There are many means and techniques to collect data and information from informants. This task is fundamental for any Market Research project. Without these basic raw materials for our industry, no analysis is possible. For this reason, it is crucial to know how to choose the most suitable method for each study. Among the available alternatives are Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews or CATI for its acronym in English.
CATI interviews are used by many brands and companies as they offer several advantages over other techniques. Examples include the ability to program dialing of large volumes of numbers, record all interviews from start to finish, and achieve higher productivity rates if certain conditions are met. For these and more reasons today we share four aspects that impact projects of this type.
Record quality. A good starting point to begin a telephone field survey is the database of numbers to contact. The more records that are updated and the people using those numbers actually handle the contacts, the higher the success rate. Otherwise, it is possible to incur delays or not be able to reach the established quotas. It is suggested to check the quality of the bases in pilot tests to make the necessary adjustments or before ensuring compliance with a schedule within a given period.
Available time. We know that sometimes the requirements for marketing findings are urgent. In these scenarios, the fulfillment of all phases of a project must be covered in the shortest possible time. To resolve studies such as the one proposed at the beginning of this point, it will be necessary to invest many more resources such as the number of telephone operators and have extended office work hours. The latter impacts the budgets to be considered.
Interview duration. As we have already pointed out in other posts on this blog, a disadvantage of interviews done by phone is that they cannot last long. Otherwise we run the risk of obtaining a lot of data with first response bias or of losing interviews due to abrupt closures as a result of informants being fed up. Although these situations can be alleviated with the interviewer’s ability to maintain the interest of the person answering our call, it will always be better to choose quality over quantity in these exercises.
Question programming. We have focused on the operational part of the interviews. However, there is a previous phase that must also be taken into account. To collect the answers it is necessary to have instruments for this purpose. In this case, questionnaires scheduled through programming are used. The complexity of these will vary depending on characteristics such as number of questions, logical jumps and lists of pre-coded questions. Nowadays, it is even possible to consider including Artificial Intelligence solutions to encode open responses.
As is easy to see after reviewing these four points, there are many variables to pay attention to when developing research that involves CATI interviews. Other stages of a study depend on the correct execution of these data collections, such as the analysis of discoveries and identification of patterns that can give rise to multiple tasks such as changes in communication patterns or readjustments of offers in the market.
At Acertiva we have more than two decades developing market studies in Latin America. Among the projects we have carried out are the CATI surveys. If you have questions about this, you can count on our team of analysts and strategic allies who are ready to satisfy your needs. Get in touch with us right now. We will respond to you with how together we will write your next success story.
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