Question

Topic: Research/Metrics

Telephone Surveys -- Expected Response?

Posted by Anonymous on 7/19/2004 at 4:31 PM ET 200 Points
I am working on putting together a plan for a telephone survey of my installed base. While it would be wonderful (and awfully utopian) to think that 100% of the contacts will pick up the telephone and answer the survey, I need to be more realistic in the plan.

With that said, how do I go about setting realistic response metrics? Is there an industry standard out there? (Considering that we aren't using automatic dialers, and are having our customer service reps make the calls, as opposed to a professional telemarketing firm...)

Thanks for your input!
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 7/19/2004 at 4:44 PM Member
    Hi jillc,

    Having put together many such surveys, I know there are ways to set realistic response metrics, but like with most KHE questions it depends on your situation.

    How manageable is your list? The more times you make outbound follow up calls the more likely you are to get responses

    What are you offering them for their time? Small premium, report of the research when complete? Something is better than nothing.

    What’s the quality of the list? Is it clean? Is it relevant to the contacts? Is it consumer or business?

    If you’re talking about rolling out a basic survey, without outbound follow up calls or offers for consumer targets, expect very low response rates from a fraction of a percent to maybe one or two percent tops. With a good business list maybe a little better one to three percent. But by adding outbound calling, incentives etc. these numbers can double or more

    Hope this helps

    - Steve

    P.S. – check the upper right search box for previous questions like yours
  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 7/19/2004 at 6:29 PM Accepted
    Jill,

    Based on the facts you provided, I would go along with the others expecting a 20-35% final tally. I’ve seen results as high as 50% plus in situations like you described and only very rarely in the 10-20% range. (this won’t happen)

    The iPod drawing sounds good, especially with the white paper.

    If you're planning the resarch for this summer, keep in mind people take 2-3 week vacations, you might to stagger a final calls a little further out.

    Best of luck,

    - Steve
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