It happened again tonight. Another company with "Research" in their name calls the house and takes up twenty precious minutes with poorly-worded questions read by a minimum-wage phone serf who cannot pronounce the names she's asking about.
GF and I are very sympathetic to pollsters, and we endeavor to get through their surveys, if only to have our rather curve-averse opinions included. Because of these sympathies, I assume we have invisible pollster hobo sign scrawled in front of our virtual door, some tag that translates to "Call completion available here."
But our patience as samples is wearing thin. With a fierce election season just beginning, I'm offering a few tips to "Research" outfits who wish to get any meaningful data out of their dialed targets.
"Brevity is the soul of wit... and polling
When designing a poll, do not fall prey to the temptation to "get your money's worth" out of the contract. It is a very rare and indulgent phone target who will actually complete a survey lasting over five minutes. Figure out what data you really want and ask those questions only. Packing in a bunch of internals will only yield a smaller sample as targets decide eating supper may be more important than taking surveys.
Thou shalt not push poll
It's really obvious. "Would you be less inclined to vote for X if you knew that...?" Pushing is transparent and encourages your targets to give you false data just to fuck with your results. Just don't.
Easy writing makes damned hard polling
You might have a great numbers guy and a first-rate phone room contractor, but if the person who writes your questions is a sloppy writer, your data will not be reliable. For shaded responses, little beats "Agree strongly, Agree somewhat, Neutral, Disagree Somewhat, Disagree Strongly." Cute innovations like "I would feel a)very good, b) good... about" a hypothetical statement or happening are doomed to yield bad data. Also, please include the "Not sure" option. Sometimes people aren't.
Want cheap data? Buy cheap phones
Don't stint on phone tech. VOIP and cell phones yield an audio quality that does NOT encourage your targets to spend 15 minutes listening to your badly-written questions. You've got to pay your phone serfs by the hour, even if your subjects give up after trying to discern the questions over a connection that sounds like an electric razor dropped into a steel mixing bowl.
Lastly, and probably most importantly,
A bit of butter to my bread
I know you find most people home at 7, 6 Central. Don't call them. They really want to unwind and get some chow in 'em. Delay your call to 8, 7 Central. Then, you'll get straight yes or no responses to your first question ("Would you be willing...?") instead of people who say, "yes" then give up after five minutes.
So, there you are, poll pals, a few tips from a callee you know and love. I hope you take them to heart. Will you?
Yes, absolutely.
Yes, a little.
Maybe.
Likely not.
No way.