In this article, we go through each GeoPoll mobile survey mode, in summary, highlighting their best use cases and benefits.

Short Message Service (SMS/ text message)

SMS surveys are self-administered surveys sent to respondents one question at a time (see an example here). SMS surveys do not require respondents to have internet connectivity or airtime credit, and the survey invitation is received even if the phone is turned off or out of service range when sent. Respondents can also answer the questions at their leisure, ensuring privacy when taking surveys with sensitive questions.

Learn more about SMS surveys >>>

Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI)

CATI surveys are administered through experienced call center interviewers based in the country they are calling. GeoPoll interviewers undergo rigorous training for each project they administer and are overseen by dedicated in-market call center supervisors and GeoPoll’s senior team. GeoPoll’s proprietary mobile application for CATI interviewers facilitates interviewer flow, data collection, and interviewer oversight and can be utilized on any smartphone or tablet. Features of our CATI Application include offline mode, call recording, multi-lingual support, and more.

Learn more about live call interviews >>>

Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI)

Built on the same system as GeoPoll’s CATI application, GeoPoll’s CAPI application facilitates face-to-face data collection in the field, removing the need for paper questionnaires and manual data collation. The CAPI application does not require interviewers to have internet access when conducting surveys and provides interviewer metrics for overseeing projects.

Learn more about face to face interviews >>>

Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

IVR is a self-administered survey method in which pre-recorded voice surveys are initiated via phone call, and respondents key in answers on their dial-pad. IVR is useful for reaching illiterate populations through voice calls without training call center interviewers and can therefore send a mass amount of surveys at once through automated software.

Learn more about IVR >>>

Mobile Web

Mobile Web surveys are self-administered surveys requiring respondents to have internet-capable phones with an active WiFi or data connection. Respondents are sent an initial SMS message with a link to a survey, which drives respondents to their web browser to complete the survey. Mobile web surveys support GPS location, video/picture questions, and matrix/ table/ grid format questions.

Learn more about GeoPoll mobile links >>>

Mobile Application

Mobile app surveys require a smartphone, although the mobile application does allow for offline use. Respondents who download the GeoPoll mobile application are sent notifications to participate in surveys through GeoPoll’s mobile app. The mobile app includes, with respondent consent, additional capabilities such as GPS location, picture taking, and passive data collection.

Learn more about the GeoPoll App >>>

Focus Groups

GeoPoll can implement focus group research through mobile chat groups overseen by an experienced moderator. Focus groups allow for sharing video and picture content, structured discussions, and other tasks and can be maintained over a more extended time than in-person groups.

Learn more about MROCs >>>

WhatsApp Mode

WhatsApp is GeoPoll’s latest survey mode and one of the most robust owing to WhatsApp’s reach, affordability, and ability to conduct rich media surveys within an environment most respondents are familiar with. Surveys on WhatsApp can be longer and more complex than SMS, and we can use audio and visual stimuli, meaning we can send picture or video content for respondents to answer questions about and even get photos and recordings back from respondents.

Learn more about GeoPoll WhatsApp surveys >>>

Conduct mobile research in emerging markets

At GeoPoll, we have spent years studying how to best connect with survey respondents in emerging markets worldwide. Picking the correct mode for accomplishing your research goals is one of the most important decisions before data collection begins. Contact GeoPoll today to discuss what research mode is best for your project.

The post GeoPoll’s Mobile Survey Modes and How Each Works appeared first on GeoPoll.

To skip to how GeoPoll builds nationally representative samples, click here.

What is a Nationally Representative Sample

A nationally representative sample is one that has a strong enough similarity to the population of the country being studied that results will be valid. This means ensuring that the sample represents the country’s population in key demographic characteristics.

Being that each country has different population compositions, a sample in a survey will vary depending on the country being studied. For example, in Nigeria, the population skews much younger than in the United States, with estimates that half of the Nigerian population are aged 30 or younger. Given this, a study conducted in Nigeria with a sample size of 500 would include 250 respondents who are 30 or younger, whereas the same study conducted in the U.S. or Europe would have a smaller number of respondents from that age bracket, in line with the aging populations in those regions.

How to Build a Nationally Representative Sample

The first step to building nationally representative samples is to determine the most important demographic variables to consider given the project goals and local context. Age, gender, location, and a measure of socioeconomic class are all commonly used variables in building a nationally representative sample. In many countries, race and religion are also important to include to ensure the sample is as similar to the country’s population as possible.

