Interview with King Beach

Tell me about your background before you came to GeoPoll and what space you worked in 

I started in survey research and social science research as an undergrad at Michigan State. My degree was in the natural science with an emphasis on research and scientific methods – I also worked with the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research to learn about survey research, designing surveys, managing call centers, and improving performance. I engaged on a lot of social norms surveys and health surveys, and I worked up from a interviewer to manager through undergrad, and then continued to work with that group before joining GeoPoll.

What drew you to GeoPoll and made you join the team? How long have you been at GeoPoll?  

It sounded exciting – I found the position through AAPOR and it sounded like a good opportunity to get involved with new research methods. GeoPoll was also offering the opportunity to do multi-faceted components of the research, seeing the research lifecycle from questionnaire design to analysis. There are not a lot of organizations who let you do all of that. It was startup mentality and there was an interest in doing exploratory research that hasn’t been done before by testing and seeing what does and doesn’t work in market research.

Thinking about my roles within the company, oh boy! I came on as a research assistant and was mostly focused on survey operations and day to day project management. That evolved to managing teams related to the influx of SMS work that we had at the time, and growing survey operations from a team of 1-2 to a team of 15. Recently my work has transitioned over to CATI as clients are more interested in our ability to collect data through CATI. I now work on a wide variety of things surrounding our operations, from design of our mobile applications to client communications.

Can you briefly describe your current role at GeoPoll and main responsibilities?  

The Solutions Team oversees our call center and in-person work in over 60 countries. We onboard, train, and provide standardized quality control with the local teams we work with for our CATI and CAPI surveys. This means meeting the teams, doing trainings, and making sure different groups can meet our standards for quality and oversight.

Within 2020 the big change has been transitioning from face-to-face to virtual training. In 2019 we had a large network of team members who could travel to countries to do work and face-to-face training, we had about 6 people (on the Solutions Team) on the road at any one time. We’ve reinvented that to do that virtually all over video meeting while still implementing the standards we had while in person. It has led to some challenges in communication but for the most part we’ve been successful in migrating to virtual oversight.

What is the biggest challenge in overseeing so many call centers in different regions?

We’ve learned along the way that we need to have local partners in market who are on the ground to help co-design surveys, assist with trainings, provide feedback on questionnaires, and more. Gathering local context and constructive feedback through virtual meetings is crucial and we’ve bridged that gap by finding the right people in the right positions. Another thing is scaling given how much growth we’ve had in the past year – we’ve increased our CATI work 5-6x in the past year.

For call centers, oversight is challenging as we’ve seen when teams have gone remote in countries where working remote is not very common, there have been teething issues with staff who are not used to working at home. We are working in countries where people don’t work remotely so there has been a lot of growth that our teams have taken on to maintain their staff of interviewers remotely – in Burkina Faso our call center manager was going house to house on a scooter to check on interviewers to make sure they had everything they needed!

You mentioned the growth we’ve seen in CATI over the past year, largely due to restrictions around in-person research. Can you speak to that and if you think clients will stay with CATI now that they’ve tried it out?

It’s interesting as GeoPoll has been on the front of this for so long and you see these big shifts with how data is collected over time. On the consumer research side, I think the industry will stick with CATI work if they are still getting data they expect with the quality they expect at a cheaper price point. The advantage with CATI is that you can still do both quantitative and qualitative research and provide the same level of oversight as with CAPI. On the international development side, I do think more work will remain with CATI but very targeted projects may move back to CAPI.

What I’ve heard from our colleagues is that the CATI work and the quality of data we have provided is an eye opener for the industry which has led to more work with many clients. When they run the first couple projects with us they might be testing between modes, and they are pleased with the quality we provide so continue on.

What are you excited about in terms of where GeoPoll will go in the future?  

What I’m most excited about is that we’ve found a way to be on the forefront of new research. We are able to offer clients a variety of ways to work with us and provide different forms of data. We’ve also found a way to adapt and expand what we do here at an unprecedented pace in terms of growth. A year ago we may have ran CATI in 20 markets and now we’re in 60. Being able to continue to expand to meet client’s needs is always interesting, whether that’s through new markets, approaches, or project design.

