Why phone interviews are better for data collection and market research than online customer surveys
Companies of all sizes conduct telephone surveys to measure customer satisfaction levels.
They also benefit from:
- valuable customer feedback on proposed new products and services
- knowing which areas of after-sales service could be improved, and
- new sales opportunities which present themselves during calls.
A telephone survey also has clear and valuable brand building benefits. It demonstrates that your company genuinely cares about how clients perceive it and the quality of the products and services offered.
Telephone survey services versus more traditional methods of data gathering
Telephone surveys offer distinct advantages over any other survey method.
Many view the face to face interviewing in shopping centres and major shopping streets as an unwelcome distraction. They are often concerned that the person stopping them to talk is only interested in making a sale.
Web surveys, although convenient, are hampered by low participation rates. With phone interviews the answers to open ended questions during a conversation are more in-depth and expressive.
People filling in an online survey, however, rarely stretch past one sentence when asked the very same questions. It does seem that the personal touch offered by a phone interview really does make the difference.
A telephone survey is more cost effective to finding out more about your clients and your role in their businesses. You get higher engagement levels and response rates from your clients. This result is shown in the answers and information clients give to your questionnaire.
Telephone surveys vs online surveys
According to B2B International, online surveys conducted from contact lists that combine both customers and prospects typically generate response rates of between 2% and 5%.
Meanwhile, the same list will generate 10% – 25% response rates from telephone interviews. Response rates are important, but our clients also benefit from the fact that the survey sample we speak to is highly targeted in the first place.
This means that these high response rates are always coming from the clients and prospects that most benefit your business goals. As part of our survey methodology, More Than Words often creates focus groups tailored to our clients’ campaign goals.
A focus group is a group of people and companies who are likely to be buying products and services from your competitors – that is, they are your potential customers. With this approach, you get to gather information about your potential clients so you can target marketing messages.
We’ll ask prospective clients about their hopes, pain points, price tolerance levels, awareness of companies and more in each of the phone interviews. Our conversations will provide you and your sales and marketing teams with valuable audience information.
Find out what your clients really think
Running a business is hard and finding the time to discover what your clients really think of your products, services, and after-sales support is difficult.
But in clients’ answers lie real opportunities. Customer service surveys are often the most effective way to capture the opinions of clients least likely to respond to other forms of market research.
In addition, online and postal surveys tend to be answered the most by customers who are at either end of your customer satisfaction spectrum. They are either extremely happy with your service, or those with a serious complaint.
A skewed sample can lead to skewed data that can make it difficult to know what the average customer thinks.
Questions to ask in a telephone customer survey could be:
- What do they like most about your company?
- Do they feel looked after when they need?
- Do you take too long to answer calls or emails?
- Does your product/service still solve problems?
Uncover new product/service opportunities
Your clients, particularly the ones who have been with you for years, understand the quality of the products and services you offer.
But is something stopping them purchasing more from you? Find out with telephone survey research by asking:
- Which related products do they buy from others?
- Would they consider buying it from you?
- What price points would they consider attractive?
- How many sales would you be likely to make?
More Than Words Note: Find out what happened when this company outsourced their customer satisfaction survey for the first time.
Why should you choose More Than Words for telephone survey services?
To deliver the best results for clients from a phone survey, each campaign must be given careful consideration prior to launch.
We need to agree with you every aspect of the survey design, including the questions we’ll ask each respondent. Once we understand what you want to achieve from your telephone survey, we’ll be able to advise you on the questions to achieve the outcome you want.
Using our in-house survey software, we’ll then create survey templates. Our trained interviewers will use the template to input the data they collect accurately and quickly.
Generating a high response rate and collecting consistent data quality through telephone interviewing often depends on the script and the order of questions.
Together with the creation of the brief for the interviewer (so that they fully understand the aims of the campaign), we will phrase each question and structure the order of conversation.
Every question asked will be aimed towards the needs and wishes of the survey respondent, as well as our client. This ensures that we are able to keep potential respondents on the phone for as long as we need.
Get live and to the minute campaign updates
For More Than Words, transparency is paramount to providing the highest possible return. You’ll be able to track your campaign in real time and access full notes from all calls made on your campaign
- Log in live to monitor campaigns progress
- No technical expertise needed to use system
- Meticulous, detailed notes from every conversation
- Full survey report showing NPS scores
More Than Words Note: Did you know we can also offer a telephone market research service? Contact us to find out more.
