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Old 21st Oct 2016, 16:01
  #15 (permalink)  
Peter47
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: London
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I remember doing interviewer administered surveys on trains twenty years ago for BR and plenty of interviews for my research degree in the late nineties. I insisted on them being interviewer administered as you can often get far more feedback from the way people answer and the additional comments they make, quite apart from people misinterpreting questions. The interesting part was the supplementary questions which I was able to ask. I was also lucky that people generally cared about what they were being interviewed about (quality of train services).

I was told then that people used to be flattered to selected for a survey but were beginning to suffer from survey fatigue. This was before computers came along. The trouble now is that online surveys cost virtually nothing and you can't stop at a hotel or take a flight without being asked to fill in an online survey. Fatigue is an understatement, I limit myself to one a day after a trip. I would personally prefer more open ended questions (what could we do better, etc) rather than tedious filling on of scales. Some are too long (the World Travel Market survey a few years must have had a hundred questions).

I am always happy to fill in a questionnaire if I think that the results will produce changes. Of course you can ask how well people fill in surveys. (I have been on both sides of the fence and I worry how good my responses are.)
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