IVR Surveys: Overview

In survey research, IVR enables the researcher to deploy voice surveys in the form of automated phone calls and then capture that survey data as mentioned by the respondent in the survey tool for further analysis. Using IVR surveys, the researchers define the audience they would like to use, integrate an IVR tool with the survey platform, and then deploy automated surveys. This helps collect quick responses from a large sample without manual intervention. The tool captures the responses accurately and, thereby into the survey platform.

There are several advantages of using IVR surveys to collect data from a target audience remotely. IVR surveys can be a powerful tool for collecting data from many people. IVR systems are fast, efficient, and cost-effective, making them ideal for large-scale surveys. They also allow respondents to participate in a survey at their convenience without needing to make an appointment or be available at a particular time.

How to Conduct IVR Surveys: The Steps

In this article, we go through the steps of creating effective IVR surveys.

1. Plan your survey, from the research objective

The first step (which applies to all types of research) is to determine the research objective properly. You could be looking for information on a particular topic, such as “what is the impact of the ongoing research on food availability in Somalia?” or you might want to know more about how people behave when using a brand’s product or whether they think it’s valuable and helpful. Before you conduct surveys, you must clearly understand what you want to achieve with your research. This will help you determine the right questions to ask and the most effective way to collect data.

Whatever your objective is, start with some general questions that will help guide your research, such as:

• What do I want my audience’s answers to be?
• What kind of responses will I get from them?
• What do I want to learn about my audience? What information do I need?
• What kind of data do I need to answer my research questions?
• How much time do I have to complete the research?
• How will I collect the data? What are the advantages of using IVR over other modes in this specific scenario?

Answers to these questions will help determine the purpose of the survey, the target audience, the questions you want to ask, and the interview length. Remember, one of the essential considerations in survey design is choosing the right target population. This includes defining the geographical area, age group, and other characteristics of the people you want to reach.

2. Create your IVR survey

Once you have planned your survey, you will need to create your IVR survey, which involves building the questionnaire, recording the audio questions, and creating the IVR menu.

Make the survey simple and short, with one question per call. The longer your survey session, the less likely it is that people will complete it—and they won’t remember what they did or didn’t do if they can’t answer your questions quickly. Keep in mind that you don’t have time to get into all the small details you would during a phone or face to face conversation. Rather than asking them about their personal life or emotions (which could be easily answered by reading between the lines), focus on the practical needs of the survey.

In a nutshell:

• Decide on the questions you want to ask – keep them short and simple.
• Prepare the script that the IVR system will read out.
• Set up your call flow – determine the flow on which the questions will be asked.
• Test your system – before going live, it is essential to test your IVR survey to ensure everything is working.

3. Conduct your Survey

Once your IVR survey is created, you will need to conduct your survey. First, you’ll need to set up a call center with the necessary equipment, software, sample phone numbers, and people. Then, deploy the survey, which involves calling the target sample and asking them to participate in the survey

Keep in touch with the metrics in real time. Some of the KPIs you could consider are:

• Response rate: How many people actually took the time to respond?
• Completion rate: How many people completed your survey?
• Completion time: How long did it take for them to complete the survey? Was there a lag between when you called them and when they finished their responses or did they finish quickly and you had some downtime before being put back on hold (because there were more calls)?
• Call abandonment rate: If someone left before completing their portion of the survey, how often did that happen over an hour or day-long period?
• Average call time on hold (COT): If you have an IVR system, this is calculated by taking all calls waiting for a customer agent during an hour and dividing them by total calls made during that same time frame. For example, if the IVR attempted a thousand phone numbers but only 50% were answered within 5 minutes; then this would be 50/1000 = 4%.

4. Analyze your Results

After you have conducted your survey, you will need to analyze the results. After your survey is complete, it’s time to collect and analyze the data, which can be done manually or with specialized software, depending on the data volume and the analysis’s complexity.

This step includes cleaning the data, analyzing it to determine the survey’s overall results, and then creating an actionable report from the data, as Brian Kiprop explains in this GeoPoll Talks podcast.

Conduct IVR Surveys Using GeoPoll

A good research provider will walk you through the process of creating and executing a successful interactive voice research survey. They’ll help you with:

• The design of your questionnaire
• The scripting of questions so they’re straightforward to understand
• Setting up an account with their company
• The scheduling and management of your research
• The reporting of your results so you can act on them

GeoPoll provides an end-to-end research service using IVR or any other mobile-driven data collection. We’re always happy to answer questions and walk you through the process of creating a successful survey. Contact us today.

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Traditionally, self-administered surveys were distributed by mail or in-person to a large group of people and completed with paper and pencil. Although mail surveys are still standard in countries with a strong postal system, advances in technology have pushed many self-administered surveys online and to mobile phones. Utilizing digital survey tools enables researchers to gather data from almost any geographic location in less time and for less money than traditional methods.

In this post, we discuss several common and relatively new self-administered survey modes.

Types of Digital Self-Administered Surveys

Digital self-administered surveys range from simple text messages to elaborate web surveys with animation and video effects.

