Telephone Surveys

Surveys for which data collection is conducted via a telephone interview represent a major source of all current survey data. Even as Internet surveys have gained greatly in popularity in the past several years, telephone surveys remain a major source of the data gathered for media, marketing, academic, and other types of research. Since the 1970s, the prevalence of telephone interviewing has steadily increased and has surpassed face-to-face interviewing, which had previously been the most commonly used method of conducting survey research. Currently the use of other data collection modes of survey research, particularly Internet surveys, has been increasing, but telephone interviewing still remains a widely used method. This entry discusses systems and techniques used to conduct telephone surveys, the evolution and length of telephone ...