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According to Richards, Reconnect’s MIDI-based surveys
see an average completion rate of 7.5 percent – in line with
or better than outbound call survey completion rates – and
in one case study, 14.5 percent of people stayed on the phone
long enough to complete an entire three-minute survey.
Generally speaking, inbound call surveys performed
through MIDIs tend to produce higher quality calls than
outbound call surveys, said Richards. That’s largely because
when a MIDI call is made, people were already trying to dial
a 1-800 number and were prepared to hear a recorded mes-
sage. In other words, they are already holding their phone
and had allocated time to talk, rather than receiving calls
during dinner or another inconvenient time.
Even more annoying are the estimated 980.8 million
robocalls that were placed to U.S. phones in the month of
November alone, marking a 43 percent sequential increase
in the nation’s monthly robocall volume, according to figures
from the YouMail National Robocall Index. The growth in
automated robocalling in part led to a resolution passed by
the Federal Communications Commission last June giving
the FCC greater authority to fine spammers and spoofers,
while allowing telephone carriers to offer robocall-blocking
services to customers.
A month later, adding injury to insult, the telemar-
keting industry watched as research firm Gallup paid out
a $12 million settlement. The company settled a lawsuit
saying it illegally used an autodialer to call people’s mo-
bile phones. This increased risk and regulation, along
with the issue of people simply not answering their land-
line phones, have left the market research industry in
need of a new approach.
“There is no evidence that call-blocking systems targeted
at robocalls could or would differentiate between telemar-
keting robocalls and research calls using an autodialer,” the
Marketing Research Association recently warned its mem-
bers. “Widespread adoption of such blocking will probably
block most autodialed research calls.”
While some call-blocking service providers have said
they keep a whitelist of approved numbers, including a few
prominent public opinion pollsters, “most research calls
would likely be blocked right along with everything else,”
said MRA.
Reconnect Research’s Richards put things a bit more suc-
cinctly: “Consumers hate robocalls. This gets rid of them.”
The restrictions on using autodialers to call cell phones
also impacts the quality of a survey’s representative sample.
Quite simply, large percentages of the population are mobile
only, so surveys that rely only on landline phone users can
skew toward certain age and income demographics.
Misdials and MIDIs, on the other hand, occur randomly,
across all demographics and in proportion to the amount of
mobile versus landline calls made. In turn, MIDI-based in-
bound call surveys offer more accurate polling and customer
research data by offering a better way of getting a typical
sample of Americans.
A recent case study performed by the Research Triangle
Institute, for example, compared the demographic results
of an inbound call survey with those of the Behavioral Risk
Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), the nation’s leading
system of health-related telephone surveys that collect state
data about U.S. residents regarding their health-related
risk behaviors, chronic health conditions and use of pre-
ventive services, operating under the Center for Disease
Control and Prevention. Cross-referencing the results with
U.S. Census figures, RTI found that inbound call surveys
provided demographics that were much more in line with
overall population figures across age, gender, education
levels, ethnicity and phone usage.
“The success of this is much bigger than us,” said Rich-
ards. “If an infectious disease breaks out, within hours we can
find out if people are sick.”
In the end, MIDI-based inbound call surveys provide a
rare triple win. Market research firms benefit from more ac-
curate demographics and a solution to regulatory and cultur-
al shifts. Telecom carriers turn what would be an unwanted
cost into a revenue opportunity. And consumers are spared
from those inconvenient and annoying robocalls.
P School
d ask one question of your SIP trunk provider what would it be?
Source: Research Triangle Institute
Comparing Respondents Reached, Inbound Call vs.
BRFSS, by age
When will you
upport HD Audio?
t are you doing to
pport FAX over IP?
vide TLS/SRTP for
aling and media?
ill you support SIP
ch each PBX/SBC
s’s configuration?
Other
11.55%
23.10%
25.31%
32.68%
7.37%
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
18-24
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64
65+
Percent
Age Category
BRFSS
ICS
Population
Source: Research Triangle Institute
Comparing Respondents Reached, Inbound Call vs.
BRFSS, By Education
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Percent
Educational Attainment Category
BRFSS
ICS
Population
Less than HS HS Grad Some college
BS
Source: Research Triangle Institute
Comparing Respondents Reached, Inbound Call vs.
BRFSS, by age
18-24
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64
65+
Percent
Age Category
BRFSS
ICS
Population
Source: Research Triangle Institute
Comparing Respondents Reached, Inbound Call vs.
BRFSS, By Education
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Percent
Educational Attainment Category
BRFSS
ICS
Population
Less than HS HS Grad Some college
BS
54
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Vision
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January - February 2016