person”, in this case, refers to quantitative types of personal interviews, like door-to-door and intercept interviews, and not to qualitative methods like focus groups and one-on-one depth interviews in which relatively small numbers (i.e., <100) are researched.