Published by Roe Smithson & Asociados Ltda in Santiago Chile on 15 Dec 2009
Telephone Interviews
Obtain fresh and unique information that cannot be gathered elsewhere
Through telephone interviews an interviewer will contact people via a telephone call and ask the questions over the phone. These people may be contacted at random or you may target certain locations, customers, etc if your questionnaire is directed towards specific people or areas. Once again, the interviewer will record the answers to the questions as they ask them over the phone.
Telephone interviews report certain advantages for marketing research studies:
• Quick and easy to perform
• Can cover a wide region of the population
• Higher response to postal questionnaires (see c)
Telephone interviews may also have disadvantages, such as:
- People do not often trust telephone interviews
- Questionnaires have to be kept short to maintain interest and co- operation
- Interviewees have little time to think
- Expensive although the expense is usually less than personal interviews
The proper structure and development of a questionnaire for your telephone interviews may mean the difference to gain a response that can be used for an accurate analysis and constructive feed back.
Roe Smithson & Asociados Ltda uses the questionnaires to find people’s opinions on their existing or proposed products/services during telephone interviews, and then analyze the results. It will then be an important tool of market research to determine the following key points:
- The likely performance of a product /service -demand
- The buying behavior of customers
- Customer attitudes towards existing or proposed products
- Customer awareness of a product/service/business
