Whether you are a market researcher gathering customer insights or a social scientist exploring human behavior, listening to respondents’ unfiltered and unrestricted voices can provide more valuable insights. And, so thematic research stands as a powerful data analysis method that empowers researchers to gather textual feedback and harness the potential of data.

In this blog, we’ll dive into thematic analysis and how it aids the world of research.

What is thematic analysis?

As the name suggests, Thematic Analysis means analyzing the patterns of themes in data. It is a method of qualitative data analysis. It means this method can be used to analyze non-numerical data such as textual feedback you gather using surveys.

The process involves systematically organizing and interpreting open-ended feedback to uncover meaningful insights and identify underlying patterns within the data. Tools such as text analysis software help you automatically perform analysis and identify themes and patterns.

The analysis approach enables you to contextualize experiences, understand participants’ perspectives, and explore the hidden meaning behind their behavior.

Example of a real-world application of thematic analysis.  

Say a tech company conducts market research to understand customer satisfaction. The company collects textual feedback from all its active customers.

The company uses text analysis tools to perform thematic analysis to make sense of the data. After careful analysis, they identify several recurring themes such as “customer support,” “billing,” “ease of use,” and “product performance.”

Through this analysis method, the tech company can now quantify the recurrence of each key theme and draw insights into areas that need improvement and where they excelled.

How does thematic analysis help in research questions?

The patterns can be analyzed by repetitive data reading, data coding, and theme creation. The importance of thematic analysis is in exploring human experiences, attitudes, and behavior.

• It allows you to discover patterns and trends, thus revealing recurring themes that may otherwise go unnoticed.
• You can generate a rich and nuanced understanding of respondents’ perspectives.
• It helps you contextualize data by offering a comprehensive interpretation.

Let's take an example to understand how thematic analysis helps in research questions.

How has social media changed over the years?

The above research will need you to gather data from sources, blogs, news, interviews posted online. Interview a few new generation users of the platforms and the old users to gather intel about how they use the social platforms and what their experience is.

Also read: Quantitative Research Question

Who does thematic analysis?

Some of the established players have started implementing Thematic Analysis to improve their Manual Rules processes but tend to produce a list of terms that are difficult to review. This approach works well for text analytics platforms that are focused on improving the customer experience. However, it avoids generating generic solutions that are usually not designed to solve the problem.

Only a small portion of feedback is linked to the top 10 themes. Uncategorized feedback means that you can't slice the data to get deeper insights. Thematic research is a method that can easily analyze text-based feedback from multiple sources, such as email, social media, and real estate brokers.

What are some best practices for survey data visualization?

As we are towards the end of the article, let’s look at some of the best practices to ensure consistent, efficient, and comprehensive data visualization.

1. Ensuring interpretability and clarity:

Use visualization elements that are clear, concise, and easy to interpret. Use appropriate labels, titles, and context to communicate complex information with completeness clearly.

2. Consider accessibility of the report:

Make survey the survey data visualization tools like Looker Studio accessible to all responsible users. The platform must adhere to data security standards and guidelines to ensure any authorized user is unable to access it.

3. Ethical data handling:

Leverage a survey analytics software that adheres to data privacy regulations and ethical standards when handling survey data. Obtain informed consent from respondents and implement robust data security to protect data integrity and uphold ethical principles.

What are the advantages of using thematic analysis?

Thematic analysis in qualitative research is an unsupervised approach that enables you to create categories and perform statistical tests without having to set up any rules or procedures in advance.

1. In-depth insights:

The method allows you to gain deeper insights into participants’ motivations, emotions, and perspectives.

2. User-friendly:

The analysis is highly accessible as most modern survey software provides you with the capability of text analysis.

3. Holistic understanding:

Exploring multiple recurring themes in context with the research objective creates a comprehensive understanding of the topic.

4. Applicability:

The data analysis method is useful for various fields like market research, customer experience research, social research, healthcare research, etc.

What are the disadvantages of using thematic analysis?

Thematic analysis is an unsupervised approach that enables you to create categories and perform statistical tests without having to set up any rules or procedures in advance.

1. Overlooks minor themes:

Often times, you may overlook minor themes or less recurring patterns, leading to oversight of crucial insights.

2. Limited context:

Thematic analysis is typically phrase-based. Sometimes, it can't capture the meaning of a phrase correctly. For instance, in a complex narrative it can't capture the customer's intent to stop using the service.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_Sz8DEQEBc

What are the different types of thematic analysis?

With an adequate understanding of the method, let us dive into the various types of thematic analysis in qualitative research.

1. Inductive:

Focuses on developing a theory. This approach is used when there is not much information available on a topic and you have to build a theory straight from scratch. You can always validate this approach but it is hard to prove that observation made from this approach is correct. The inductive approach consists of three stages:

• Observation- a road has a busy traffic
• Look for a pattern- the road has busy traffic from 9 am to 6 pm.
• Develop a theory- a road has busy traffic during working hours.

2. Deductive:

Focuses on testing an existing theory. It totally depends on the Inductive approach as you start from working on an already existing theory. You go on formulating the theory and derive a conclusion out of it. The genuineness of deductive theory depends on how much true inductive theory is. The deductive theory has four stages:

• Starting with a theory- the road has busy traffic during working hours.
• Formulate a hypothesis- generally, all roads are busy during working hours.
• Collecting data to study hypothesis- observing all the roads during the working hours every day.
• Analyze the result (does the collected data reject or validate the hypothesis)- since all the roads are busy during working hours -> support a hypothesis.

3. Semantic:

Focuses on the details of the data. We research the data on the grounds that it has some secondary meaning and purpose to it. This will help to construct insights and information regarding how the data was being used.

4. Latent:

Focuses beyond the semantics of the data and works more on the underlying meanings, concepts, and assumptions that we made earlier with the semantic approach.

In order to choose the best-fit approach for your study, go through its requirements and which approach or combination of approaches will best align with your data.

Also read: How to make the most of your data analysis in research?

How to conduct thematic analysis?

There are six steps involved in conducting thematic analysis:

1: Familiarization

2: Coding

3: Generating themes

4: Reviewing themes

5: Defining themes

6: Writing

Once you have gathered adequate data and chosen your suitable approach, it is time to follow the following steps to build your thematic analysis for your problem statement.

