What Is CATI Software?

CATI is the process of recording phone responses on a computer using a script while clicking responses and entering open-ended comments from the participant into the software program.

It is a study in which interviewers conduct phone surveys using a basic computer-assisted reporting approach, such as an application loaded onto a computer or mobile device. The CATI survey technique, in which interviewers (also known as survey enumerators) use CATI survey software to administer a survey, record responses, and monitor response and completion rates.

A survey saved in CATI allows the phone interviewer to focus on providing high-quality responses rather than worrying about the order of questions and answers.

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The advantages of using CATI Software

1. Customized questionnaires

With the CATI platform, you can create complex phone surveys that are both compliant and consistent with the company’s brand identity. This is an important functionality that ensures that interviewees (particularly new clients) have faith in the survey's validity.

2. Global audience

You can reach out to your target population from anywhere using the global audience CATI program. It will allow top business reporting organizations to conduct targeted client, employee, stakeholder, or supplier market research at the right time and from any location.

3. Cost-effective

Telephone interviews have a lower overall cost while maintaining a high level of productivity. To help speed up and improve interviews, CATI survey software typically includes an in-built contact database and a scheduling feature.

4. Real-time monitoring:

Phone survey software offers a live dashboard that allows supervisors and managers to monitor interviews in real time. You can listen in on an ongoing phone survey, barge in or whisper to help the agent, review the interviewer’s performance, and ensure the researcher’s adherence to protocol.

5. Data security and quality:

The survey platform includes capabilities like data encryption, call recording, and auto-backup to maintain data integrity. Additionally, features like logic and skip patterns improve data quality and accelerate the pace of research by removing irrelevant questions.  

List of top 15 CATI software

Here we have compiled 15 CATI software to help you evaluate the software available in the market.

1: Voxco CATI Survey Software

2: Confirmit

3: Marketing System Group

4: Askia

5: IdSurvey

6: NIPO

7: Precision Opinion

8: Survox Inc

9: Rotator Survey

10: Nebu

11:  MRDC

12:  Survey System

13: GreatBlue Research

14:  Sawtooth Technologies

15:  Issues Answers

1 – Voxco CATI Survey Software

Voxco CATI is a global leader for data collection centers for conducting phone surveys on a large scale. With a robust system with 0% downtime, it seamlessly integrates with IVR survey software and auto dialer software improving productivity by 400%.

Voxco CATI integrates with Voxco Online and Survey Analytics software, enabling you to conduct online, offline, and phone surveys all in one system. It also offers on-premise and cloud hosting making it easy for remote employees to gain easy access to the system.

The software offers advanced telephony features likes:

• Call Management
• Click to Dial
• Automated Workflow
• Whisper or Barge in
• 4-in-1 Dialers: powers, predictive, preview, and hybrid modes
• Skill-based call routing
• Interview statistics: monitor interviews in real-time
• ACD
• Inbound and Outbound Calls

Voxco offers centralized and Omnichannel capabilities, i.e., CATI integrated with online and face-to-face functionalities. Voxco CATI software is built as per TCPA compliance (Voxco TCPA Connect), this enables manual dialing to survey call centers across the US.

2 – Confirmit

Confirmit empowers its users to listen to the Voice of the Customer by offering market research tools to drive changes in the business.

Confirmit offers CATI along with IVR, which enables you to increase productivity. The software provides a single platform for call management, monitoring, and reporting. It empowers you to effectively manage all the distributed telephone interviews, even those in multiple languages.

Confirmit offers several capabilities to run end-to-end CATI solutions. You can seamlessly integrate your telephone with other channels. Supervisors can monitor live interviews of every team to assure the quality of the experience.

Explore the comprehensive features of Voxco Phone Survey Software and elevate your market research.

