When It Comes To Telemarketing Surveys,
Quick And Easy Does It

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When It Comes To Telemarketing Surveys, Quick And Easy Does It

The key to conducting telemarketing surveys is to make it as easy as possible for both the respondent and the telemarketer. From the telemarketer's perspective, the idea is to keep the respondent on the line so he or she will answer all the questions. The respondent, on the other hand, does not want the survey to drag on. So there has to be a happy medium.

Here are a few pointers that will satisfy both needs. First, on writing the questions:

1. Don't use open ended questions. Telemarketers cannot write as fast as respondents can talk, so information gleaned from open ended answers will not get recorded or will be interpreted by the telemarketer when recording the answers. Besides, open ended questions enable respondents to stray from any kind of statistically representative answers you are trying to capture. Use questions with 'yes' or 'no' or multiple choice answers.

2. Keep your questions short. This applies not only to the questions, but also to the multiple choice answers. By keeping everything short and concise, the questions and choices are less confusing to the respondent.

3. 'Yes' or 'no' questions should be short and concise, too. If you try to pack too much information into the question, you could confuse the respondent and skew your results.

4. Offer as few multiple choice answers per question as possible. Again, you want to eliminate any confusion and maintain your respondent's interest. Ideally, you should try to have no more than four multiple choice answers per question. And one of those choices should be, "I don't know" or some other form of a neutral response.

5. Complete your survey quickly. Eight to 10 questions covered in two to three minutes should be enough time to gather the information you need about your products, services or market trends.

6. Try to structure your survey so the easiest questions come first with any harder questions toward the end of the survey. That way the respondent, who has already made an investment in time to you, is more likely to complete the survey, even if he or she is somewhat frustrated by the more difficult questions.

Once you've written the questions, test them and have them read by someone outside your department or office. You want to determine if any of the wording creates confusion, or if the terms or vocabulary you use is easily understood or not. Be careful not to use industry-specific terminology unless it is accepted terminology that is well understood by all your targeted respondents.

Now, a few pointers about conducting the survey:

1. If a respondent asks you about a survey question, or requests that you explain it further, just state that you can only repeat the question and not give any further information. Any other response would influence the results.

2. If a respondent responds highly favorably or highly negatively to a particular question or questions, do not add any inflection or change the way you read the remainder of the questions. Doing so might influence the respondent and affect the results of the survey.

Finally, always remember to thank the respondent for taking the time to answer the questions.