Step 1: Familiarization

It is important to be familiar with the data before we begin to dig deep into the individual topics. This can include re-reading the whole data, having an overview of its context, and taking out personal notes if necessary. This is will help you to know your data.

Step 2: Coding

This includes highlighting or labelling certain words or group of words or even phrases in the data that all together indicates something. This something will come in handy when you are trying to grab the essence of the data. Let's take an example to understand this:

Example: How has social media changed over the years?

Let's say we are interviewing an old social media user here and her opinion on the problem statement. She says,

"I think the social media platforms are not for us oldies anymore. The trends are rapidly changing and there is always something new on the wall every day. It becomes difficult for people like me to keep up with those. Hence we often feel disconnected."

Now we can derive codes for the highlighted phrases like; Fast change | Uninterested | Discomfort

Step 3: Generating Themes

Now that we have our codes, we can derive themes from them. Themes can have several codes indicating the same expressions. As for our above example, we can have a theme called "not satisfied" for all the codes we derived from the interview. This will give an idea about how many codes are being used again and again and which ones of them serve no purpose so we can just discard them.

Step 4: Reviewing themes

Here we compare the themes with our original data and look for any missing points or irrelevant results. We can modify our themes depending on how they satisfy and justify the data after tracing them back to it.

Step 5: Defining themes

Further ahead, we can name the themes depending on what they indicate and what we get to understand from it about the data.

Step 6: Writing

For the last step, we will the results that we have come to and the conclusion that our thematic analysis has helped us to understand. As per our example, we can conclude that social media has changed so much that the older generations find it hard to interact with and result in their dissatisfaction on the matter.

So that is how to regulate your perfect Thematic Analysis for the next time you decide to research a problem statement.

Conclusion

In qualitative research, thematic analysis is a powerful and flexible data analysis tool with an ability to produce comprehensive findings, reveal underlying meanings, and detect patterns that aid in drawing data-based conclusions as well as decisions by researchers. To leverage the full potential of this approach, integrate it with quantitative and other qualitative data analysis methods. Mixed-method blends the benefits of both analysis approach and empowers you to generate broader and rich insight.

FAQ’s

What is the thematic analysis method?

The thematic analysis refers to the process of identifying, interpreting, and reporting these themes in textual data. It is a method for identifying, analyzing and reporting patterns within data.

What are the 5 steps of thematic analysis?

The common approach to thematic analysis involves five steps:

1. Familiarization
2. Coding
3. Generating themes
4. Reviewing themes
5. Defining and naming themes

What is the meaning of making thematic analysis?

Meaning-making thematic analysis involves interpreting the data to derive deeper insights and understand underlying meanings.

What is an example of doing thematic analysis?

A thematic analysis example could involve studying participants' experiences on dating sites. Researchers used a thematic analysis to study participants' experiences on dating sites, analyzing qualitative data to identify trending issues and recurrent patterns, providing insights into young females' mindsets and social interactions.

Discourse analysis is a qualitative research method used commonly in the field of social science, humanities, cultural studies, and more. The approach refers to the process of analyzing a written or spoken language in its social context.When you google the word “Discourse” the first thing to come up is “written or spoken communication or debate”. And as Cambridge would say, “discourse is communication in speech or writing”.What we get to understand in simple words is, Discourse refers to a discussion concerning a topic. It can be done in writing or even face to face. In other words, discourse can be communicated through words.For instance; 

1. A teacher discussing math with his students.
2. A team talking about their project.

Let’s understand what is discourse analysis and how it is used in everyday life.Start Creating Surveys Now

What exactly is Discourse Analysis?

According to the famous Oxford Dictionary, Discourse Analysis is “Linguistics, a method of analyzing the structure of texts or utterances longer than one sentence, taking into account both their linguistic content and their sociolinguistic context; analysis performed using this method.”Discourse Analysis is a method to study the written & spoken language which deals mostly with its social use. Understanding the cultural and social context of the languages is an important agenda for discourse analysis. Using that helps to mend their linguistic and sociological aspects.Discourse analysis aims to research the working of the language and learn the meaning derived from the words, depending on the situation. In the process of analysis, the context of the conversation is taken into consideration along with its meaning.For instance, the context may include the location of the speaker or non-verbal cues (body language) at the time of the discourse. In written communication, images and symbols used may encompass the context.

Why do you need Discourse Analysis?

Let’s understand with an example. You are analyzing a speaker’s speech, for you to understand the context of his speech completely, you will need to study the background of the speaker, why did he choose to speak on that topic, the background of the audience, and that of the locality he is speaking in.One can also predict the power imbalance amongst the people by observing them talk to each other. How they are cultivated in culture and communicated through a language. Hence this analysis approach can prove a perfect fit to assess social issues.Example:A politician (someone with more power) talking to their followers (someone with less power).You can use discourse analysis if you want to understand the following factors in the way the two groups communicate. 

1. Power or Inequality 
2. How do the two groups communicate in a specific context (in a public procession with media Vs. in a meeting with no media)
3. Ideology - how ideas and beliefs are shared using verbal language
4. Achieving social goals using verbal communication 

Approaches to Discourse Analysis

Depending on one’s purpose of the analysis, there are two main approaches of Discourse Analysis one can use. These are namely:

Language in use:

This approach focuses on the regular use of language in communication. It includes paying attention to sentence structures, grammar, phonology, etc. It traces back to formal ways of language usage, language in use pays attention to proper rules of grammar and when the language sounds ok to a native.This method helps in understanding the technicality of the language and how it is used in day-to-day conversations.Example:The language English has the prefix “un” and the suffix “able” as in “unpredictable” However, an English speaker may say, “That’s un-flipping-predictable”. From a language-in-use perspective, the infix “flipping” could be confusing. Discourse analysis can be used to examine what is the role of the infix, or how it helps in everyday conversation.

Socio-Political:

This approach of discourse analysis focuses on not only the technicalities but also on how a language influences the social and political context and another way round.

1. Critical Discourse Analysis- focuses on the power spectrum. Eg: Teachers and their students.
2. Normalized power- firm and suggestive, refers to one’s existence in the society and within its norms. E.g., people not talking in the library.
3. Repressive power- is confidently believed. E.g.: parents threaten their kids with a punishment.

If you look closely, the above sub-approaches are related to each other.