• SMS Surveys: A self-administered survey collected from
  respondents using short message service (SMS or text) through mobile network connections. SMS surveys are conducted as a 2-way text message conversation, with one survey question sent at a time. This method is ideal for some populations, such as those found in countries in sub-Saharan Africa or Latin America, because it does not require respondents to have internet connectivity.
• Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) Surveys: USSD is a communication protocol on mobile phones that allows for real-time connection between a respondent’s phone and a mobile network or server to implement survey questions. Similar to SMS in functionality, USSD surveys do not require strong mobile network access to facilitate.
• Web Surveys: Web or Internet surveys utilize the Internet to sample and/or gather data from respondents. Respondents typically click a link to access web surveys on their smartphone, computer or tablet. Web surveys allow for complex question types and stimuli, including video, audio, picture, and matrix questions.
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR): IVR is a computer based data collection technology that enables computer systems to independently place calls and conduct surveys via audio recording, while voice and touch-tone detection technology are used to document respondent’s answers to survey questions. Voice recorded surveys of this nature enable respondents to answer a voice call and respond to survey questions by pressing 1, 2, or 3 on their keypad. Once mobile phone users pick up the call, they opt-in to complete the survey.
• Computerized-Response Audience Polling (CRAP): In a CRAP survey, a sample of telephone numbers is typically loaded into a computer for automatic dialing. CRAP surveys function similarly to IVR surveys, in that respondents use the keypad on their phone to answer pre-recorded voice survey questions one by one. What differentiates CRAP surveys is that they employ the digitized voice of someone presumed to be known by the sample, such as a celebrity or local newscaster.
• Computer Assisted Self-Interviewing (CASI): CASI surveys utilize specialized software to present individual questions to respondents visually on a computer screen. Respondents reply to each question using the computer’s keyboard or touchscreen. CASI surveys are administered without an interviewer, enabling respondents to confidentially answer questions of a sensitive nature.
• Audio Computer-Assisted Self-Interviewing (ACASI): ACASI surveys add a digitally generated or recorded voice-over to CASI survey questions. Respondents hear the survey questions read to them as they view the written questions on their computer screen. They answer the questions by typing in their responses using a keyboard or touchscreen.
• WhatsApp Surveys: WhatsApp is one of the most widely used messaging applications in the world. The explosion of WhatsApp in recent years has led to its development as an Internet survey platform. WhatsApp provides flexibility for the administration of complex mobile phone-based surveys that enable the exchange of rich media both to and from respondents, including photos, audio, video, GIFs, and animations.

Conduct Self-Administered Surveys with GeoPoll

GeoPoll has experience designing and implementing self-administered surveys all over the world for clients ranging from global brands and international development organizations to local media stations and NGOs. We understand that every project is unique and are adaptable to a variety of research modes. Contact GeoPoll today to discuss which mode is best suited for your custom research project.

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For the marketing research industry, the explosive growth of mobile phone use presents a new opportunity to gain access to people and data that might otherwise be inaccessible using different modes of data collection. IVR is a widely used mode for collecting large amounts of data through voice calls. This mode is especially useful in places like Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, where literacy rates are low, and respondents may not be able to read or respond to SMS-based or online surveys.

According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), Sub-Saharan Africa is among the regions with the lowest literacy levels at 64.0% in 2015. Over 75% of the world’s 781 million illiterate adults are found in South Asia, West Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, and women represent almost two-thirds of all illiterate adults globally.

Traditionally in developing countries, polling exercises have been carried out through in-person interviews.  However, making in-person contact with individuals with low literacy levels is often expensive and time-consuming.  Data can easily be lost, compromised, and/or fabricated. By harnessing the growing power of the mobile phone through a service such as GeoPoll, which specializes in research in the developing world, IVR and other mobile survey modes can be used reach those in remote areas and conflict zones, while achieving results that are consistent with those from more traditional methods.

According to Market Research World,  IVR systems are often integrated with other computer based surveying platforms when used for research. This means that survey responses can be captured in many ways – from online surveys and mobile phones, to kiosks. IVR surveys are ideally suited to high volume surveys and based on the project, over traditional CATI and telephone based interviewing, as they do not require the training of survey enumerators.

Key Features of IVR Surveys

Some of the benefits of using IVR in data collection for market research purposes include:

• Decreasing the time required to conduct a survey from months to days
• Capturing real-time data directly from the respondent
• Accessing millions of people regardless of geographic area
• Effectively capturing large sets of data and analyzing trending information
• Remotely conducting surveys in areas of low literacy rates

Considerations When Conducting Surveys via Interactive Voice Response:

• Surveys are typically 10 questions total. Surveys can be longer based on needs but short, clear surveys have proven to be most effective.
• Response rates for IVR can be quite low – to achieve your desired sample size, you will need a large respondent base or to partner with a company like GeoPoll that can provide sufficient sample

When conducting an IVR survey with GeoPoll, our team will provide expert guidance and assistance:

• Survey questions can be customized to fit specific project needs. GeoPoll provides assistance in reviewing the questions and optimizing for the mobile phone.
• Results are delivered within days of a survey run, typically within one week. GeoPoll delivers both raw datasets organized by respondent and high-level pivot table analysis.

GeoPoll’s Experience with IVR

GeoPoll uses Interactive Voice Response (IVR) or voice recorded surveys which enable respondents to answer a voice call and respond to survey questions by pressing 1, 2, or 3 on their key pad. Once mobile phone users pick up the call, they opt-in to complete the survey and receive airtime credit as an incentive upon completion.

GeoPoll has successfully completed hundreds of IVR surveying projects in countries around the world. This direct experience has taught GeoPoll the technical and operational nuances of IVR, and we work closely with partners to ensure questions and methodology are appropriate for IVR. Use cases for IVR surveys have included conducting one-off surveys, collecting baseline data, monitoring indicators, engaging communities, and tracking beneficiaries of aid.

GeoPoll can conduct IVR surveys as part of a multi-modal project or as a standalone method in any country throughout the world, and we have expertise in conducting IVR surveys in Africa, Asia Latin America, and the Middle East.

If you would like to know more about how IVR could help you collect data from hard to reach regions, please get in touch with us by filling in the form below.

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