Back a long time ago when I was much younger, I participated in a United Way phone survey. We had high hopes that the survey would yield good results. It helps to know where the emphasis should be for the most effective use of donated funds. A phone survey would be a good tool.
I was an active participant in the local United Way, working on the Speakers Bureau, for instance. When someone suggested a Phone Survey. I volunteered to head the project. That meant finding people to do the survey as well as formulate questions to be asked.
To make the questioning as random as possible, we would take the phone book, divide it into sections, assign a person to each section and have them call every tenth person, if not a business. That sounded random to me. They were to continue until a certain number of calls were made.
There was a senior citizen group that often volunteered at the United Way. They enthusiastically agreed to tackle the job. We set a date for them to begin the phone survey. Formulating the questions to be asked was next on the list. Several of us brainstormed possible questions and came up with four questions to ask. The first was to put the person at ease. The last three questions were the meat of the survey
The final task was deciding on the makeup of the individual survey sheets. That was the hardest part of the project. After we did, I typed up the survey sheet and made 100 copies. We were ready to begin.
Next, we met with the senior citizen survey group. After explaining the process, they were assigned their part of the phone book. Two weeks was the allotted time for them to do the survey. They would be making the calls from their homes.
We were excited to learn the outcome, but would be disappointed. The ladies did not use the phone sections they were assigned. Instead, they called family and friends. They later said they felt more comfortable surveying them, rather than strangers. So the survey didn’t accomplish its intended goal. It was useless. We thanked them for their involvement.
We learned a few lessons from the project. The most important one was to monitor the phone survey takers. Since we didn’t have access to multiple phones in the same location, they would make the calls from their homes. Don’t expect to be able to turn them loose and have them to follow directions. We did put a time limit on the survey, but with no monitoring, they got off track. That was my one and only phone survey.
So if you are planning to take a phone survey, learn from my experience: “Monitor! Monitor! Monitor!”