Steps to carry out in Discourse Analysis

Finalize your approach:

You need to decide what approach you want to use. This depends on what you are going to use discourse analysis for. Understand the aim and objective of the problem and research questions. You need to have an approach or a combination of an approach that best satisfies your research and best aligns with your study’s purpose.

Gathering Data: 

Once you have finalized your approach, it’s time to collect your data. Discourse analysis uses data in the form of talk or text.You can use the following resources to gather qualitative data to examine discourse:

1. Newspapers and periodicals
2. Brochures or other marketing materials
3. Government documents 
4. Social media comments, online forums, and website comments/reviews
5. Interviews or qualitative surveys

To avoid irrelevant and redundant data, make sure to answer the “what” “why” and “who” questions with respect to your case study. This will help you save time and keep your research on the right track.

Investigating context:

The key is to understand the concept and its meaning. Look to it that you come up with answers to

1. What is it?
2. Why is it?
3. When did it take place?
4. Where did it happen?
5. Who was in it?
6. What does it say about society?
7. How is it conveyed?

Analyzing gathered data:

After collecting the relevant data, look for patterns and themes. Examine elements you identify in the data and relate them to the themes and patterns relevant to your research purpose.For example, you can examine words or statements that relate to the dominance of the politician towards the followers. The words can include themes that reflect values or beliefs towards those with less power or body language that shows authority. 

Final review:

This includes returning to your research questions and seeing that you have satisfied all concerning requirements. After assigning attributes to the elements, you should start examining the meaning of the language.Analyze in a broader context to draw a better conclusion for your research.

Discourse Analysis: Real-Word Example

The example is how a healthcare facility used discourse analysis to understand the dissonance between patients and care providers.In a study funded by The Health Foundation, discourse analysis was applied to transcripts of conversations between doctors & patients were used to examine where misunderstandings were occurring.Two consultation audio-recording of 25 patients of breast cancer diagnostic consultations were analyzed using theme-oriented discourse analysis to investigate the moment of dissonance.The result of the discourse analysis showed that 8 out of 25 patients or their partners deferred the clinician’s treatment decision. Six patients asked for a recommendation.In medicinal science, discourse analysis helps physicians ensure that they are understood by their patients, especially those with limited language skills.

Summing up,

You are all set to conduct your discourse analysis. The vital thing to remember is that the process considers the social & cultural context in which language is used.Therefore, discourse analysis can be used in business research, academic research, or government research, as long as the aim is to understand the aspect of communication.Wondering what will be the cost of conducting survey research using Voxco?Get a free quoteExplore Voxco Survey Software

Research is the most important aspect through which a company can gather the relevant data required to make informed decisions. Many research models present in the market have made this data collection process easier and more efficient.

These research models focus on deciding the correct topic, picking the right audience with the relevant knowledge base that qualifies them as appropriate respondents, and asking them the right questions to analyze and predict accurately.

With the development of computerized learning and AI, the data collection process has become easier and simplified over the years.

Brands spend their own sweet time and resources going through multiple research methodologies and conducting feasibility studies to see if the method they choose is viable enough to be implemented.

One such method is CATI or computer-assisted telephone interviewing software. Let’s dive deep into what CATI is and its importance in this blog.

What is CATI?

In layman's terms, CATI is a research method that conducts survey research in a telephonic manner guided by a computer. The interviewer makes a call to the respondent and conducts the whole research over the telephone by using a script that is displayed on a computer instead of using the traditional paper-printed survey.

CATI surveys simplify the data collection by allowing agents to make notes about the respondent’s answers on the computer. Logic functions used by the software make the interviewing process dynamic. Using question randomization and repetition based on the answers provided by a particular respondent, you can customize the survey.

In addition, piping and branching techniques help to route to and skip questions based on what is relevant for a participant.

CATI survey software offers a better alternative to traditional data collection. It mixes the interpersonal touch generated by an interaction between company personnel and a respondent. Thus offering an easier way of collecting and sorting data that assist the interviewer in gathering relevant information without compromising quality.

Moreover, it allows the interviewer to focus on the interaction while leaving the complex work of managing data to the computer. This way, the interviewer gets to build a good conversation with the respondent, and the efficiency in data collection improves. Enhance your research process with an AI interview assistant to streamline interactions and gather precise data.

Also read: How to make automated phone surveys?

How does a computer-assisted telephone interview work?

CATI survey software allows you to design a survey questionnaire and program it to work seamlessly during a telephone survey. The tool allows agents to conduct telephone interviews by following the survey script.

The flexible and intuitive platform enables agents to log in to the answers on time and ask relevant questions based on the respondents' answers. This allows interviewers to focus on the respondent.

Also read: CATI in market research: Why it’s time to use Phone Surveys

Why leverage CATI for data collection?

Using cutting-edge phone survey software ensures faster data collection and a wider reach. All the while boosting engagement, increasing agents’ efficiency, & increasing response rates.

Here are six reasons why you should leverage computer-assisted telephone interview software for data collection.

01. Scalable:

CATI is a useful tool when it comes to collecting responses from respondents who are not easily accessible. It breaks down geographical barriers to make it easy for interviewers to collect data from a respondent anywhere simply by making a phone call.

This particular advantage of CATI makes it a better choice than personal interviewing, where a face-to-face interaction takes place between the respondent and the interviewer. This makes it easier to conduct large-scale studies in a short time period without any significant investment.

Using cloud-based CATI software enables you to scale the tool based on your organizational needs.

02. Customizable:

Respondents have a plethora of points of view, and these become more varied as the number of respondents goes on increasing.

Create tailor-made phone surveys using skip-logic, piping, or branching to ensure you ask respondents questions relevant to their experience. This provides the benefit of collecting precise data and eliminating any question or aspect that does not apply to the respondent.

03. Real-time monitoring:

When utilizing computer-assisted telephone interviewing, you can monitor the call's progress. You can supervise an ongoing call and monitor the live dashboard for completed cases, talk & idle time, etc.

Additionally, CATI software allows real-time synchronization and monitoring of data as and when interviews are complete. This benefit makes it easier to highlight and correct mistakes and track real-time progress to see if the study is progressing in the right direction.

Certain omnichannel survey software such as Voxco offers real-time data on the survey progress. It also integrates data from multiple types of research to provide a more holistic picture.

