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TELEPHONE INTERVIEWING 381
question or rebut the points made by the interviewer.
There may be distractions for the respondent
(e.g. a television may be switched on, children
may be crying, dogs barking, others may be
present).
Responses are difficult to write down or record
during the interview.
That said, Sykes and Hoinville (1985) and
also Borg and Gall (1996) suggest that telephone
interviewing reaches nearly the same proportion of
many target populations as ‘standard’ interviews,
that it obtains nearly the same rate of response,
and produces comparable information to ‘standard’
interviews, sometimes at a fraction of the cost. The
response rate issue is contested: Weisberg et al.
(1996: 122) and Shuy (2003: 181) report lower
response rates to telephone interviews.
Harvey (1988), Oppenheim (1992) and Miller
(1995) consider that, first, telephone interviews
need careful arrangements for timing and duration
(typically that they are shorter and quicker than
face-to-face interviews) – a preliminary call may
be necessary to fix a time when a longer call can be
made. Second, the interviewer will need to have
ready careful prompts and probes, including more
than usual closed questions and less complex questions,
in case the respondent ‘dries up’ on the telephone.
Third, both interviewer and interviewee
need to be prepared in advance of the interview
if its potential is to be realized. Fourth, sampling
requires careful consideration, using, for example,
random numbers or some form of stratified sample.
In general, however, many of the issues from
‘standard’ forms of interviewing apply equally well
to telephone interviewing (see also Chapter 4).
Face-to-face interviews may be more suitable
than telephone interviews (Weisberg et al. 1996:
122; Shuy 2003: 179–82) in the following circumstances:
The interviewer wishes to address complex
issues or sensitive questions.
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Deeper and self-generated answers are sought
(i.e. where the question does not frame the
answer too strongly).
Issues requiring probing, deep reflection and,
thereby, a longer time is sought.
Greater equality of power between interviewer
and respondent is sought.
Older, second language speakers and hearingimpaired
respondents are being interviewed.
Marginalized respondents are being sought.
It is not uncommon for telephone interviewing
to be outsourced, and this might be an advantage
or a disadvantage. On the one hand, it takes
pressure off the researcher, not only because of the
time involved but also because a fifteen-minute
telephone interview might be more exhausting
than a fifteen-minute face-to-face interview, there
being more social and non-verbal cues in face-toface
interaction. On the other hand, in outsourced
telephone interviews care has to be taken on
standardization of the conduct of the interview,
the content of questions, the entry of responses
and indeed, to check that the interviews have
been done and response not simply fabricated.
In conducting telephone interviews it is
important to consider several issues:
Will the people have the information that you
require Who will you need to speak to on the
telephone If the person answering the call is
not the most suitable person then you need to
talk to somebody else.
There is a need to pilot the interview
schedule and to prepare and train the
telephonists, and to discover the difficult/
sensitive/annoying/personal questions, the
questions over which the respondents hesitate
and answer very easily; the questions that will
need prompts and explanations.
Keep to the same, simple response categories
for several questions, so that the respondents
become used to these and keep in the same
mind set for responding.
Keep personal details, if any, until the end of
the interview, in order to reduce a sense of
threat.
Keep to no more than, at the most, thirty-five
questions, and to no more than, at the most,
fifteen minutes, and preferably ten minutes.
Chapter 16