What’s a fact about yourself that people may not know right away?

I think you know most of these but I love art, cars, hiking and the outdoors. Street art is a fun one, and in most of the new offices we’ve opened I’ve done a mural for the office. I think I’ve done art in Africa in 5-6 different countries in our offices and even working with local art communities. It builds comradery with the rest of the team when I go out and share some personal art.

The post King Beach on Remotely Managing 60+ Call Centers appeared first on GeoPoll.

GeoPoll has been increasingly tasked with transitioning face-to-face research projects to CATI, a remote research methodology which gathers data through voice calls. As a result, over the past few months we have been rapidly opening remote call centers, training survey interviewers, and deploying new Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing projects. We are pleased to share that in June 2020 GeoPoll’s CATI services operated in 41 countries, and we managed over 700 survey interviewers who completed more than 85,000 voice call interviews.

GeoPoll oversees call centers throughout Africa, Latin America, and Asia that enable remote data collection on vital indicators including food security, access to healthcare, and more. We are conducting studies for partners that directly relate to the pandemic, such as the Insights2Impact COVID-19 tracker, as well as those which track the indirect effects of coronavirus, and other studies which are not currently possible to administer in-person due to coronavirus and related travel restrictions.

Conducting survey research through CATI is an excellent substitute for in-person research, as this method can reach illiterate populations, only requires the respondent has access to a basic mobile handset, and is administered by a trained interviewer, rather than being self-administered by the respondent. CATI also allow for longer survey questionnaires than can typically be used in modes such as SMS, and have been found to have higher response rates and completion rates than Interactive Voice Response (IVR).

GeoPoll’s team is experienced in quickly launching new call centers and CATI projects. Our CATI operations are led by our dedicated solutions team, consisting of GeoPoll staff located in the United States, Kenya, and South Africa, and are supported by trusted GeoPoll partners around the globe. Data collection and interviewer monitoring are enabled by GeoPoll’s proprietary CATI application, which was built specifically for use in emerging markets.

GeoPoll Computer Assisted Interviewing Application

GeoPoll’s CATI application is a simple to use application that facilitates GeoPoll’s CATI survey projects. Using the CATI application, interviewers are guided through each survey and can easily record responses and take notes during an interview. The application operates using only a mobile device or tablet, meaning interviewers do not need specialized hardware to get started. This has enabled GeoPoll to remotely onboard and train new interviewers during the COVID-19 crisis, when many of our call centers have transitioned to operating remotely.

Features of the GeoPoll CATI Application include:

• Supports multiple languages and scripts
• An offline mode allows for interviews to be conducted when device is offline and automatically uploaded when connectivity is present
• Supports multiple question types including multiple choice, open ended, media capture, and more
• Includes a secure login and multiple levels of access to ensure all data is secured
• Integrated with phone dialer
• Provides immediate airtime incentives in many markets

Conduct CATI Interviews in Africa, Asia, Latin America

GeoPoll has conducted CATI interviews in the following countries and can launch in new markets within 30 days. To request more information on our capabilities please contact us.

Africa CATI Capabilities:

GeoPoll has completed CATI projects in all of the below countries in sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa:

• Angola
• Benin
• Botswana
• Burkina Faso
• Cameroon
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Côte D’Ivoire
• Democratic Republic of Congo
• Ethiopia
• Gambia
• Ghana
• Guinea
• Kenya
• Liberia
• Madagascar
• Malawi
• Mali
• Mauritania
• Morocco
• Mozambique
• Namibia
• Niger
• Nigeria
• Republic of Congo
• Rwanda
• Senegal
• Sierra Leone
• Somalia
• South Africa
• South Sudan
• Sudan
• Tanzania
• Tunisia
• Uganda
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

The Americas CATI Capabilities:

GeoPoll has completed CATI projects in all of the below countries in North, Central, and South America, and the Caribbean:

• Colombia
• Dominican Republic
• Ecuador
• El Salvador
• Guatemala
• Honduras
• Mexico
• Nicaragua
• Panama
• Trinidad & Tobago
• Venezuela

Asia and The Middle East CATI Capabilities:

GeoPoll has completed CATI projects in all of the below countries in South Asia, Southeast Asia and The Middle East

• Afghanistan
• Bangladesh
• Bhutan
• India
• Indonesia
• Iraq
• Nepal
• Pakistan
• Philippines
• Sri Lanka

The post GeoPoll’s CATI Operations in Africa, Asia, Latin America appeared first on GeoPoll.