Population data is typically taken from national censuses, but in emerging markets, where census data is often unreliable, determining the makeup of a nationally representative sample can be challenging. To mitigate this, research agencies such as GeoPoll use the most recent widely accepted estimates for population demographics. In countries where national census bureau data is not available, we often use population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s International Data Base, which compiles multiple data sources to create population and demographic projections.

Sample size is also a consideration when thinking about building a nationally representative sample, as larger sample sizes will have higher confidence intervals and lower margins of error.  A sample size of around 400 will provide a margin of error of 5% at the 95% confidence level for population sizes above 10,000, and the larger the sample the lower the margin of error becomes.

Once the appropriate sample size and the variables being used to build the sample have been determined, the requirements can be broken down into actual numbers of respondents needed.

In Ghana, a sample size of 400 sample size, nationally representative by age, gender, and location, would look like the below:

• 197 male respondents and 203 female respondents
• 121 aged 16-25, 97 age 26-35, 72 age 36-45, 110 age 46+
• 78 respondents from Ashanti region
• 37 respondents from Brong-Ahafo region
• 36 respondents from Central region
• 43 respondents from Eastern region
• 65 respondents from Greater Accra region
• 40 respondents from Northern region
• 17 respondents from Upper East region
• 34 respondents from Volta region
• 39 respondents from Western region

This sampling technique is also known as quota sampling, and below we explain further how GeoPoll targets specific demographics in our database of respondents to reach the quotas we set for a nationally representative study.

Using Quotas for Nationally Representative Studies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America

Quota sampling can become quite complex depending on the number of variables included, and if they are independent or interlocking, meaning two or more variables are grouped. While GeoPoll’s sampling technique depends on the project specifications, in general, our platform sets limits for each demographic group, which enables us to meet the quotas needed for national representation.

In the example above, to achieve a nationally representative sample of 400, GeoPoll would first send an initial opt-in message to a large group of database members. Depending on the requirements, this initial group may be randomly selected, or we may use demographic information that has been collected from previous GeoPoll surveys users have opted-in to to create a stratified random sample. Once survey responses begin coming in, GeoPoll monitors which quotas are being filled, and closes quotas as the desired sample size per group is achieved. If respondents whose demographics match a quota that has already been filled opt-in to the survey, they are told they are no longer eligible in order to prevent over-representation of that group.

GeoPoll collects, regularly verifies, and securely stores the demographic profiles of our respondents, so that if we have not reached a target for one subgroup, we can recruit more respondents in the necessary subgroup until the targets are met. In cases where budgetary constraints or other factors make reaching the required quotas difficult, GeoPoll can also use weighting to bring the achieved sample more in line with population estimates.

Due to our wide reach in emerging markets, GeoPoll is able to achieve the required demographic quotas needed for nationally representative studies, including reaching respondents in many regions, and of multiple age groups, races, and religions. By using multiple survey modes, including voice calls to access illiterate populations, and in-person enumerators in areas that have little to no mobile connectivity, GeoPoll further ensures that all segments of a population are represented.

To get more detailed information on GeoPoll’s sampling process and learn how we reach nationally representative populations in countries throughout Africa, Asia, or Latin America, please contact us today.

The post How GeoPoll Conducts Nationally Representative Surveys appeared first on GeoPoll.

Without collecting data that is representative of an entire population, development progress can be skewed- biased data can lead to biased solutions. More often than not in emerging regions, women are underrepresented or completely ignored in official data collection.  As noted by Melinda Gates in the 2019 Gates Foundation annual letter, women are rarely asked about their individual incomes, with earnings instead lumped in with a husband’s salary, and the questions women are asked often have inherent biases based on their perceived roles in society.

So, how do we ensure that women are included in research so that they can be part of the global development conversation? While systematic change needs to involve governments, multilaterals, foundations, and corporations recognizing the need for and investing in more inclusive data, research companies such as GeoPoll can do our part by ensuring we deliver representative data ourselves and share our learnings around how to reach women with other organizations.

Conducting Research with Women in Emerging Markets

Mobile-based research platforms such as GeoPoll’s can be a valuable tool for sharing women’s voices, but they must be leveraged in an appropriate way. Factors including research mode, respondent privacy, and potential barriers to participation must be considered in survey design and implementation. Below are some findings from GeoPoll on how to best reach women:

Reduce Educational and Technological Barriers to Entry

Literacy rates, technology usage, and education levels often differ by gender, and these factors need to be taken into consideration when surveying women via mobile phone. GeoPoll studies and reports from GSMA have found that women are less likely to own smartphones than men, and older women in particular can be difficult to reach via online modes such as mobile application.

