The Benefits of Web-Based Customer Satisfaction Research

When I first started in the marketing research business 20-something years ago, telephone research was the �gold standard� of data collection. In those days, the telephone was the great equalizer. Everyone had one, and nearly everyone answered when it rang. Today, it is much more difficult to complete interviews by telephone. One reason is that a large percentage of people use Caller I.D. devices and answering machines to screen calls. Additionally, a smaller but significant percentage of people have gotten rid of the landlines in their homes and use only cell phones.

As a result, online surveys have supplanted telephone surveys as the method of choice. There are a number of advantages of web-based surveys over telephone surveys, not only for marketing researchers but also for respondents. Here are a few:

Advantages for Respondents

• Respondents consider web-based surveys far less intrusive than telephone surveys
• Because they can complete them whenever it is convenient, respondents find web-based surveys far more convenient than telephone surveys
• There is a significantly higher sense of anonymity and confidentiality of responses

Advantages for Marketers and Marketing Researchers

• Considerably lower cost
• Significantly faster data collection
• Seamless skipping, branching, and piping of questions
• No interviewer bias
• No interviewer error
• More thorough responses
• More frank/honest responses

The bottom line: Compared to telephone surveys, web-based surveys offer a number of advantages for both researchers and respondents. Because of these advantages, the internet has replaced the telephone as the interviewing method of choice.