- 31/03/2021
- Posted by: Charlie King
- Category: News
Sample Answers recent survey investigating the effects of lockdown on response rates, indicates that online research has been the clear ‘winner’, with telephone consumer work relatively unaffected, whereas B2B has been severely disadvantaged:
| Agree Disagree scales | Telephone | Online | |
| Consumer | Business | ||
| Respondents who participate in the research enjoy the process | 53% | 78% | 32% |
| We need more sample to complete … surveys | 42% | 67% | -6% |
| Surveys are needing longer fieldwork time to complete | -5% | 61% | 31% |
| Respondents are more suspicious than ever about their phone calls / emails | 63% | 22% | -10% |
| Mobile samples are more effective than landline samples | 58% | 11% | – |
| River sampling is more effective than panel sample | – | – | -13% |
However, online researchers are clearly less confident that respondents enjoy the process.
The need for more sample to complete telephone surveys is amplified by the increased rate of non-effective experienced due to a variety of causes:
| Changes in response characteristics for telephone Surveys | Consumer | Business |
| Unobtainable numbers | 16% | 25% |
| Wrong Numbers | 14% | 16% |
| Rings but Not Answered | 36% | 45% |
| Answerphone | 36% | 26% |
| Refusals by respondents | 33% | 18% |
| Refusals by Switchboard | – | 28% |
| Required respondent not available | – | 42% |
On average our respondents’ interviewers call back 4 times before giving up on a number – slightly more for B2B research than for consumer surveys (4.1 versus 3.9); however. some only call back once or twice whereas others will call 5 or 6 times. Only a minority will leave any message on the answerphone explaining the reason for their call.
Those answering the question on numbers of interviews carried out each month showed some doing more than before lockdown and others less – overall however the total showed a decline of 10%
A total of 48 companies responded to the survey answering the following sections:
| Survey sections completed | Telephone | Online |
| Consumer | 20 | 26 |
| B2B | 18 | 21 |
| Special (IT / Medical, etc) | 14 | 9 |
We were delighted to have received answers from the US and the continent so thanks to everyone we have £250 to send to charity!
For further details please contact [email protected]