To combat this, GeoPoll offers 7 unique modes that collect both qualitative and quantitative data and allow us to connect with any type of mobile phone, ensuring we are not only reaching populations with smartphones. This wide variety of survey modes, which include SMS, voice calls and even in-person interviews, mean we can adapt to reach any respondent, no matter their capacities and technology usage.

GeoPoll works with all of our clients to identify the best mode through which to reach your target population. For example, women often have lower literacy rates than men, so GeoPoll uses voice calls, or Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing, in local languages to ensure literacy rates are not a barrier to participation. GeoPoll recognizes that some individuals cannot be accessed directly through mobile phones so we offer an in-person service (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing) in which enumerators use GeoPoll’s technology on tablets and mobile phones to undertake in-person interviews. This technology allows for GPS location tracking of enumerators, photo sharing, immediate upload of survey answers, and other features that ensure high-quality data.

One mode GeoPoll has found useful in reaching women of higher socioeconomic status is mobile-based chat forums – through this mode we were recently able to reach women Hausa speakers in specific areas of Northern Nigeria, who often have high levels of distrust of outside groups and are therefore difficult to reach. By connecting them to one another and to a research moderator via a chat group, they felt safe enough to share opinions through the mobile phone which would have been extremely difficult to gather via in-person modes.

Reduce Financial Barriers to Entry

Because women often have less disposable income than men, they may be unlikely to respond to a message that will cost them valuable airtime credit. At GeoPoll, we remove any financial burden on the respondent – our surveys are free to take, even if the respondent has no credit on his/her phone. Providing a small incentive to respondents who complete a survey is also important as they encourage survey participation, and can show that it is beneficial for the whole family if women participate in our surveys. GeoPoll provides incentives directly through airtime credit and/or mobile money and PayPal.

Target Women Specifically

GeoPoll asks all of our respondents’ basic demographic information when they first take a GeoPoll survey, and this information is stored so that we can target specific population groups, such as adolescent girls or women living in a specific location. Pre-stratifying our database in this way allows us to reach the respondents organizations want to connect with quickly. However, we also recognize that women often share a phone with several members of a household, so GeoPoll regularly re-verifies the demographic info we have on file to ensure we are reaching the intended member of a household. Finally, to reach an even more specific group of women, such as mothers of young children or those working in a particular profession, GeoPoll can include screening questions for surveys and save that information for future targeting.

Adapt to Women’s Availability

Women often have less free time than men, which should be considered in the survey design process. Surveys should be able to be completed in 15 minutes or less, and women should be given the option to take a survey at a time that suits them– this is possible via SMS, where surveys can be completed for 1-2 days following the initial invitation message, and interviewer-administered voice calls, where interviewers can call back at a more convenient time.

Prioritize Women’s Safety

Mobile phones provide a safe and secure way for women to privately share their thoughts, opinions, and observations. GeoPoll prioritizes our respondent safety by ensuring that all of our surveys have explicit opt-in and opt-out messages, in-person or voice call interviewers are appropriately trained, data collected is kept securely, and that personally identifiable information is never shared. We adhere to all ESOMAR market research ethics guidelines and take steps to build trust with our respondents.

While there is still much progress to be made in terms of gender equity and data equity, we hope that by sharing some of our experience and best practices for reaching women, GeoPoll can help move the global conversation forward. If you are looking to conduct research with a female audience in emerging markets, conflict zones, or hard-to-reach areas, please contact us today.

The post How to Use Mobile to Reach Women in Emerging Markets appeared first on GeoPoll.

Surveys are useful for collecting data that quickly provide conclusive answers to research questions such as, “What products would my customers like to see from my brand next?” If 65% of surveyed consumers say they would purchase jeans over t-shirts, looking into denim production would be a good bet for the company.

Survey data can also be easily cross-tabulated to provide more in-depth data on certain segments of a population. For example, by comparing results by gender you may find that 80% of females would purchase jeans, whereas only 50% of men would purchase jeans from your brand and 50% would prefer you produce t-shirts.

The popularity of surveys is also undoubtedly due to the ease in which they can be deployed, especially in areas where Internet and phone usage is high. Brands often implement post-purchase surveys directly on their website, or email survey links to customer lists. Studies that require random samples can be conducted by automated phone dialers, which is a method used regularly by political polling firms. Using these methods, researchers can often collect a representative sample within hours or days.