Seamlessly collect data with our integrated telephone survey software

• 99.99% Uptime
• On-Premise / Cloud Hosting Options

04. Good customer service:

For any respondent or customer, the interviewer represents the company for the period of the interview. The way an interviewer converses, his manner of speaking, and his tone can have a big impact on how the customer perceives the company image.

Allowing the interviewer to focus only on their interaction with the customer gives the interviewer freedom to build a good conversation with customers. This ensures the agent is not diverted by data collection and management. The computer does all the work while the interviewer can concentrate on rapport-building activities.

05. Quicker process:

Given that half of the work is automated by computer software, the process of collecting data through CATI is quicker than other manual methods. Sticking to the script and being concise offers the benefit of touching all the pain points in a timely and structured manner. This way you can ensure collection of the required responses and also meet the deadlines.

06. Ease of clarification:

Respondents might not understand certain questions or may feel that the choices offered are ambiguous. Such doubts about the clarity of the survey can easily be resolved through elaboration offered by the interviewer on call.

You cannot offer such clarification through online surveys, which makes CATI a better choice. The better the respondents understand the questions and the intention of the survey, the higher the quality of the feedback you gather.

Also read: 3 Types of Total Survey Error in Telephone Surveys

What are the cons of using CATI survey software?

There are some cons to using CATI as a mode of data collection. Here are two such disadvantages:

Designing takes time:

The process of collecting and navigating through the research may be efficient, but designing a questionnaire and entering it into the software can be time-consuming. Added to this is the typing speed and correctness of the interviewer.

The interviewer needs to be fast in entering the customer’s responses while making sure they do not miss out on any keywords that are essential for achieving the research purpose.

Modifications are difficult to incorporate:

Using logic functions in surveys makes it difficult to incorporate changes and update answers if respondents remember a part of the answer later on.

Research challenges that CATI counters

CATI software helps you interview your audience and gather accurate data faster than face-to-face surveys. Here are some of the challenges that computer-assisted telephone interview surveys help you resolve.

01. Lack of correlation:

The issue of not being to establish a correlation between two different research topics hampers the quality of decision-making that takes place using the data collected. By allowing real-time monitoring and dashboard inclusions, the researchers can combine two or more research results. This enables you to look at the bigger picture and establish a relationship between multiple research studies.

02. Dissatisfied respondents:

Respondents may not complete online surveys due to a lack of human touch or the survey length being too long, leading to non-response bias. By allowing the interviewer to concentrate on interacting with the respondent, the respondent gets to feel valued and respected. The interviewer can make sure that questions are answered to the fullest.

03. Geographical barriers:

Finding the right respondents may be easy, but getting in touch with them is difficult. That is the reason why most researchers go for convenience sampling. It is the process where respondents are selected on the basis of how easily they are available. With CATI, researchers do not need to rely on such a method, and they can carry out nuanced research without worrying about accessibility.

04. The number of respondents:

Researchers try to scale down the number of respondents they interview due to time constraints, lack of resources, and accessibility issues. With CATI in the picture, accurate data gets collected, and respondent accessibility is not an issue; the sample respondents can be maximized. Smaller samples can lead to inaccurate results due to sampling bias. This possibility is eliminated due to CATI.

05. Building long-term relationships:

Your customers walk out of a research process satisfied and content with the interaction they had, all because their opinions are valued. CATI brings good customer experience to the table so that long-term relationships are established, and satisfaction is kept top-notch.

Use cases of CATI survey software

Computer-assisted telephone interview survey software helps you reach your audience by phone and gather data without the need for face-to-face conversation. Market or social researchers, government agencies, and other organizations use telephone surveys to engage audiences whom they cannot reach with personal or online surveys.

1. Market research:

Brands can use phone surveys as a data collection method to gather insights into customers’ preferences, purchase behavior, and attitudes.

You can conduct phone surveys to

• Guage brand awareness,
• Gather feedback on new products or services,
• Understand customer experience and their satisfaction with the company’s products/services,
• Segment market based on demographic, geographic, behavioral, and other characteristics, and
• Gather competitive intelligence.

2. Political polling:

You can use CATI surveys in political campaigns to gather insights from voters about their opinions and preferences. Here are some ways you can use phone surveys in political polling:

• Track changes in voters’ preferences and gather their opinion on campaign messages.
• Conduct exit polls to understand how people vote and predict the result.
• Conduct focus groups to understand the voter’s concerns.

3. Social research:

Social scientists can use phone surveys to understand the beliefs, attitudes, practices, and behaviors of various groups in relation to societal issues.

Social scientists can use it for the following purposes:

• Gather data using social welfare surveys on social assistance, access to social services, housing, food, etc.
• Gather public opinions on social values, policies, and programs.

4. Health research:

Healthcare organizations can use phone surveys to track patients’ aftercare or explore individuals’ access to healthcare services. The insights can help organizations develop public health interventions and policies.

Here are some ways healthcare organizations can use phone surveys:

• Track patient satisfaction with the quality of care and access to healthcare services.
• Collect public information on healthcare utilization, types of services used, cost of healthcare services, frequency of visits, etc.

Overall, the CATI survey is a valuable tool for gathering insights from a wider population in a short amount of time. Using the data, organizations can make informed decisions and further follow up to gather in-depth insights.

Conclusion

CATI surveys are a valuable research tool, offering advantages such as faster data collection, control over the research process, high response rates, etc. It helps you reach an audience who may not be proficient in using mobile to take online surveys. Or those who you cannot reach even with field surveys.

Phone surveys allow you to avoid misinterpretation of questions, thus providing you with higher-quality data. It is quick and efficient, as agents can enter the data as they go through the interview. This means the software can automatically analyze the data right after the last interview ends.

This data collection method is a great example of technological advancement in this interconnected world.

Why Voxco is the right choice for you?

CATI survey software is an important research tool that can help desired end results. But the very act of selecting the right software that meets your needs can be a little difficult to find.

