Adirondack Communications Inc.

White Paper:

Things to Think About When Doing a Survey

Part 2: Modes: Mail

What are the advantages and disadvantages of mail surveys?

Advantages:

· Relatively low costs

· Self-administration increases response to sensitive questions, avoids social desirability bias

· Reduced response or question order effects

· No interviewer bias

Disadvantages:

· Low response rates

· Nonresponse tends to be non-random (responses come from each side of the satisfaction scale)

· Need for good mailing addresses

· Longer time to collect data

· Literacy requirement of respondent

· Short, less complex questionnaires

· Questionnaires are more likely to be incomplete

· Within-household selection of respondents difficult

· Gatekeepers can prevent respondent from receiving questionnaire

· No guarantee that selected respondent is the actual respondent

The links below look at the advantages and disadvantages of the various modes: