>Self-Administered vs. Interviewer-Administered Surveys
>One of the important factors to think about when designing or conducting a survey is who will be filling it out? A self-administered survey is really any survey where the respondent, rather than an interviewer, fills out the questionnaire. Examples of this include:
- Intercepting a customer in a store – but having them fill out the questionnaire
- Employee feedback surveys where they fill out surveys anonymously
- Administering a survey to a group such as students in schools
- Consumer product testing on the internet
And the list goes on and on. They can be conducted via a number of different modes, such as online, mail, IVR, or in-person. Self-administration simply means that the respondent (rather than an interviewer) takes on the burden of filling out a survey. This has more consequences than you probably think; some good and some bad.
On the plus side, since interviewer time is not required to complete a self-administered survey, they are usually cheaper to conduct. Surveys can also be completed more quickly when respondents fill out their own surveys rather than waiting for a limited number of interviewers. In addition, respondents are more likely to be truthful and provide information to sensitive topics when they can fill out a survey themselves and are assured of its confidentiality. If you have a survey on a sensitive topic, self-administration is likely the way to go.
On the negative side, self-administration reduces response rates, increases drop-offs and will likely increase non-response bias (because of the lower response rates). Respondents will find it easier to ignore these types of surveys and you will have to send out more surveys to get the same amount of completes compared to an interviewer-administrated survey.
The lack of an interviewer or researcher during a self-administered survey means that questions are more likely to be misinterpreted or an inappropriate answered given. If a respondent does not understand something, they won’t be able to get an explanation during the survey. Therefore, it is important that self-administered surveys are designed clearly and are easy for respondents to understand right from the start. Interviews can provide feedback on a poorly designed survey or difficult to understand questions while the survey is being conducted, but you probably won’t know that respondents can’t understand a self-administered survey until you analyze the data and see that it’s junk.
No probing can be done by an interviewer, so self-administered surveys provide less depth for the information collected. This is fine if you are conducting a simple satisfaction or feedback survey, but might cause a problem if you wanted more detailed information from customers, employees, etc.
Despite the drawbacks, the cost and time advantages to a self-administered survey make them a commonly used method, especially when you have a simple survey to conduct.