Here’s how Voxco makes a good case for the scale and nature of the study that you are looking to conduct:

1. An omnichannel platform: Find everything you need in one place by combining our powerful Voxco CATI mode with Voxco’s Cloud Dialer and Voxco IVR. Create an integrated phone survey system of unparalleled efficiency.
2. Dynamic survey design tools: The cumbersome part is made easy to create highly complex surveys with advanced question types and multiple conditions.
3. Interviewer’s flexibility: The freedom for interviewers to switch between languages gives a personal touch to the interviewing process.
4. Sophisticated fieldwork management tools: Maximize response rates with fieldwork tools like time zone management, interviewer roles, and smoothing functions.
5. Phone survey software integration: Voxco CATI can be seamlessly integrated with an entire telephony system of your choice:
   • Voxco Dialer offers automated, manual, or hybrid dialing modes to maximize dialing productivity.
   • Optimize interviewing resources by blending inbound and outbound calls, and improve response rates by using Voxco IVR to handle returned calls.

FAQs

1. What is a CATI survey?

When you use a computer for interviewing and gathering feedback from a human, it is known as a CATI survey.

You can create a survey with an extensive logic function to ensure that you ask only relevant questions. Once the software connects a call to the respondent, the interviewer can read from the interviewer monitor the script with an introduction, instructions, and questions in it. The interviewer can select the code based on the respondent’s answer and log in the data.

2. How are CATI different from traditional phone surveys?

In a CATI interview, the agent gets assistance from a computer program to conduct a survey efficiently. The agent reads the survey questions from the screen and logs in the response, the software uses logic to show the next question based on the previous answer.

Whereas, on traditional phone surveys, the interviewer had to manually look for survey questions which meant longer research time and irrelevant questions.

3. What is the advantage of using CATI surveys?

It is more time and cost effective than face-to-face surveys. You can reach a wider audience where they are, thus helping you utilize your research time efficiently. The software also enables you to take time-zone into consideration.

Agents can focus on gathering data and so complete the survey project faster.

4. How long does it take to conduct phone interviews?

The length of phone surveys depends on factors such as the number of questions, the complexity of the question, and the number of respondents. Even with automated calls and sophisticated logic, a phone interview can last up to 10 to 20 minutes.

It’s important to keep the number of questions to a minimum. Too many questions can lead to survey fatigue and lower your response rate.

Conducting surveys and gathering data is easy. However, the right insights often get buried in the pile of noise. Visualizing survey data helps you tell a story by transforming the raw feedback into insightful data. By leveraging survey data visualization, you can easily identify trends, patterns, relations, and themes in the collected data.  

Investigating survey data with a visualization tool empowers you with the right data to make informed decisions, propelling business growth. In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of utilizing survey data visualization tools and how to visualize survey data.

What is Knowledge Panel?

A KnowledgePanel survey is a research method that uses a carefully chosen group of people to collect information on different subjects. Unlike typical surveys, which often pick people randomly, KnowledgePanel surveys use a more focused method. This ensures a diverse and accurate sample that truly represents the group being studied.

Witness the power of omnichannel engagement and take your research to new heights with Voxco.

Embark on your journey towards data-driven success!

How does a Knowledge Panel survey work?

Panel members are selected randomly to ensure that survey results accurately represent the population, with a high level of accuracy. This level of precision is not achievable with non-probability panels. KnowledgePanel has improved its recruitment process by using Address sampling (ABS) instead of the Random Digit Dialing (RDD) method.

ABS sampling, which is based on probability, helps increase coverage of the population and establishes a robust sampling system for reaching individuals who are typically hard to reach. This includes people from minority groups and young adults. With ABS recruitment, households without internet access are provided with a web-enabled device and free internet.

Once participants accept the invitation to join the panel, they complete a brief demographic survey known as the core profile survey. The information collected in this survey is essential for future panel sampling. Successful completion of the core profile survey allows participants to become active panel members. Additionally, all respondents receive similar privacy and confidentiality protections.

A look inside ABS Recruitment

The recruitment process uses probability-based sampling from addresses listed in the USPS Delivery Sequence File. ABS methodology has a big advantage: it allows sampling of entire delivery points regardless of whether they have a telephone. By using existing data about addresses, it helps plan how to represent different subgroups accurately based on attrition rates.

• Hispanic age range 18-30
• Non-Hispanic age range 18-30
• Hispanic age range 31+
• Non-Hispanic age range 31+

From the randomly sampled addresses, the adults receive an invitation to join the Knowledge Panel every quarter. This happens over a series of contact attempts, comprising of an invitation letter, a postcard for reminding, and a continuous follow-up letter. In order to join the panel, the invited households should:

• Complete and mail back the paper form via a postage-paid envelope
• Call a toll-free number associated with GfK
• Go to a specific GfK website and fill out the recruitment form

Recruiting household members

The members of the entire household are enumerated at the time of the initial recruitment survey. Post enumeration, each household member equal to or above the age of 13 years can be recruited for participating in the Knowledge Panel survey. However, it’s important to take consent from the parents or guardians for the initial recruitment interview of the household members that are 13 -17 years old.

Survey Sampling

Once the panel members are successfully recruited as well as profiled, they are eligible to be selected for client surveys. Based on the study design, stratified random sampling is seamlessly carried out on the profile data.

The basic rule of sampling is not assigning individual members more than a single survey every week. In the case of certain exceptions, this confines the total assignments of a member to 4 or 6 surveys every month. If a survey sample requires prescreening, then members are usually drawn from a panel’s subsample (like females, window shoppers, republicans, etc.).

Survey Administration

Once assigned to a survey, members receive an email notification whenever a new survey is available. This email contains a link that takes them directly to the survey questions, without needing a login or password. The field period for surveys can last anywhere from a few hours to several weeks, depending on the client's requirements.

After three days, automatic email reminders are sent to panel members who haven't responded. If these reminders don't get the desired response, telephone reminder calls are made. It's standard protocol to wait at least 3 to 4 days after sending email reminders before making phone calls.

Panel members are typically expected to complete one survey per week or four surveys per month. Each survey should take between 10 to 15 minutes to complete.

Survey response rates

The response rate reporting for Knowledge Panel surveys is in accordance with the AAPOR standards. The AAPOR standards were originally designed with single survey administrations in focus. However, the response rates for KnowledgePanel surveys are calculated using algorithms developed by Callegaro and DiSogra in 2008.

Mostly, about 65% of people finish these surveys. The rate might change a bit depending on things like how long the survey is or what it's about.

What are the advantages of Knowledge Panel surveys?

Fairly nice compensations

In Knowledge Panel surveys, every survey session of 10-15 minutes is likely to help you earn approximately $1. If you earn $1 per week that means you can easily earn $60 per year. While the money isn’t too much but it is certainly a great incentive for an interesting activity!  

