Busies

Busies are a survey disposition that is specific to telephone surveys. They occur when the interviewer or a predictive dialer dials a number in the sampling pool and encounters a busy signal. Busies can be considered a positive outcome because they often indicate (a) that the telephone number is in service, and (b) that a person likely can eventually be reached at the number.

Busies can usually be considered a temporary disposition code because the presence of a busy signal is not sufficient to establish whether the respondent or household is eligible for the survey (i.e. busies are cases of unknown eligibility). As a result, it is important to have the interviewer redial the number. One common sample management strategy is to have the number redialed immediately, thus ensuring that the number was dialed correctly and making it possible to reach the person using the phone if he or she was in the process of finishing the call. However, depending on the sample management rules used by the survey organization, busies often also are redialed later in the same interviewing session and on a variety of other days and times in order to maximize the chances of reaching a person. Busies normally are considered a final survey disposition only if a busy signal is the outcome of all call attempts (i.e. the number is always busy) or the only other call outcome is “ring-no answer.”

A potential problem in coding busy signals is that they can be confused with fast busy signals. These fast busy signals are sometimes used by a number of telephone companies to identify nonworking telephone numbers and can also occur when heavy call volumes fill all of the local telephone circuits. Fast busy case dispositions often are considered final dispositions and ineligible numbers, and thus they usually have a survey disposition code that is different from the code used for normal busies. Telephone interviewers need to understand the difference between busies and fast busy signals, along with the different dispositions of cases that reach busies and fast busy signals. This knowledge will ensure that interviewers code the ineligible, fast busy cases appropriately and will prevent interviewers from making unnecessary additional call attempts on these cases.