Web-based Data Collection
Along with our phone-based data collection, the Web is an integral part of our data collection offering. Our philosophy is to run a seamless phone and Web operation which we are able to do because of our data collection software, Results for Research®. When the Web became an important component of the research business, we took this existing and robust CATI product and extended it to the Web. The result is a product that is as comprehensive as any phone-based data collection product is, but also Web centric and fully integrated with the phone product.
What is the advantage of having an integrated phone and Web package? Because of the nature of the data collection that we do, we are often asked to meet challenging quota requirements. In many cases our panels will satisfy the requirements of the study, without the need to resort to the phone. But in those instances where the phone is needed, we are able to conduct some of the interviews by phone using the same software and questionnaire. All data – regardless of whether it was collected on the Web or by phone – is stored in the same data base, to ease data file creation at the end of the study.
Like all good Web-based data collection capabilities, we have bulk email support, techniques for improving response rates, including follow-up by phone to encourage respondents to complete the survey, refined techniques for effectively recruiting specific respondents by phone and then transferring them to the Web, using an approach we call “hot transfer”, and the ability to create interesting and user-friendly screens to keep studies interesting.
Web studies offer the opportunity for designing more interesting questionnaires, and our programming staff uses the facilities in the Results software and HTML programming to design interesting studies. For example, responses can be dragged into various response categories; rank ordering can be performed by moving entries on the screen, and scales can be implemented as sliding scales. Features such as these provide a far more engaging environment for the respondent.
Click here to see examples of the special question types suppoted by the Results software
As would be expected for a company that does the amount of research that we do, particularly medical research, our software also supports both conjoint and discrete choice studies.