Turn points into cash

You can easily transform your points into cash. It also lets you turn them into either gift cards or even sweepstakes entries!  

Open for all household members

Every member of the family is free to join. So, every time that letter gets into your mailbox, it could be either for you or any other single member of the household.

What are the disadvantages of Knowledge Panel surveys?

Exclusive Panel

Receiving the invitation isn’t an easy task. The panels are extremely exclusive and only limited households really get the invitation. Even the partners are not authorized to send invitations.

High Checkout Threshold

Knowledge Panel surveys require cash out of $25 due to which they do not stand out among the existing competitors.  

Increased Survey Length

Many users say that the KnowledgePanel surveys keep on becoming lengthy with time. As the payment is not done on an hourly basis, the increasing length of surveys can lead to frictions.

Conclusion

To sum up, KnowledgePanel surveys are a dependable way to collect data that represents public opinions and behaviors accurately. Using probability-based sampling, they give valuable insights across different fields. Although they face challenges like limited access and long surveys, platforms like Voxco help improve their effectiveness. Overall, KnowledgePanel surveys are crucial for making informed decisions and understanding societal trends.

With platforms like Voxco, researchers can fully utilize KnowledgePanel surveys to gain valuable insights, guiding decision-making and creating meaningful impact.

What is a Survey Panel?

In market research, a survey panel refers to a group of re-recruited individuals with shared characteristics who have agreed to provide their feedback in exchange for monetary or non-monetary benefits. Panels are used in longitudinal studies; a type of correlational research that studies variables over long periods of time such as months, years, and decades. The use of a panel allows researchers to keep the individuals being tested constant so that changing behaviours, attitudes, thoughts, and sentiments can be measured effectively at different points in time.

What is a Global Survey Panel?

A global survey panel is a panel comprising of participants from different parts of the world. Online research panel providers often provide access to the global population, allowing organizations to obtain feedback from panels that consist of people from all around the world.

Global survey panels are especially useful to multinational companies that run their operations across different countries as they can collect longitudinal data from their global target market to study the changes in the behavior, sentiment, attitude, and preferences of their consumers.

Channels to Recruit a Global Survey Panel

There are two main recruitment channels through which participants are recruited into a global survey panel:

Internal Channels

Internal recruitment channels refer to when panellists are recruited through a company’s internal channels. This includes their existing customers, their email lists, their social media followers etc. As these individuals already have a direct line of communication with a brand, it is easy to onboard them to the panel.

External Channels

External recruitment channels are used when a company’s internal channels become insufficient. It is more difficult and more expensive to onboard respondents through external channels as they are less likely to consider working with a brand they have not interacted with and therefore have no connection to. Therefore, external channels should only be utilized once the internal channels are exhausted.

The Importance of Incentives in a Global Survey Panel

When conducting surveys and polls, it is crucial to incentivize panellists in order to gain increased engagement and a high survey response rate. Without incentives, it’ll be almost impossible to get the desired amount of survey respondents.

Use the following tips while incentivizing survey panels:

Offer Monetary Incentives

 Monetary rewards are much more effective than non-monetary rewards while trying to incentivize individuals to participate in surveys. The software comes with Skype for business activities to host meetings, interviews, client interactions, and more across any device end-to-end synchronization.

Reward all Participants

A sweepstake may be effective at initially luring in participants. However, a huge chunk of panellists will be left unsatisfied as they won’t be rewarded. Therefore, even if sweepstakes are used, ensure that at least a small reward is given to each panellist.

Avoid Rewards Associated with your Brand

Avoid giving rewards from your company’s prize inventory (company merchandise, for instance) as this provides less flexibility than monetary rewards and may not sufficiently incentivize individuals to participate.

It is important to note, however, that there are some survey panels where the use of incentives is not required. For instance, when conducting customer satisfaction surveys, it is crucial to skip survey panel incentives as an incentive could result in consumers providing positive feedback rather than honest feedback solely to redeem the reward. Hence, in such a case, incentives can compromise survey results.

Characteristics of a Global Survey Panel

The following are a few characteristics of a global survey panel:

Multilingual Support

When conducting surveys across different countries, it is important to ensure that the survey is available in different languages as panellists are more likely to respond when the survey is available in their first language.

Compliance

As global survey panels involve the collection of consumers’ personal data, it is important to ensure that the practices and software used while surveying are compliant with the different laws and regulations of the countries being surveyed.

Screening and Verification

As global survey panels are predominantly conducted using online channels, they run the risk of fraudulent survey respondents creating multiple profiles to obtain additional rewards. Fraudulent responses can compromise the validity of your study, hence it is pivotal to have a thorough screening and verification process to eliminate or minimize this risk.

With well-founded feedback from the relevant audience you can build and deliver successful products or services and create targeted marketing campaigns. While some companies have access to their existing customers for customer insight; other companies turn to using the Research Panel.

A research panel is an answer when you need to gather feedback from a specific type of consumer who mimics the target population. It is most effective and efficient when you need to collect feedback and insight for a specific purpose for market research.

Research Panel is also useful to access your competitor’s customers to compare how your products match up to your competitors. While you can easily access your own customers from your database, you cannot do the same with your competitor’s customers.

This is where the research panel helps you. It offers you the opportunity to gather feedback from consumers who may not be a part of your database. You can survey and analyze the customer insight of audiences to whom you may not have any access.

Factors to remember during Research Panel Recruitment

As we all have learned the larger your sample size is the better your results will be. When you need quantitative data more response may be a better option. However, the number of participants you need largely depends on the nature of your market research.

For example, for research on User Experience, less no. of respondents may be enough to reveal issues with the product or bugs in the app. You don’t need to survey endless no. of participants to get quality, practical and actionable insights.

Criteria of selecting Panelists

Selecting your panelists should align with the goal of your research. This will help you receive the more relevant information to fulfill the purpose of your research.

Define the demographic data that should be considered to gather useful data, such as age, gender, income level, relationship status, education, location, etc. These details will help you narrow down to relevant respondents who are a perfect fit for the market research.

B2B research panel

Companies refer to the B2B research panel when they require insight from experienced people on business matters. So, B2B panelists consist of individuals based on their job description, such as decision-makers, executives, and financial analysts of the company. Thus, for the B2B research panel respondents are selected as per the requirement of the business research.

