Upon hiring, our telephone interviewing staff is extensively trained in interviewing for research purposes. All interviewers must successfully complete our interviewer training program prior to working on any project. Training continues throughout employment.
Robinson Research is among the few data collection facilities that never use predictive dialers. Predictive dialers are technology typically used by telemarketing firms and certain market research firms to automatically dial numbers, hold a potential respondent on the line, and connect with the next available operator. It is our experience that respondents are more inclined to refuse a survey or have negative perceptions from waiting on the telephone to hear from a live interviewer. Never in the history of Robinson Research have we used predictive dialers. All telephone respondents are immediately greeted in a professional and businesslike manner by a skilled telephone interviewer.
Our interviewing is conducted by professional interviewers using computer-aided telephone interviewing software. The software automatically controls question sequencing, skip patterns, rotation of questions, and other functions so the interviewer can concentrate on information clarity and consistency. Computer-aided technology makes the survey run more quickly and easily for the respondents, while nearly eliminating sequencing mistakes. It also provides for quicker turn-around of data and eliminates the cost of data entry as a separate function. A monitoring system is connected to each line in the telephone facility and is used throughout the study. While the telephone surveys are being conducted, they are monitored by supervisors. As a quality assurance procedure, no fewer than fifteen percent (15%) of the interviews are monitored in their entirety. We have remote monitoring capabilities, allowing the client to monitor from another location at any time throughout the data collection process.
Validation is the process used to confirm the facts of the interview. The respondent is re-questioned on key portions of the interview by the supervisor during the validation process. We validate ten percent (10%) of every interviewer's work to ensure that it has been done according to specifications. We also run preliminary data cross-tabulations by interviewer, to ensure that our interviewers are not among the variables affecting responses.
When conducting a telephone survey, we implement standard dialing protocols in an attempt to minimize non-response bias. Three attempts will be made on each selected number during evening and weekend hours (unless the interview is refused or completed with fewer attempts) before a replacement number will be issued. Surveys conducted without proper dialing protocols will never be truly reflective of the target population. We are not a "quick and dirty" survey shop, we are providers of scientifically sampled surveys.