Re: Telephone surveys

Mortimer wrote:
Sorry, I'm not sure I follow your logic here. I've read your paragraph several times and I'm trying to work out what the 50% relates to and what it is a proportion of?

If you are really interested in the technical nitty-gritty you could do worse than take a peek at http://www.aapor.org/uploads/Standard_Definitions_04_08_Final.pdf. Briefly, though, the response rate is the number of completed interviews divided by the total number of eligible records. Apart from completed interviews, you also get refusals, people that could not be contacted, answerphones, 'break-offs' (i.e. partial interrupted interviews that couldn't be completed), etc. Obviously if the response rate is above 50% it means that appreciably more than half of all eligible persons actually spoken to completed the survey.

People who complained as a proportion of people contacted? How can people who have not been contacted be considered to be part of the total sample - how can you presume to know their feelings one way or the other?

The sample is the list of those who are potential candidates to complete an interview (though not all may, in fact, be eligible).

The problem I have is that I have yet to meet or talk to *anyone* who thinks that unsolicited calls are anything other than an intrusion into modern life - if the topic is ever discussed socially, everyone is against them. I'm sure you'll appreciate that it's difficult to reconcile that *anecdotal* personal evidence against statements that 50% out of something and "a clear majority of those contacted" are willing to take part.

The intrusion is an unfortunate side-effect isn't it? Whatever, the anecdotal evidence is outweighed by that of peer-reviewed scientific journal articles. I think this particular community (or at least the most vocal part of it) agrees with you and birds of a feather...

....but maybe the general public really do see it as a massive imposition, but one they are prepared to put up with once in a while...

Well maybe that's because people like me (who may or may not be typical - that's for debate) *do* lump together anyone who uses the phone for any unsolicited calls, and regard it all, together with unsolicited email, being stopped in the street, getting fliers and surveys through the post, being surveyed as you visit a web site and being forcibly advertised at, as spam. It's all spam - only the intrusiveness varies. It's a valid point of view and if (if!) it's a common one, it's one that marketeers and surveyers need to be aware of, but I'm not sure whether they are aware of the strength of feeling and if so, whether they care.

It wasn't "spam" before the anti-spam debate. I remember in the last century travelling to a San Diego ISP conference and finding an amazing unanimity that zapping the occasional false positive (i.e. a customer's potentially very important email) seemed to be a far less serious problem than allowing an occasional bit of unsolicited crap to hit their inbox. Those guys would have nuked the odd village or two if it meant less of that damn spam could get through :)

I'd be most interested to know whether a survey has ever been carried out into people's feelings about being contacted for telephone surveys and telemarketing (two separate polls, really, to be fair) and what the result was. Has such a survey ever been done - let's base out judgement on facts.

I too would be intersted to see the results of such a survey. Not aware of one. My guess? The public would little distinguish research from telemarketing.

If I'm in the minority, I'll shut up! But am I in the minority?

For me the issue is not so much whether yours is the most popular view but rather that should it hold sway, all pretence of reliable statistics is lost to everyone.
Chris
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