Add Double Opt-in

A Double Opt-in feature confirms the respondent’s willingness to join the research panel. It is a two-step process, this means it asks for the member’s consent at two different points.

In the first phase of the procedure, the potential panelist sings in by providing general information like name and email address. After submitting the information, the participant is sent an email with a link to complete the process. The link works as the final step to enroll in the research panel. The second step may include a profile-based questionnaire to collect extensive data.

Recruiting Participants for Research Panel

Recruiting for a research panel does not imply that you should get as many people as possible. Though the sample size does matter, for a research panel selecting the right people who will provide you better insight is more important. There are a number of ways you can recruit panelists as we have mentioned in the article.

Outsource to a Research Panel Provider

A research panel provider can help you find trusted respondents who match your respondents and fit the target market. External providers have a wider variety of panelists available to them.

• It can give you access to a specific type of customer who qualifies your requirement.
• It can help you gather feedback from an audience who would otherwise not have any access to, i.e., a competitor’s customer base.

Panel Companies ask their respondents questions on various topics to create a profile for each respondent. The profile data is updated on a daily basis. Therefore, when a client requires a specific sample of respondents for their market research, the Panel Company can provide the sample based on the qualifying criteria of respondents.

This makes outsourcing your market research to a Panel Company a better option. Whether you want a homogenous or a diverse group of panelists, you can take advantage of a Panel Company to successfully reach the objective of your market research.

Access your own Database

You can also put together a panel of respondents from your own customer database. You require the email or other contact details of your customers to survey those who fit your profile for the respondents.

You can obtain the customer details from your sales or development team. Once you have the contact details of these customers you can send an email asking them to participate in a survey.

This works the best when you need to survey your own product or service. From the available customer data you know which customer is best suited for the survey, that is, those who have experienced the product or service.

You can better screen your own customers and narrow them down to survey those who will help you gain useful data. This way you can figure out the issue with the product and why many customers are not signing in or buying it anymore.

Online Recruitment

Email (SMS) or social media are the best platforms to contact the right respondents for your research panel. You can connect with hundreds of consumers and also recruit participants for your panel by identifying those who are interested in becoming a part of the research panel.

The respondents are those who trust your company which will lead you to more meaningful and useful customer feedback.

Email or SMS: You can make use of the customer data to send emails or text messages to your customers. Rather than looking around to recruit participants for the survey you can send them a link to invite them to participate in the survey. The recipient of the email can enter the panel themselves with the open invitation.

You can leverage an automated system to send a personalized message to a wide range of audiences in an instant.

Social Media: There are many options available in social media. While each channel serves a different purpose, all of them bring together thousands of people based on their shared interests. You can leverage social media to target audiences who share the same interest as the subject of your research.

Probability sampling

Using probability sampling to select participants for research panels ensures that the entire target population has a non-zero possibility of receiving an invite to join the panel. Probability sampling gives you control over who enters the panel. They can only join when they are selected by the researcher. Moreover, no one is allowed to refer to their friends or family.

Panelists are recruited by using sampling methods such as –

• Random-digit dialing or RDD
• Address-based sampling or ABS
• Area probability sampling

In probability sampling, potential participants may be the first contact via mail. A package can be sent to the household that contains instructions on how to join the research panel.

An interviewer may attempt to contact the household on their telephone number when the telephone is matched with the address. In case the telephone no. is unavailable an interviewer can make an in-person visit to the selected household.

Incentives

Incentives can play an important role in increasing the participation rate for market research and the quality of data collected. A promised incentive on participation can have a great impact on the quality of data.

You can offer incentives when you use a panel of experienced respondents. These respondents have worked with you previously so they trust your company. Or, you can also promise rewards to every respondent who completes the survey. Promotional offers or rewards can help improve cooperation and increase the chance of obtaining useful data.

Digital Rewards: It could be a QR code or a virtual code for movies, gifts, promos, etc. that can be sent and downloaded online. With tools like Scanova, you can create customized coupon QR codes that enhance personalization.

Monetary Rewards: You can also promise monetary rewards via a digital wallet or gift cards for those who complete the survey. These cards and cash in the digital wallet can be set up and redeemed easily and against any service.

These rewards are better options for instant gratification.

Use a Survey Panel Company that specializes in Research Panel Recruitment

A research panel is now considered a primary market research method. A Survey Panel Company can help you screen your participants down to the qualifying criteria for the survey. A panel provider categorizes the participants of research panels based on demographic factors. This allows the researcher to effectively survey the target group.

The panel software allows you to import your desired list of panelists, update and even create subgroups for maximum efficiency. A panel provider offers detailed monitoring of the survey and the responses gathered from individual participants.

In the new digital age, 4.75 billion people are online on the Internet. Customer’s increasing engagement with different digital channels, where they can publicize positive and negative news about your brand is increasing the challenge for companies.

Digital CX is far different than CX. Although it overlaps with CX, customers have different expectations and needs when it comes to digital CX. 71% of customers expect a consistent experience across all digital channels. They expect a personalized experience from brands using digital technologies.

These customer expectations have set the bar of customer satisfaction high but have also created opportunities for companies to embrace digital transformation. 56% of company leaders, CEOs, say they have seen growth in revenue due to digital improvement.

With the increasing use of digital channels by customers, it is up to the companies to provide excellent digital CX that satisfies their expectations.

What is Digital CX?

Digital CX is the overall experience your customers have while interacting with your brand through your website or mobile apps. It informs about the impact a customer’s digital interaction has on their journey and perception of your company. As your business shifts into digital platforms, touchpoints in the digital customer journey have a great influence on how they perceive your company.

Some examples of digital channels used by customers to interact with your company are:

• Social media channels
• Live chat
• Email
• Company website
• Mobile apps
• Digital Android or Windows kiosks

Companies need to prioritize improving the digital CX across these digital channels. Customers expect a hassle-free experience across all digital channels. They expect a smooth transition between different channels and a personalized experience from your brand.

Digital CX Vs Customer Experience

Digital CX is a part of the Customer Experience umbrella. Both types aim to prioritize customer satisfaction by improving customer experience.

