As Market Research & Insights professionals, we always strive to optimize survey data quality. It can be tricky, especially when surveying niche, over-surveyed or hard-to-find populations. When attempting to do survey research with these challenging groups, collecting data that is reliable enough (in terms of sample size and sample quality) to generate actionable insights can be painful.
One way we can improve our data collection success in these cases is by conducting mixed-mode surveys. As the name suggests, mixed-mode surveys (sometimes also referred to as multi-mode surveys) use more than one mode during data collection. Research on mixed-mode research suggests that survey research quality can be improved by mixed-mode data collection.*
So, how can mixed-mode data collection amp up your survey research? Here are just some of the ways:
- Response Rate and Representation Gains: By finding market research participants from challenging groups where they are most likely to respond (mobile, computer, phone, face-to-face), it is more likely that you will gain not only a greater number of respondents but also a greater number of respondents truly representative of the target population.
- Bias Reduction: Mixed-mode surveys that offer response mode choice can encourage participants. This can boost response rates, and may also reduce bias. (See our compendium for further details).
- Coverage Issue Compensation: While there are caveats with all data collection modes (none is 100% perfect for all research needs), you can compensate for some limitations by using multiple modes. It’s like diversifying your investments: where one lacks, another can fill the gaps!
- Cost Reduction: With niche populations, data collection costs can get very expensive. In some scenarios, like switching from in-person interviews to Zoom interviews, costs can be reduced if your new mode(s) replace existing, expensive data collection processes.
The above list was created, in part, through research gathered while creating this compendium on Mixed-Mode Data Collection in Survey Research. We love to share useful research-on-research, so please see the compendium for all citations of the thorough analyses that back these statements.
With survey research, data collection runs the risk of “garbage in, garbage out”; if we have people participating in our market research studies who aren’t truly the target population of interest, that data is garbage. With a difficult population, there is always a temptation to get data collection done no matter what. But if that means forcing a data collection mode that is not a fit for the target market, we may inadvertently create data garbage.
While Mixed-Mode Data Collection is certainly not without its challenges, it does offer important benefits. For the details and research on the efficacy, see our free compendium.
*We compiled related research findings in our mixed-mode compendium. All sources are cited in the compendium here.
