So, what is CATI survey?
CATI, or computer-assisted telephonic interview, is a traditional research method where interviewers ask some questions to the respondents over the phone call.
Basically, the interviewer reads a set questionnaire from the computer, gathers respondents’ answers, and punches it into the system (or sometimes the software automatically records it). CATI is similar to paper surveys, except everything is done online.
Advantages and Disadvantages of CATI
The CATI survey method comes with a few good advantages. Let’s take a look at them:
Advantages of CATI
- Cost-Effective: As compared to face-to-face surveys, CATI surveys are cost-effective as everything can be done remotely.
- Higher Response Rates: Not everyone can reach out to meet you. So, compared to face-to-face surveys, CATI surveys deliver a much higher response rate.
- Demographics: As everything is online, you don’t need to be physically present with the respondents. During emergencies or conflict areas, CATI serves as the better option.
- Immediate response: Unlike emails, you can gather immediate responses from the respondents.
- Personalization: Since you are directly talking to the respondents, you can add a personal touch to your calls, creating a relationship with them. However, this is not applicable if a third party is taking your CATI surveys.
- Eliminates manual errors: When you use good CATI software, it automatically captures all the respondents’ feedback eliminating all the processing errors, manual mistakes, and redundancies and improving uploading time.
- Qualitative feedback: CATI or telephone surveys are best used for qualitative interviews where you need to have a conversation with the respondent to understand their feedback and explain your questions properly.