Advantages

Disadvantages

Factors to Consider

Face-to-face Personal Interview:

*Highest cooperation and lowest refusal

*High quality detailed responses

*Can explore answers with respondents and ask follow up questions

*Can assist with terminology and understanding questions

*Respondents need not be literate

*Most costly and time- consuming

*May be interviewer bias

*Respondents may not be fully honest

*Anonymity is lost

*All members of a population may not be equally available for personal interviews

*There may be geographic limitations

*Need space and privacy

*May be dangerous to go to homes

*May be extra costs in training and travel

*Requires well-trained interviewers

*Can use open-ended questions to more fully explore a topic

Telephone:

*Better response rates than mail or internet

*Shorter data collection time and less expensive than face-to-face

*Still able to use open-ended questions to explore a topic

*May be able to use software with prompts to automate it

*Can assist respondents with terminology and understanding questions

*Protects anonymity and good for more sensitive issues

*Literacy is not an issue

*Less geographic restrictions than face-to-face interviews

*Not all respondents are reachable by phone

*Need trained interviewers

*May appear to be a sales call and non-response may be higher

*Must decide to use cell phones, landlines, or both. May be some bias depending on the decision

*Must be kept relatively short

*May be language barriers

*Are your phone numbers up to date?

*What is the best time to reach respondents?

*Telephones charges

*Computer and technical knowledge if automated

*How to offer incentives without excessive postage

Mail:

*Lower costs

*Administered with a smaller team

*Access to a broader population in a larger geographical area

*Great for sensitive issues

*Respondents can respond on their own time

*Good for those who are less literate with computers

*Lower response rates

*Most likely need an incentive

*Slower data collection than telephone interviews

*No clarification of terms as in interviews during completion

*Population must be literate and motivated

*Must have up-to-date addresses

*Must maintain addresses

*Costs for postage, follow up mailings, paper, envelopes and stamps.

Internet/Web-based:

*Lower cost

*Can reach populations anywhere around the world

*Reduces time

*Allows for larger sample size

*Pre-Program flow charts and sequencing of questions

*Data may dump directly into database

*Can be done on their own time

*Ease may increase response rates

*Not every respondent may have a computer or online access

*Differences in people’s computers and web browsers

*Getting a truly representative sample may be difficult

*Need fast, reliable internet access

*Respondent must be computer literate

*Literacy and terminology may be an issue

*May need technical expertise

*May need to use different types of media

*Does the survey require a survey company or software?

*Will confidentiality be maintained?

*May be hosting and software costs

*Will the software import your questions?