Customers fall in love with companies that treat them like family. They don’t simply buy a product from your brand but buy a complete experience. The experience they have with your brand, the feeling and bond they generate with your company influences their future purchase decision. Therefore, making the customer experience is one vital element for a successful business.

• CX includes in-store experience and the experience customers have when they use digital interfaces to interact with companies.
• Digital CX focuses on the latter part of CX. Companies with digital business see if their website is loading at the proper speed, if customers can access their customer service through an app, if the social media is regularly updated, etc.

Strategies and campaigns used to improve CX cannot be of much use when it comes to digital CX. However, the ultimate aim of digital CX is to give customers the same warmth and human connection that they feel when they visit a brick-and-mortar store.

What makes Digital CX important?

Every now and then new businesses pop up offering similar products and services. As for the result; customers have thousands of companies to choose from, some offering products at a cheaper price.

A customer looking to buy a mobile phone has more than 10 websites and mobile apps at their disposal. So, what can you do to make your digital business stand apart from the rest?

You can compete with digital CX. Providing great service, improving customer experience throughout all digital touchpoints can give your company the edge to become a superior brand.  

You need to make sure your customers are not stuck in their login process, or their payment process. Customers should not have to repeat their address every time they make a purchase. Your website design may be visually pleasing but if it takes too much time to load a page, customers won’t be pleased.

All these factors make digital CX more important for the business.

• Your customers don’t think about the difference between online and offline experiences. They want consistency throughout their journey. They want all the channels to perform well when they want to interact with your customers. So, customers only care about the experience they receive from digital businesses when they use your apps or website.

How to collect feedback to improve Digital CX?

You need data to improve customer experience. Similarly for digital CX you need customer insight from different sources to improve the customer experience.

The following methods can be used to collect customer insight for the purpose of improving digital CX.

Surveys

What better way to learn about the customer experience than to ask customers themselves? You can use an NPS^®  , a CSAT, or a CES survey on your website or app. Set up a simple digital CX survey in the touchpoints you want to collect feedback. Start with a small survey instead of bombarding customers with too many questions. You can add a satisfaction question at the end of a webinar or a blog article. You can also add a star rating question after completing the payment process. You can collect some general, quantifiable feedback from customers and follow up with them if necessary.

Web Analytics

Web Analytics helps collect data about sources of traffic, drop-off points, and high-performing pages. You can identify where most of your customers are coming from, i.e., social media or your ads.

You can also learn which blogs are attracting high traffic. This can tell you what most of your customers like to read.

If customers are complaining about the checking-out point in their customer journey, you can use analytics to look into the page and see how many drop-offs there have been. This way you can improve the page response before more customers complain and leave your brand for some other company.

FAQs

What metrics measure digital CX?

To measure the digital CX for your digital business you can use NPS^®  , CSAT, and CES to collect customer feedback.

What does it mean to have a good Digital CX?

A good Digital CX refers to when your website or app offers a proactive, fast, frictionless, and responsive experience to your customers. The customers experience a cohesive and seamless transition as they switch channels when they interact with your brand.

What is Digital Transformation?

Digital Transformation implies the introduction of digital technologies in a business. It transforms traditional businesses into digital businesses to meet the changing marketing and customer requirements.

What is a Digital Customer Feedback System?

A digital customer feedback system is a system used by companies to gather customer feedback on customer experience. Gathering customer feedback throughout the customer journey is integral to building a good customer experience management program as it allows you to identify issues and pain points that may influence customer retention or conversion. Additionally, a good digital feedback program can help generate new business leads and can significantly improve customer satisfaction levels.

Strategies to Effectively Run a Digital Feedback System

Prevent Repeated Display

Some companies make the mistake of asking for feedback every time a customer comes to their mobile app or website. Repeated display can annoy or frustrate users and can damage user experience (UX). Instead, you should start asking for feedback at longer intervals, such as every 6 months, in order to remain discrete. Then, based on participation rates, you can increase the display frequency to once every month. This will help you find the perfect balance of insight and UX without damaging the user experience.

Balance Active and Passive Engagement Approaches

Active approaches refer to when you “intercept” customers for feedback, whereas “passive” approaches refer to the ever-present feedback surveys on a company’s website or app. Both these approaches have their own advantages and disadvantages. For instance, passive approaches contribute to a better UX, unlike active approaches that may sometimes present themselves as a hurdle. However, passive approaches rely on customer opt-in which is usually less representative than active approaches and may lead to lower survey response rates.Therefore, using a combination of active and passive approaches will allow you to collect representative data while being less indiscreet than through the active approach alone.

Map Customer Journey to Ask the Right Questions at the Right Time

Clearly map out customer journey including the different digital touchpoints. Then, gather information at each touchpoint in order to identify where customers may be facing issues or pain points. Once you know the different issues customers are facing, you can take the appropriate measures to eliminate them.

Keep your Feedback Surveys Concise and To-the-point

Be precise in what you ask in your customer feedback surveys. Asking too many questions can significantly drop response rates, giving you less feedback to work with. Instead, focus on 3-5 important questions that can help you obtain key insights on customer journey. Shorter feedback surveys are also easier on UX as they won’t frustrate visitors with pointless questions.

FAQs on Digital Customer Feedback System

Why is it important to employ a Digital Customer Feedback System?As customer interactions are increasingly taking place online, a digital customer feedback system will allow you to connect with respondents where they are.What is DCX?DCX, or Digital Customer Experience, is the sum of all interactions a customer has with your brand through digital and online channels.What is digital customer experience management?Digital customer experience management involves understanding how customers interact with your brand through digital platforms.What is User Experience? User Experience, or UX, refers to the feelings users experience when using an application, system, service, or product.

Why Choose Voxco?

Use Voxco as a part of your digital customer feedback system to enjoy the following benefits:

Omnichannel Survey Software

Voxco allows you to track customer experience and satisfaction through a range of different online and offline channels. This includes a range of digital channels such as social media, website, email, and more.

Voxco Analytics

Voxco Analytics analyses your survey data with the use of live visual dashboards that perform complex statistical analysis and in-depth reporting.

Access to Existing Survey Templates

With Voxco, you have access to a range of existing survey templates created by our team of professionals at Voxco. This includes survey templates for the calculation of useful metrics such as CSAT and NPS. Instead of creating a survey template from scratch, which can be time-consuming, you can choose one of our existing survey templates and customize to meet your needs.