Q. How will the research business be affected by the new Do Not Call legislation? Is telephone interviewing covered by it?

A. A. The good news is that legitimate marketing research is NOT covered by the Do Not Call list legislation.

The bad news is that many of the people answering the telephone will think it is, will be annoyed by receiving the call and may be less likely to answer the questions. This can limit our sample possibilities (which have already been limited by answering machines and caller identification technology).

Most researchers (and I am one of them) still consider the telephone interview the best way to achieve a random sample of the population despite all of these limitations.

So, how will we deal with this? The company I work with most for telephone interviewing tells individuals who answer and say they are on the Do Not Call list that legitimate research surveys, such as the one they are doing tonight on (subject), are not covered by the list. However, if the respondent would prefer, the caller will offer to put him/her on an internal Do Not Call list so their company will not call them again.

This honest and helpful approach has been very effective. The individuals respond positively to this very simple and polite explanation and offer. If the subject of the survey is of any interest to the respondent (and they are not in the middle of something), they are likely to go ahead and complete it. Relatively few ask to be on the company’s Do Not Call list.

Further proof that, when working with people “It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it.”

Do you have a comment or research-related question? Send it to me for future FAQs!