Survey Data Collection Methods

Telephone Interviews

Although the percentage of households with traditional (land-line) telephones has decreased dramatically since the beginning of the millennium, telephone interviewing is still an important method of gathering information from consumers and organizations. Applied has an on-site 32-station telephone-interviewing facility with predictive dialer and sophisticated call management features. In addition, we are working with the nation’s top sample providers to include mobile phone and VoIP users in order to obtain a true representation of larger populations.

Applied’s professionally trained interviewers know the importance of completing your project on time and obtaining information accurately. Supervisors and project managers are readily available to answer any questions you may have while your project is in the field. Our multi-lingual interviewers are available to conduct interviews in Spanish.

Internet Questionnaires

Since 2000, there has been a major trend in our industry toward collecting data over the Internet. We have been involved with Internet studies since the mid-1990s when we conducted an online study for Hallmark. Since then, we have conducted hundreds of Internet studies involving consumers and business-to-business decision makers.

Mail Questionnaires

For various reasons including privacy concerns and sensitivity of the topic, many clients prefer to use mailed “paper-and-pencil” questionnaires for selected studies. We manage all of the tasks for mail surveys from questionnaire design, to printing, to mailing, to incoming-mail handling to data entry.

Computer-aided In-person Interviews

In some studies it is very difficult to find survey respondents who are members of some population. For example, there may not be a good list of people who have purchased a specific item from a retailer in a particular market. Or, it may be difficult to contact someone who has used services at a community clinic in a city, for example. In these instances, we may want to take the survey to the locations on portable computing devices and administer questionnaires on the spot with individuals who have just purchased, or just used, the products and services.

Central Location Testing

When actual product use or evaluation is required during the development process, it is often useful to have clients come to a central location where they can use, or sample, the product and give us their impressions.  Applied has conducted CLTs for a variety of industries including greeting cards and related products, human food and pet food.  In these studies, Applied handles recruiting, arranges for a central location where sampling (including product preparation as needed) and data collection can be accomplished.  In addition, we typically provide our traditional research services such as questionnaire design, analysis and report writing.

In-home Usage Tests (IHUTs)

There are times when our clients need the added realism of actual product usage in order to assess customer experience with a new or revised product.

Applied has fielded IHUTs for clients in a variety of industries, most notably pet food, mobile phones, pet pharmaceuticals and household chemicals.  In these tests, Applied handles all of the details including recruiting respondents to participate in the test, shipping product to them, and preparing instructions for usage when appropriate in addition to providing our traditional research services such as questionnaire design, data collection, analysis and report writing.

Buyer Shop-alongs

Buyer shop-alongs are a type of ethnographic research in which our experienced moderators accompany and interact with qualified consumers on shopping trips.  They can be used to obtain qualitative learning related to a product, concept or marketing initiative. The “real-life” retail environment in which a Shop-Along takes place allows us to go much further and address issues and obtain feedback from qualified customers where the purchases and purchase decisions actually take place.  We recruit respondents according to specific criteria designed to address client needs.

In-Store Intercepts

In-store intercepts are commonly carried out in retail outlets Intercept surveys, typically only a few minutes in length, have great advantages in terms of expense, speed of data collection and collecting a good range of views among a very select group of consumers.

Multi-Method Studies

Each of the major data-collection methods has strengths and weaknesses with respect to reaching the population of interest, engaging them, administering complex questionnaires and presenting sound and images within the questionnaires. Applied uses multi-method studies to take advantage of the strengths of two or more methods, while avoiding the drawbacks of using a single method.

1. In-home usage tests – In these studies, we send a product to respondents and then follow up with an Internet survey, telephone survey, mail usage-diary or some combination of those methods in order to learn about the respondent’s experience with the product.
2. Telephone and Internet – One common multi-method study uses telephone interviewing and Internet questionnaires in the same study. With our “latest and greatest” survey software, we can program questionnaires for administration on the telephone or on the Internet, and we allow respondents to select which is most convenient for them. In other studies, especially when it is difficult to find a good list of email addresses, we recruit respondents by telephone to participate in an Internet survey.
3. Mail and Internet – Even though we conduct some studies by mail, primarily for privacy reasons, some respondents would still prefer to complete the questionnaire online. Consequently, we often include a link to the survey in the questionnaire “cover letter” explaining how to complete the questionnaire online.