Are you a Talker or a Typer? »

I'm sure you (like me) have this mental checklist of your friends and colleagues. Some of them are talkers - you've learned not to waste your time expecting them to reply to your emails. Others are typers - you find them online at all hours day and night, the type that ignore your phone calls and rarely return your voicemails but their replies to your emails are almost instantaneous. I'm sure you've also learned to ask them questions using the most appropriate communication method.

Surveys are no different. You'll almost certainly be targeting both talkers and typers. Getting typers to complete surveys is relatively easy - in fact most of them like surveys. It's the talkers who are more challenging. It stands to reason that getting these folks on the phone to do your survey makes sense. They might not type but they sure might talk their way through your survey. Your choices are therefore CATI (outbound telephone interviewing) or IVR (inbound automated telephone surveys). Both will allow the talkers to talk.

We've seen a huge increase in demand for IVR (interactive voice response) surveys in the last little while. "What's up?" we asked our customers. Here are the top 4 things they had to say:

1. IVR is inexpensive and can be tied directly to results. One of our biggest worries as marketers is that we'll spend all this time and money developing a survey, and then we get only a few responses. Then when we take the cost and divide it by the number of responses, that number suddenly looks pretty big! With IVR, most of the cost is variable - per response. Your cost per respondent is known ahead of time - making it easier to budget, especially as you can stop the survey (and the cost) at anytime.



2. You can easily track and analyze results. With web-based technology, tracking and crunching results has gotten easier every day. Now you can get your results in almost real-time and you can easily slice and dice your way to the insights you need to improve your business. It's so much fun, you almost feel guilty doing it!



3. Survey-takers like the convenience. Everyone is busy these days, while many people don't mind doing surveys they become resentful if they perceive the survey to be an intrusion on their time. IVR surveys are by design based on user convenience. You give them a number to call, they'll call when they are ready - when they have time. You'll benefit too - when people aren't rushed their responses will be more valid, more thoughtful and more reliable.



4. We can actually hear our customers. Unlike most other survey types, we can capture and hear the actual voices of customers with open-ended questions. We can play them back later for ourselves and for our senior management so they can hear the emotions, the views of our customers in their own words. As a by-product we can react quickly if they are unhappy (Customer Rescue) and we can use their happy words in our customer testimonials.

We've learned that a combination of a web survey and an IVR survey gives many people the best of both worlds. You can use the same questions and reach both talkers and typers. You end up with maximized response rates and the best quality data as your respondents can contribute using the format they are most comfortable with.