C-Search - Research & Marketing

RESEARCH SERVICES:

Fieldwork Services | Fieldforce | Field Methodologies

This varies and is entirely dependent upon the nature of the research. The most common formats are as follows:

Self Completion Questionnaire

The questionnaire can either be designed solely by the client or in conjunction with ourselves. The most common method of distribution is via an insert in a magazine or publication, with a pre-paid envelope to encourage return. This is a very cost effective method but response can be low, depending upon the degree of interest generated, and is often polarised demographically towards older/retired people who have the time necessary to complete what can be in some instances, a lengthy questionnaire.

Alternatively we also offer "disk by mail" surveys, which entails mailing out a disk of questions for people to enter on their own computers and return to us for analysis.

For those respondents with e-mail we offer our e-mail surveys. Questionnaires are sent out via e-mail, the questionnaire is in the main body of the e-mail, but files can be attached to get people's reactions to graphic images, sound files or documents. The software we use prevents multiple responses from the same person and rejects forwarded or passed along questionnaires. It also checks each returned questionnaire to see that it matches the survey instructions. Faulty questionnaires are discarded.

Telephone Interviewing

Again the questionnaire can be developed as outlined above. Interviews are carried out by telephone by members of the field force. Lists of potential respondents are either provided by the client or generated by ourselves, depending upon the nature of the survey and the degree of randomness permitted. Size of sample, demographic profiles and sampling methods are agreed with the client.

Another method of telephonic interviewing is the use of CATI (Computer Aided Telephonic Interviewing). This is a very cost effective way of conducting interviews since the data is saved direct to disk ready to produce the tables and graphic for the report with no extra input required.

Personal Interviewing

This is basically as above except that the interviews are carried out on a face-to-face basis. In general terms the quality of the results / data obtained tends to be of a higher quality than that achieved telephonically, although in certain circumstances costs can be considerably higher.

Editing and back checking (up to 25%) is included in the cost of all fieldwork, and all fieldwork is carried out under the guidelines of the Codes of Conduct of the South African Market Research Association and the Research Suppliers of Southern Africa.

All data capture, field and coding personnel are employed on a full-time basis and are all extremely experienced in their chosen fields. Casual staff are not utilised.

E-Mail and Internet Interviewing

Using our in-house software package The Survey System we are able to conduct both e-mail and internet surveys for clients.

The Internet Module form Survey System harnesses the speed and power of the Internet to conduct Web page and e-mail surveys.

Web page questionnaires offer a wide variety of page appearance options. They also offer sophisticated questionnaire logic features not found in most "Web survey" packages.

These include:

Use passwords to control who completes your questionnaire
Skip questions based on answers to other questions
Show previous answers in the text of current questions
Show only answer choices that were either "picked or not picked" in a previous question
Randomize question or answer choice order
Require answers to some or all questions
Combine Web survey answers with previous information from the same people
Automatically enforce quotas

The Survey System can send out e-mail invitations, which can include individual passwords. It can then send reminders to those who have not completed a survey.

You can e-mail a questionnaire to a list of recipients and receive replies as e-mail. The Survey System checks incoming e-mails for duplicate and incorrect questionnaires and enters answers directly into a data file. Replies can be anonymous.

Web page surveys must reside on an NT Web server, or C-Search can host your survey for you. The e-mail features work with standard SMTP and POP3 mail servers.

E-mail and web-based surveys are the fastest and most convenient ways to collect data. Typically you will get half your total responses back within 48 hours. You also minimize data entry costs.