Methods for Collecting Survey Data in Africa 

However, conducting surveys in areas that have low Internet or phone penetration can be much more difficult. Collecting survey data from countries in Africa, which have very low landline usage and unreliable Internet connectivity, can take much longer, and researchers may have to use older and more manual methods of data collection. The most common methods for collecting survey data in Africa include:

• Face to Face Surveys: Face to face surveys, also known as in-person surveys, require an interviewer to travel to their survey subject – this may mean going door-to-door to find people willing to take a survey, which in some areas can be a challenge due to lack of infrastructure and long distances between houses. Face to face survey answers can be recorded in several ways, including:
  • Pen and Paper: As the name implies, these surveys are those where questions are read and responses recorded via pen and paper. Survey data collected in this way is often subject to human error and data loss or damage, as wrong answers may be selected during the survey, and paper sheets could be lost or torn. This method requires a researcher to input data into a system for analyzing, which can introduce another layer of human error.
  • Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing: CAPI surveys still require an interviewer to read through survey questions and record answers, but the recording is done digitally via a tablet or phone which has questions and answer options loaded onto it via survey software. This method reduces the chance for data loss or damage, and data can automatically be compiled, eliminating the need for a researcher to go through and record all survey answers once they have been collected.
• Surveys via Mobile Phone: Although landline penetration is low in Africa (roughly 0.46% in Kenya, 7.24% in South Africa, and 0.28% in Nigeria), mobile phone usage has grown. In countries such as Kenya, which has 86 mobile subscriptions for every 100 people, and South Africa, which has 162 mobile subscriptions for every 100 people, mobile is a viable mode to collect survey data in Africa. There are several modes which can be utilized to conduct surveys via mobile:
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  • SMS Surveys: SMS or text message surveys are surveys administered via 2-way textmessage conversation, in which a question is sent to a mobile phone number, and an answer typed in is sent back as a response. SMS surveys are useful for collecting survey data in Africa due to the ubiquity of SMS (all phones have basic SMS capabilities) and the ability for messages to be sent even if phones are turned off or do not have service when the message is sent. The questionnaire length for SMS surveys should be kept quite short, and each question and corresponding answers need to stay within 160 characters to avoid being truncated awkwardly. How SMS surveys are administered in Africa can differ by country – learn more about how GeoPoll’s SMS surveys work here.
  • Mobile Web Surveys: Mobile web surveys are link-based surveys that can be viewed in a basic mobilebrowser. A survey link can be shared via email, text message, or through social media, and will open a mobile browser which contains the survey content. Mobile web surveys can include longer question and answer options as there is not a character limit, however, it is still recommended that the number of total questions is kept to under 20.
  • Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing Surveys: CATI surveys are administered via an interviewer calling a mobile phone number and reading through survey content from a remote call center. These surveys do not have a character limit and can be slightly longer than SMS or mobile web surveys as they are not self-administered. Survey responses are typically recorded via CATI software used by the interviewer. These surveys require that call center employees are trained on how to administer surveys correctly, however, can be administered to populations with low literacy rates.
  • Interactive Voice Response Surveys: IVR surveys are pre-recorded surveys conducted via automated voice call. Respondents key in answers on their phone keypads. IVR surveys can be sent to large numbers of respondents at once as they do not require call center interviewers, but tend to have low response rates due to their automated, pre-recorded nature.

• Online Surveys: Surveys can be conducted online in Africa via online survey software, but due to low desktop computer and Internet penetration rates in Africa respondents are often not representative of an entire population. These surveys can be sent out via email to a targeted list, or respondents can be recruited through social media or other types of online advertising. You should keep in mind that even if a survey is sent via an email link, it is very likely to be opened on a mobile phone rather than a desktop browser. Therefore, when using online survey solutions for collecting survey data in Africa, you should verify that questions show up as expected on a mobile device.

How You Should Collect Survey Data in Africa

The “best” way to collect survey data in Africa depends on many factors, including your research goals, target audience, budget, and timeline. For those looking to collect data that is representative of a large portion of the population quickly and cost-effectively, SMS or mobile web are the best methods. Online surveys are very cost-effective and can be used to reach wealthier populations rapidly. CATI surveys are useful for gathering data from a population with low literacy rates, or when you are looking to conduct a longer survey. Face-to-face surveys can reach any population, including the lowest economic classes, however require a significant investment in both time and money. If conducting surveys via face to face methods, we recommend utilizing a trusted vendor such as GeoPoll who uses proprietary CAPI software to track survey completion rates and data quality while surveys are in the field.

No matter how you collect survey data in Africa, we recommend speaking to someone who has experience in conducting surveys in the countries you are working in. GeoPoll has experience collecting survey data in over 30 countries in Africa and can assist with survey design, sample acquisition through our respondent database, survey implementation, and data analysis. For advice on the best way to collect survey data for your project, download our full guide on conducting research in emerging markets or contact us today.

The post What is the Best Way to Collect Survey Data in Africa? appeared first on GeoPoll.