This article looks at some ways of maximising the response of postal research – and its practical value…
A successful is one which achieves an accurate and high response. The design of the postal questionnaire is the key to that achievement and it requires the researcher to put herself into the position of the interviewee. Though she will not be present when the questionnaire is being completed, the researcher must be able to imagine the difficulties the respondent will face and take these into account in the formulation of the questions. So she must have a good feel for his subject; otherwise, when the replies come in, it may be found – too late – that there were silly mistakes in the questionnaire. Questionnaire design can be broken down into three steps which must be undertaken in chronological order – formulate the questions; arrange the questionnaire layout; and test the draft.
FORMULATING THE QUESTIONS.
The researcher should begin by making a rough list of all the points to which answers are required. The objectives of the survey are the guide. Thus, if one objective is to assess the market size, a question must be posed which establishes the respondent’s purchases of products over a given period. If another objective is to measure the market shares of suppliers, a question must be asked on the respondent’s source of purchases. The rough listing of questions should be comprehensive and may well include at least the following basics:
- what are the respondent’s purchases of the product in volume and value per year?
- who are the major suppliers and what share do they have of his supply?
- what is the image of suppliers ?
- what factors influence his choice of supplier and how important are they?
- how are purchases likely to change in the future ?
- what are the factors that will influence this change?
Clearly the list will be much longer as it will contain specific questions geared to the needs of the survey. Each of the questions in the rough listing should now be scrutinised to establish whether they are vital to the survey, since the longer the questionnaire, the lower will be the response.
More tomorrow….
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on Thursday, February 15th, 2007 at 11:28 am and is filed under Market Research, Quantitative Research.
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