Telephone survey

“Hello. My name is Paul. I am calling from Ohio University, as part of a class assignment. I would like to ask you a few questions…”

From last Sunday to Wednesday, I spent 3 hrs every evening saying the same sentences to different people living in Ohio and West Virginia by telephone. The survey is one part of our boring tasks for Research Method. No one in my class likes conducting such stupid survey including me. But to my satisfaction, I did not fall behind other American students as I had worried about before. Because language is the only channel to communicate with respondents in telephone survey, I, as a foreigner, sometimes can not make me understood easily or understand others either. Although repeating the same questions in four evenings was absolutely tough and boring, I found something interesting, which will be more interesting if we do not need to repeat it again and again.

Scripps Survey Center is located in an old building, which looks like a warehouse. There are about 35 tables in the survey center. 35 interviewers can conduct survey at the same time. On each table, there is a computer, a telephone, a pen and some paper. Sometimes you may find some candy too.

The whole survey is conducted with a computer. First, the numbers are dialed randomly by a computer program. Every interviewer has an account, with which every person’s behavior and payment, if hired to do so, can be managed. We, interviewers, act like pc-game-players, sitting at the tables, logging on the cute system, clicking the bottom “Dial” and waiting for all kinds of Monsters. There are many options when dialing: no answer, busy, answer machine, fax or modem... and answer. When a call is answered and Answer is chose, another set of options is shown on the screen: yes, refuse, call back, business call. Most of time, we choose refuse because most people would not like to be bothered by a stranger. Some hang up rudely and some persons say “no interesting” or “busy” after you read the sentences I mentioned at the very beginning. If you are lucky or your voice is attractive enough, you have chance to finish the pc-game remained with that kind interviewee. When survey begins, each screen shows only one question. Your job is only to read them and record the answer and go on.

The most important is the first minute when a call is connected. Experienced interviewers can keep those who plan to refuse being bothered. Promotion skills and some key points of the survey contribute to a successful survey. For example, if you mention “class assignment”, some people would lower their anger. For me, the most crucial thing is to express myself clearly at first. On Sunday evening, when I was not familiar with the survey, I did not read the announcement clearly. A lot of people said “what? Who are you? I can not understand you!” Sign! Then, after I found my classmates, native speakers, do not read as fast as I did, I slowered my speed and I got it. At the last day of survey, I was so excited as to find I can read as fluent as others. I also learned a lot new words on environment, the main topic of the survey, such as asbestos, Caucasian and so on. Some pronunciations are corrected. For example, I read lead as lead before.