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Telephone
Surveys
Quality data collection is the foundation of all successful opinion
research projects.
NSØN Opinion Research
specializes in telephone data collection.
Since 1992, NSØN has conducted thousands of successful opinion
research surveys by telephone for a highly diverse clientele from
many different business sectors across the United States. NSØN
clients count on us to provide them with high-quality, reliable, accurate
information they can consistently depend on.
Data Collection Department
Call Center
Facilities
NSØN operates its own call center in downtown Salt Lake
City, Utah equipped with computer-aided-telephone-interviewing (CATI) stations. The size of the NSØN call center allows
us to comfortably manage projects of every size including very large-scale
research studies. We run a day shift for business-to-business projects
and an evening shift that concentrates on consumer opinion studies.
"I’ve
used NSØN for most of my telephone interviewing for the
past three years. I’ve used them for published newspaper
and TV media polls; polls for political candidates at the federal,
state and local levels; non-profit organizations (e.g., conservative
advocacy groups); and businesses (e.g., banks, hospitals, grocery
stores, tourist destinations and many others). With proper sample
weighting, NSØN polls have always been within the statistical
margin of error and they are usually more accurate than others’
polls.
In the 23 years I’ve been in the marketing research and
public opinion polling business, I’ve found very few firms
that perform as well as NSØN on the critical factors
of high-quality interviewing, speed of delivery, accurate sampling,
competitive prices, skilled programming, depth of data processing
capabilities, daily status reports, accurate and fair billing,
and excellent quality of service.
I truly enjoy working with everyone at NSØN because they
are consummate professionals and I know I can rely on them
to get the job done right, on time and within budget. Anyone
who chooses to use NSØN is in the best of hands indeed!
I highly recommend NSØN for any type of marketing research
project."
Steven C.
Ethridge
President
Ethridge & Associates, LLC |
Phone Center
Technical Information
NSØN uses a state-of-the-art PRO*T*S computer-assisted
dialing and interviewer management system. This equipment has numerous
advanced data collection capabilities including remote monitoring,
digital voice capture and digital pre-recorded message playback,
known also as IVB or Interactive Voice Broadcast.
Call Center Management
NSØN employs a sizable staff of dedicated employees who
operate our call center efficiently. They have demanding jobs and
NSØN is proud of how well the managers, supervisors, trainers
and interviewers perform their tasks. Our supervisor to interviewer
ratio is 1:8.
Interviewing Staff
NSØN works diligently to recruit and train our interviewer
staff. We have demanding pre-employment screening criteria and
focus on hiring applicants who demonstrate genuine potential to
become successful interviewers. Before being hired, all applicants
must pass a reading, typing and grammar test. Our callers are paid
a competitive, non-commissioned hourly wage. Most of our callers
have neutral accents, which is a distinct advantage when conducting
telephone surveys.
Interview Training
All NSØN interviewers must complete a comprehensive training
program. The initial orientation sessions cover the basic requirements
and skills necessary for professional data collection. The two-day
classes include extensive practice calling and individual coaching.
Once hired, all NSØN interviewers are required to attend
weekly seminars designed to refine and develop their telephone skills.
Callers also receive daily pre-shift briefings to address issues
specific to current projects. Our interviewers understand that telephone
research is a valid scientific activity. They are trained to collect
reliable, accurate data.
Validation
The standard practice of NSØN is to validate 10% of the
surveys in each project we conduct.
Monitoring
We monitor every interviewer several times during each shift.
We provide employees with immediate feedback concerning their interviewing
techniques. All of our interviewers know that any falsification of data is
grounds for immediate dismissal. We also have excellent remote monitoring
capabilities for clients.
Voice-Capture and IVB (Interactive Voice Broadcast)
Our voice-capture equipment permits us to record the open-ended
answers given during an interview. We digitally record the responses
in a .WAV file and then transfer the recordings to a CD that can
be mailed to the client for review and analysis.
IVB (Interactive Voice Broadcast) allows clients to incorporate
pre-recorded messages into a standard telephone survey. The messages
can also be delivered mechanically to live respondents or left on
answering machines.
Both voice-capture and IVB increase the data-collection and data-dissemination
options for research professionals at a reasonable cost.
Non-English Studies
NSØN has the capability to conduct telephone surveys
in languages other than English. We have access to a pool of experienced
interviewers who speak many foreign languages.
NSØN
Business-to-Business
NSØN has considerable conducting
business-to-business telephone (CATI) research. We have a group of
very experienced executive interviewers that are accustomed to
conducting in-depth interviews with difficult to reach and
high-level business respondents. Many of our interviewers have been
with NSØN for five years or longer. Our English studies are
conducted utilizing a neutral Utah accent.
NSØN has conducted several thousand business-to-business
studies for a very diverse national clientele in areas such as
retail, finance, health care, education, construction, government,
manufacturing, agriculture and religion to name a few. We are able
to respond quickly in meeting timelines on projects. Interviewers
are available for remote monitoring.
Our interviewer
base is also multilingual and we have conducted business-to-business
studies throughout Western and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, the
Middle East and North America.
Project Management
Department
Project Managers
Every project NSØN conducts is assigned to a specific
Project Manager who is responsible for overseeing the job from beginning
to end. Our Project Managers are specialists who can be reached
after hours by cell phone. All clients receive daily progress reports
from their PM with up-to-date information about the status of their
survey.
Data Programming and
Processing Department
Programming
NSØN CATI specialists program all questionnaires into
our computer system precisely to client specifications. They provide
simulation disks of the questionnaires for clients to review prior
to starting the fieldwork. Our programmers are conversant with Sawtooth
Ci3 (Windows), Win Query and CfMC CATI software systems.
Tabulation
NSØN data tabulation specialists can provide clients
with any dataset files required including dbf, SPSS, Excel, Paradox,
Quatro Pro, ASCii and many others. We use both SPSS and WIN Cross
tabulation software.
Coding
NSØN’s experienced team of coding specialists review
the data collected and then develop clear categories for organizing
open-ended responses. All responses are carefully coded using keys
that have been pre-approved by the client.
Sales Department
Account Executives
NSØN Account Executives thoroughly understand the complicated
business of telephone survey research. They provide expert advice
about all aspects of telephone research including questionnaire
development and design, sampling, quotas, cooperation rates and
incidence rates, etc. After receiving the specific parameters of
a project, they can return a completed bid within a few hours. NSØN
Account Executives work closely with our clients to manage costs
and save money wherever possible. Their goal is to provide our customers
with high-quality service at a fair and reasonable price.
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