Inbound Calling

Telephone survey calls involving call centers are classified as inbound or outbound, depending on whether the call is being received by the call center (inbound) or initiated in the call center (outbound).

Inbound calling in the survey research context usually arises from one of the following situations:

• As support for an existing mail, Web, computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI), or in-person survey. In a pre-survey letter or email to the respondent, or on the actual instrument in the case of a self-completion survey, a phone number is provided for respondents to call if they have any questions about the survey or if they want to schedule a particular time for an interviewer to call. Depending on the survey design, respondents might also be given the option to complete the survey via interview during the inbound call.
• As an additional data collection mode in a multi-mode survey. Longitudinal surveys, where a reliable mail or email address exists for communication, often offer respondents an incentive to phone in and complete the interview at their own convenience before the main field phase. Web and mail surveys often contain a phone number for respondents to call if they would prefer an interview to a self-completion mode.
• As the only data collection option, as might be appropriate for surveys of[Page 328]
  • People who visit a particular location or use a particular service, when information is sought about their experience or transaction
  • Rare populations for which no sampling frame exists and screening is not feasible
  • Surveys on a particularly sensitive topic for which respondents are more likely to give accurate information only if they can do so anonymously (i.e. without the interviewer knowing who is calling). Because in these types of situations the probability of inclusion is rarely calculable, minimum incidence rates, as opposed to population estimates, are usually sought. Distributing the phone number for respondents to call in such cases is typically done by pamphlet, advertising in the press, or via related-interest Web sites and chat rooms.

The technology used for inbound calls can be as simple as a single phone on a single interviewer's desk or something as complex as that used in the large commercial call centers that support commercial banks and credit card companies, with queuing, interactive voice response (IVR), and automatic call distribution systems. Some of this advanced functionality, however, is of limited use in the survey context, because survey respondents have little motivation to wait in queues, and many surveys are longer than is practical for data collection to be done entirely via IVR.

The telephone number provided is usually toll-free (where the receiver pays for the call) to encourage more respondents to phone in. Usually different toll-free numbers are used for different surveys, to allow for more customization in the greeting. Support for multiple languages is done by publishing a different toll-free number for each language or else using a simple IVR system (such as “press 1 for English, 2 for Spanish”).

Staffing is determined by both technology and service expectations. For example, more staff are needed if the phone needs to be answered by a live operator within 60 seconds during the advertised hours, and fewer staff are needed for a survey where it is acceptable for the majority of inbound calls to be routed to a voicemail system. Getting the right balance of staff is critical, as too many will result in unproductive use of interviewer time, but too few will lead to unanswered or queued calls, which is likely to irritate the respondent, create more refusals, and thereby reduce response rates.

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