Telephone surveys are not necessarily the fastest for the reporting of results. Also, they are not as cost-effective as other methods of data collection. The most significant problem, however, is that attitude survey results from telephone surveys do not compare with results for the same questionnaire that are collected by other means. Published research over the past decade and our own experience lead us to conclude that IVR phone survey results cannot be compared to survey results from hard copy and online surveys. IVR phone surveys or live operator telephone interviews would be acceptable if all data were collected in this manner and no comparisons were made to results from other modes of administration.
Some research suggests that phone surveys produce more favorable results than other methods.
However, there is no consistency to the differences, thus attenuating the utility of such comparisons. Significant experience of one of our senior consultants suggests no consistency at all. An enormous amount of time, effort, and money went into a project to collect national norms with a telephone survey. It is not uncommon to see results vary for telephone surveys vs. paper surveys by 15 to 20 percentage points. The variation also seems to be inconsistent.