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 ...