Everything is available online now: making online payments for your credit card, responding to surveys, writing letters via email, etc. Due dates today mean you have until that very day until 11:59:59 PM. So it should only be a matter of time before the archaic form of data collection through the use of paper gets weeded out, right? Wrong. Paper surveys will never die.

Companies that survey their employees need a representative sample to have statistically significant and conclusive data. While the tech field today is dominating today’s market with electronics and applications, there are the other hundreds of industries that need attention as well. Not every industry has readily available computers for their employees to use to take surveys nor is it a guarantee that all employees in a company are literate with the computer and Internet: factory workers, farmers, fast food restaurants, etc. Leaving this population of people out of the survey would leave the company with not much to survey. These people are the frontline of the company and experience any problems first. Paper surveys can be taken home and completed leisurely, account for any lack of computers, computer illiteracy, etc. Conducting a survey with paper is a mode of data collection that will live on for years to come. While not all market research firms offer it, it is still a very much needed form of data collection.

Confidentiality means that the third party conducting the survey knows who the respondents taking the survey are, but there is no disclosure of that information to the company that hired the third party to conduct the survey. The information of knowing who the respondents are allows the third party to track respondents that have already taken the survey. This is solely for the purpose of following up with those that have not taken the survey to help increase response rates. When the topic of confidentiality is raised, it means that respondents will be tracked for surveying purposes only: no identifying information is returned to the company that hired the third party to conduct the survey.

Unlike confidentiality, anonymity is a double-blind study, which means that there is no identifying information, period. Neither the company that hired the third party to conduct the survey or the third party itself will know which respondent took which survey. In essence, a respondent could take a survey once or over 50 times and no one would ever know. Generally, this approach to surveying leads to lower response rates than a study with confidentiality assurance because this does not allow for the third party to specifically target only the respondents that have not completed the survey. There is no way to prevent receipt of unwanted mail and/or phone calls to respondents that have already completed the survey.

While a respondent might feel uncomfortable being tracked for fear of retaliation, they can rest assured that such tracking for the third party is for surveying purposes only (e.g., sending out reminders to respondents that have not taken the survey via the Internet or telephone). Information garnered from a study ensuring confidentiality is much more reliable than that of an anonymous study based on the problem mentioned above. Ratings and comments in the surveys would not be representative of the entire sampled population if one or a few respondents take multiple surveys. To answer the question, confidentiality or anonymity would be the correct answer. Either choice yields the same outcome: the company that hired the third party to conduct the survey will never receive any identifying information that can link the respondent to their answers. If any personal information is gathered about the respondents, only the third party conducting the survey will ever know. None of that information will ever be disclosed to anyone. It’s part of a code of ethics for professionals in the survey industry that must be followed.

Today, roughly 1 in 4 people in the United States use their mobile phone number as their primary form of contact and young adults between the ages of 18-29 have a higher percentage of using their mobile phones as their primary line.[1] While the convenience of mobile phones is undeniable, we cannot ignore the demographics of those that still use landlines as their main form of communication–particularly older generations and certain socio-economical classes.

Mobile phones, while convenient, are expensive and a privilege to have. Not everyone can afford the extra hundreds or even thousands of dollars spent a year on paying a monthly mobile phone bill. Those that are lucky enough who can afford the expenditure have to monitor certain items such as minutes and SMS usage to ensure their usage is within their plan/budget. As a result, survey calls to a mobile phone can go unanswered because, unlike landlines, mobile phones are charged by the minute. Without any incentive, every minute used is another cost to the consumer.

Both landline and mobile polling have both their advantages and disadvantages. However, we shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss yesterday’s technology because, to be objective and representative, we have to consider all means of communication to reach everyone.

Some new features on our website include: a video about our company, testimonies from our clients, and a business blog–all of which will be updated on a regular basis. We encourage you to share your thoughts and opinions about the topics as we thrive off of feedback. Sentenium is growing by the day and we would like nothing more than to share that success with you!

Please help us grow by giving us feedback and contributing to our website. We look forward to hearing from you.