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MRIA 2007 LUNCH AND LEARN SERIES
CELL PHONES: CHANGING HOW WE COMMUNICATE, CHANGING HOW WE DO TELEPHONE SURVEYS
Edmonton
Date: Wednesday, Oct 17, 2007
Location: Trend Research
2nd Floor, 10304 - 108 Street NW
Registration & Lunch: 11:30 am
Presentation: noon to 1 pm
Q&A: 1 pm to 1:30 pm
Costs:
MRIA members: $15
Non Members: $20
Student:$10
To register call, Alex Moore by Oct. 16
780.485.6558 ext. 2001 |
Calgary
Date: Thursday, Oct 18, 2007
Location: Danish Canadian Club
727 11th Avenue, Tivoli Room
Registration & Lunch: 11:30 am
Presentation: noon to 1 pm
Q&A: 1 pm to 1:30 pm
Costs:
MRIA members: $15
Non Members: $20
Student:$10
To register call, Sarah McLachlan by Oct. 17
403.229.3500
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Join us for MRIA’s October’s Lunch and Learn for a wide-ranging look at how cell phones affect survey research now and how they may change it in the future.
- The Alberta Situation – 80% of households have cell phone services
In a Dec. 2006 survey, 80% of Alberta households had cell phone service, the highest proportion of any province and an increase of more than 5 percentage points from the previous year's survey. The challenges of cell phones to telephone interviewing may well be experienced earlier in Alberta than in the rest of Canada.
- Cell-Only Households – Who are they?
The issue that is raised first in most discussions of cell phones and surveys is the cell-only household, those which have "cut the cord" and no longer have a landline. In the US, over 14% of households were cell-only by the spring of 2007, while in Canada it was 5% at the end of 2006 but expected to increase quickly. Undercoverage bias in RDD surveys is a concern as these numbers grow, especially since cell-only households are concentrated among young males who are traditionally the most difficult to reach in landline surveys.
Just a few of the challenges
Some of the issues around cell phones affect call centre operations. Call forwarding and telephone number porting (introduced in Canada earlier this year) will both result in unanticipated interviewing calls to cell phones. Also, conducting surveys on cell phones is on the horizon. Contacting a person on a cell phone for any reason requires changes in field procedures: the called party may be driving a car; incentives may be needed as compensation for air time costs; calls made to the US using a dialer may run afoul of an American law.
About the presenter
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Nancy Tienhaara
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Presenter Nancy Tienhaara is one of the original partners in DASH Software Ltd., which has provided data collection and reporting software to Canadian survey research companies for the last 25 years. Nancy has a passionate concern for the health of Canada’s field forces and the interviewers who keep them going. Earlier this year, Nancy attended a conference with a focus on cell phone issues and took an intensive course on the topic.
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