In addition to transitioning all of our offices to work-from-home models, GeoPoll was faced with the task of moving our call centers from centralized locations to fully remote operations. GeoPoll currently oversees over 20 call centers with partners around the globe, and makes tens of thousands of CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing) calls each week. While research modes such as SMS and mobile web link can easily be administered remotely by GeoPoll’s at-home teams, there are additional considerations that had to be made when switching live call centers to a more remote model.

Call centers typically include a supervisor and a cadre of interviewers making calls out of a central space, supplied with tablets and mobile phones, internet connectivity, and reliable power. GeoPoll’s call centers are located in countries which may not have reliable internet or power connectivity, which adds an additional challenge to those already presented by moving a team to operate remotely within the span of a few days. However, by the end of March GeoPoll’s team was able to successfully transition all of our call centers to virtual operations without interrupting ongoing data collection. Below are some of the plans we put into place while completing this transition.

Ensuring CATI Interviewers Had Access to Internet, Mobile Networks, and Power

The first step of transitioning interviewers to work from their homes was ensuring they had access to the tools they need to continue work. GeoPoll uses our own proprietary CATI software to administer surveys, which is an adaptable solution designed for use in emerging regions: Interviewers only need the GeoPoll CATI application, a charged mobile phone and tablet, and daily data connection to conduct interviews. The CATI application has an offline mode, allowing interviewers to continue their work even if they are not connected to the internet during the interview.

While transitioning our teams to work from home, GeoPoll conducted an equipment audit for all interviewers, ensuring they had functional devices. We have also provided interviewers with backup power supplies in case of power outages. Due to a lack of stable internet connections in many areas where GeoPoll operates, interviewers are supplied with airtime credits so that data can be synced to the GeoPoll platform mid-day, in the afternoon, and at the end of each day. This allows data to continue to flow through GeoPoll’s platform despite the remote nature of each call center.

Increasing Remote Oversight of Call Centers

A concern over transitioning any team to work from a new environment is the change in or lack of in-person supervision provided when teams are dispersed. GeoPoll already had several processes in place to monitor the performance of call centers, individual interviewers, and projects and is now following an enhanced process to oversee interviewers. This process includes random video checks by supervisors, daily progress monitoring by both call center supervisors and GeoPoll’s senior staff, and our usual automated and manual data quality control checks, which flag any unusual data patterns. GeoPoll also conducts reviews via call recording and call-backs on a percentage of calls in each project.

One of the most important elements of this remote tracking is the GeoPoll dashboard, which automatically provides updates on statistics such as call length, number of calls placed, and completion rates per interviewer. An example of the GeoPoll dashboard can be seen below; it shows a real-time view of project progress and allows GeoPoll to immediately identify any unexpected issues with interviewer performance or data collection.

Supporting Remote Teams and Adapting as Needed

As the coronavirus has spread, GeoPoll has provided our teams with guidance on how to work from home and manage remote workers effectively. We have also shared health guidelines provided by WHO to all employees. Senior GeoPoll team members are in regular contact with call center supervisors and are ready to support where needed. In addition, GeoPoll and our call centers have contingency plans in plans in the case of any employee falls ill or is otherwise unable to work.

GeoPoll recognizes that in a rapidly changing environment there are often unanticipated challenges that arise, and is prepared to adapt our operations to changing situations. We are proud that by remaining flexible and responding quickly to changes, we have been able to continue our operations as normal and provide organizations around the globe with the vital data they need. To learn more about GeoPoll’s remote call centers, please contact us.

The post Transitioning to Remote Call Centers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America appeared first on GeoPoll.