Survey Administration Methods: Advantages, Disadvantages, And Lessons Learned

Reasons for selecting the particular method of survey administration

1.1 Reasons for selecting the particular method of survey administration 

In this survey, I have utilized the method of direct interviewing through telephone. The survey respondent are asked about the questions regarding their trips like how often they travel, the purpose of their travelling and whom they prefer to go with when they are travelling. Moreover, the traits of their shopping activities are also asked through the telephonic interview which is comprised of the luxurious products they like, aspects that closely define their shopping intention and perception of a luxury item. Moreover, the respondents are also asked about their motivational aspects of shipping for the luxurious products and the cultural values due to which they like to purchase for such expensive products. The survey respondent are asked question one after the other and their response are recorded on the laptop.

1.1.1 Advantages and disadvantages of using this method 

The main advantage of the telephonic interviews is that no time and financial resource is required to reach to the respondent and the entire interview session can also be done quickly compared to other form of data collection. Trier-Bieniek (2012) stated that in telephonic interviews, sample from wide geographic area can also be attained. Block and Erskine (2012) portrays that this kind of interviews are more customized and personal in nature and helps the survey conductor to understand the emotion of the interviewee. In this survey, I have also experienced the same sense that all the respondents can easily understand my language and I have got the answer from the survey respondents.

On the other hand, telephonic interview can present negative result if respondents cannot understand the research questions. In this survey also, I have to repeat questions more than twice to some respondent as they cannot understand the questions. According to Szolnoki and Hoffmann (2013), this type of interview cannot see body language and sometimes the survey procedure become exasperating for the respondents. I also felt that telephonic interview will be challenging if the same will be conducted for larger sample size. Moreover, the network issue is also a problem in this kind of interview. Taken for instance, for the question “What luxury item have you bought or MOST likely to buy during this trip?”, people want to select more than one option and when they are asked to select only one they started feeling confused and took much time to answer the question. Moreover, for the research question “What is your main reason for purchasing this item?”, I have to make them understand the meaning of each options as not all the respondents are getting the value if these options.

1.2 Success of the administration procedure 

The telephonic interview process was a great success as I can freely talk with the survey respondents and ask them all the questions in the survey. I have made 20 calls and in all the cases I have receives a positive outcome except the fact that I have to make them understand the reliability of the survey and the purpose of the same. I have received genuine answers and also did not face much understanding problem among the respondent as I was reciting the question to them in an understandable way. However, I have noticed that some of the survey respondents took longer time to answer some questions. In that case, I have to repeat the questions or ask them whether or not they understand the question. Another measure of success is that no survey respondent missed any question as I was noting down all the answer to every question.

Advantages and disadvantages of using this method

1.3 Suggestion for improving the administration procedure used 

The administration procedure used in this case is telephonic interview. One of the main suggestions to the administration is to search for the background details of the respondents in order to understand their origin and the language they refer the most. This process will initially take much time but reduces the time during the survey as the administrator can make the respondent understand in their preferable language. Another suggestion is the use of simplified language with lesser options. I think that giving more options for a research question in the telephonic interview result in that some respondent might forget some options or take longer time to answer the same.

1.4 Changes made in the questionnaire while representing the questionnaire to a larger group

The entire questionnaire comprised of seven sections- “About Your Most Recent Trip”, “About Your Shopping Activities”, “Your Shopping Motivations”, “Cultural Values”, “Your Future Visit”, qualitative question and “About Yourself”. These sections furthermore comprised of many sub-questions. The main problem that I have felt is that questioning these many question take more time and make the survey respondents more uncomfortable and dissatisfied. Thus, the first suggestion is to shorten the questionnaire so that not more than 30 minutes will require for a single respondent. Another change that I would suggest is to select other method of the survey procedure like face to face survey interview or survey through the online medium. The face to face survey interview will allow noting the body language and facial expression of the survey respondents and they can also ask for the problem if they face any. Moreover, if the online medium for the survey will be selected, the benefit of not skipping of any question can be obtained as all the research questions can be marked as mandatory. In addition to that, in order to conduct the research survey for a larger group of people, administrator need to give the option of representation of research question in the preferable language depending on the region of the survey respondents. This will help them to understand the research questions more easily. Lastly, the respondents should be present with a consent forms and ethical guidelines and research regulations to the research, which will help the respondents to understand the reliability of the research and the main purpose of the conducting the survey.

1.5 Key lessons learnt from the survey administration process 

I have learnt that the research question should be developed in such a way that survey respondents can relate their experience with the research questions. This will help them to give genuine answers and in lesser time. The telephonic interview are also good when there are lesser number of research questions as larger number of question might leads to dissatisfaction among the survey respondents. Another key lessons that I have learnt that communication skills plays a crucial role in telephonic interview. In this process, the survey conductor needs to be patient and also know the local language or the preferable language of the respondents so that in case any person does not understand the questions, administrator of the survey conductor can make them understand the same. I have also learnt that it is important for presenting all the questions in a similar way which is applied in this survey also. In this survey, the concept of likert scale has been opted which will help to generate a pattern for assessing the socio demographics, culture values, shopping motivation that influence the tourists buying behavioral intention. This approach will help the respondents to understand the answering pattern and develop a clear perception on the research questions. I have also learnt that in order to conduct a survey research for larger group of people, it is better to conduct a face o face survey interview or online survey.

Success of the administration procedure

Conclusion:

Thus it can be concluded that the pilot test on the existing research questions is a success as most of the respondents are able the question and give reliable answers. Some of the problem that is occurred in telephonic interview is that it is time consuming and can be worse if some respondent does not understand the English language. Thus, suggestion of conducting a small background assessment is made to overcome this problem. Moreover, it is also concluded that in order to present the survey questionnaire to larger group of people, it is necessary for shorten the survey with important questions through which socio demographics, culture values, shopping motivation that influence their buying behavioral intention can be obtained.

Nwankwo, Hamelin and Khaled (2014) stated that people buy luxury products for variety of reasons like they like expensive material goods, they like being highlighted in the community, they like to maintain uniqueness and also to collect such products. This nature is also present among some travelers and they like to collect such expensive products from the places, where they visit. This survey is based on the topic to identify the consumer behavior regarding the purchase of luxury items while they are travelling. This reflective report will highlight the method of survey administration used and its advantage and disadvantage. The discussion is followed by the details of the success of administration procedure and the suggestion for improving the administration procedure used. This reflective report will also illustrate the discussion on changes made in the questionnaire if presented to a larger group of respondents and lastly the lesson and main things leant from the survey administration process will also be demonstrated.

Reference:

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