Conduct Phone Survey

This section explains how easy it is to conduct an over-the-phone survey with SurveyGold. It explains how to contact or call back a known respondent. It also shows you how to enter responses and comments from a known respondent.

• Conducting Your Phone Survey

  The Conduct Survey tab folder is the place to conduct over-the-phone surveys. Survey responses may be entered:

  • by a surveyor as the survey is conducted over the phone
  • by a surveyor from a completed survey questionnaire (in the case where a surveyor has conducted conduct the over-the-phone web by reading from a printed survey questionnaire.)
    

  Productivity Note: The Print Blank Survey Form button is located here as a convenient way to print a survey questionnaire. This can help you to familiarize yourself with the survey, particularly if you are conducting a survey that you did not write. It can also be useful for photocopying a survey form so that a surveyor can conduct the over-the-phone survey by completing a printed survey questionnaire.

The steps involved in conducting an over-the-phone survey are as follows:

1. Setup your survey
2. Associate known respondents with your survey
3. Select a known respondent
4. Attempt to contact a known respondent
5. If necessary, schedule a return phone call 
6. Verify respondent information
7. Ask questions and enter responses
8. Conclude your survey

• Selecting a Respondent
  

  	Step 1 - Click the Conduct Survey tab folder. Then select your survey from the dropdown list. When you select your survey, the respondent listbox displays all of the respondents associated with your survey. The example to the left shows a list of respondents associated with a survey entitled "Membership Survey".
  	Step 2 - From the list of respondents, click the person you want to survey. Then click the Start Survey button. This opens a panel with a series of tab folders that allows you to verify respondent data, schedule a return phone call and/or conduct the survey.

• Contacting a Respondent

  If you selected a known respondent, then the assumption is that you are conducting a telephone survey. Therefore, the first tab displayed is entitled Call Respondent.

  • Scheduling a Return Phone Call

    In our example, we select a known respondent. Therefore the first thing we attempt to do is contact them via a telephone call. In the event that we are unable to reach the respondent, or we reach them and it is not a convenient time, we may elect to schedule a return phone call.

    Step 1 - Click the Call Respondent tab. Enter a callback date and time. Enter any relevant notes, such as name of secretary, the date you tried to reach them or other relevant information to provide continuity in the return phone call.

    Step 2 - To see the affect of the callback date and time you have just entered, click the Go Back tool bar button to return to the Conduct Survey tab folder. Notice that the scheduled callback date and time are listed next to the respondent's name.  Productivity Note: The return call date and time is displayed in the Call Back column next to the respondent. You can click on this column to sort your return calls.

     

  • Verifying Contact Information

    When the respondent is ready to conduct the phone interview, the first thing you will want to do is verify their name and contact information. This takes only a moment and is invaluable in terms of follow-up potential.

    	Step 1 - Ask the respondent to verify their contact information including the spelling of their name. Enter any information in the appropriate section. In this example, we are conducting an interview with a respondent named Carolyn Callahan.
    	Step 2 - Click the Ask Questions /Get Responses tab folder to begin asking survey questions to the respondent.

     

• Asking Questions / Entering Responses

  Some questions are meant to be asked directly to the respondent. Others, such as demographic information (e.g., gender), are meant to be completed by the surveyor without asking.

  The Ask Questions / Get Responses tab folder is divided into three distinct areas to facilitate asking the question, getting responses and capturing any noteworthy comments.
  

  Note: The three areas can be resized by using the sliders between each area. This can help you to see an entire lengthy question or a large set of choices.

  
  

  • Selecting Responses
    

    	Step 1 - Ask the question exactly as it is written. Note: Question responses are optional. If a respondent chooses not to respond to a question, simply press Enter on your keyboard to advance to the next question.
    	Step 2 - If a response is given, enter it in the Record the Response prompt. Note: The format of the Record the Response prompt will vary depending upon two factors. The first factor is whether or not choices were defined when the survey was setup. The second factor is whether one response is allowed or more than one response is allowed as defined when the survey was setup.

     

    Productivity Note: Most questions can be answered by clicking the appropriate response. Some require you to type the response. When multiple responses are allowed and no choices exist, press TAB on your keyboard to insert a new response.

     

  • Capturing Comments
    

    Step 3 (Optional) - Enter any comments provided by the respondent. The surveyor may also choose to enter clarifying comments as deemed appropriate. Comments are valuable. They are visible when reviewing survey results. Productivity Note: When you specify a response in Step 2, the mouse pointer automatically moves to the Comments prompt.

    Step 4 - Press Enter on your keyboard to advance to the next question. Normally this is the next sequential question in survey. However, in some cases the next question may be further into the survey depending upon the response given. SurveyGold automatically determines which question to advance to based on how the survey was setup. Productivity Note: SurveyGold is designed to minimize the time needed to enter a response. If you are right-handed, it may prove helpful for you to place your right hand on the mouse and your left hand on the Enter key on your keyboard (and vice versa if you are left-handed.) With your hands in this configuration, you normally click a response and press Enter.

     

• Concluding the Survey

  The final step in conducting your survey is to conclude the survey. This is an important step in two cases. In the first case, a respondent may choose to conclude a survey at any time. In that case, you will want to be able to note that the survey is concluded as soon as it happens. In the second case, sometimes a telephone survey gets interrupted. You will not want to mark a survey as completed when in fact it is not.

  	Step 1 - As soon as it is time to conclude the survey, click the Conclude Survey button just below the tab folders.
  	Step 2 - This returns you to the Conduct Survey tab folder where the respondent is marked as having completed the survey. Now you can select another respondent to survey if you desire.

   

  Productivity Note: The completed date and time is displayed in the Completed column next to the respondent.

Continue on to the next section: Conducting a Paper Survey