• Real-time remote & field supervision
• Live Productivity Dashboards
• Automated Workflow
• Time Zone Validation
• Call Prioritization & Call Back

Download CATI feature sheet

3 – Marketing System Group

MSG has built PRO-T-S where the predictive dialer can seamlessly integrate with the CATI system, telephony operations, and interviews. Its modular telephony system offers connectivity with numerous CATI systems interfaces- Survox, Confirmit Horizons, UNICOM Data Collection 6, and more.

Its PRO-T-S offers multiple dialing modes to ensure productivity and flexibility for your CATI survey. The availability of each mode can be determined by the CATI system. All non-productive numbers are disposed of back to the CATI system automatically. The integration with CATI sample management assures you have consistent control throughout the survey. It also offers the capability of silent monitoring from local as well as remote stations.

4 – Askia

Askia’s CATI solution, Askiavoice, is designed to optimize MR call centers on a large scale. It offers capabilities and flexibility to empower remote working agents. It is specifically built to work seamlessly with Askia’s dialer modes – Predictive, Progressive, and Preview.

The platform offers complete visibility and control to their clients over samples and quotas. Supervisors can review projects, its progress and also conduct performance checks on the agents. It also provides a wide range of monitoring options, - automated call recording, extended statistics, remote listen-in, and many more.

5 – IdSurvey

IdSurvey offers a web-based CATI survey software. What you need to use this software is a browser and the internet to build your telephone surveys. The intuitive interfaces enable researchers to collect data right off the bat with no special training required.

You gain full control to manage your projects and interviews in the CATI survey software. It offers several features to ensure effective survey – Interviewers statistics, time zone management, OutBound & InBound calls, Click-to-dial, Predictive dialing, and more.

For projects, you can set rules for each call, set interview rules for the agents, and also add introductions for your interviewers to read to the respondents. You can add notes for the agents; the notes will be displayed on the agent’s screen before the survey questions.

The platform offers “Key-entry” that can increase productivity and make the agent perform faster than before. Agents can use their keyboard to fill in the interviews, dial a number, mark call outcome, or move to the next/previous question just by entering the code for the desired option.

IdSurvey also offers CATI software in Mixed Mode, i.e., with CAWI or CAPI. You can collect multi-mode surveys and add F2F and web advantages to your CATI interview.

See Voxco survey software in action with a Free demo.

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6 – NIPO

NIPO offers CATI software that functions via a centralized system. The flexible and centralized system gives you full control and makes it easy to monitor agent performance, interview progress, and optimize workflow. It offers a plethora of features that give you control over various aspects.

NIPO CATI solution offers different dialing modes – auto, predictive, and progressives – to drive productivity. It offers you end-to-end control and live listen-in on interviews. The CATI software is designed for any size and type of project.

NIPO has 10,000 CATI seats across the world, with a team of vastly experienced members to support you.

7 – Precision Opinion

Precision Opinion has 20 years of experience in CATI interviews. The solution offers appropriate features to suit your projects effectively and increase productivity. The platform is also 100% TCPA compliant.

The CATI survey software allows you to monitor and manage your projects. You can set automatic functions and implement AI-powered management to optimize results better and drive projects to success. The software also offers multi-mode capabilities to gather responses from CATI, SMS, and Online for easy access. The intuitive interface offers adaptable features for reporting.

8 – Survox Inc

Survox CATI solution offers its client a fully optimized platform for phone survey automation. It offers you complete control over all of your projects. Survox offers a centralized system of the entire CATI survey and enables you to monitor them from any place.

Survox CATI solution offers various functions to empower you and improve productivity:

• Flexible quota management
• Live sample management
• Multiple language support
• Pause and resume interviews

You can also integrate with Survox dialer or other auto-dialers to improve productivity and optimize workflow. The dashboard allows remote interviewers to conduct CATI surveys while monitoring real-time results. It also allows you to manage CATI stations.

9 – Rotator Survey

Rotator offers CATI software at a low price and with advanced technical features. The interface is simple to use for every interviewer. It allows anyone to build simple or complex surveys, and deploy them with minimum training. Rotator CATI software is designed to support projects of any scale from midsize to large-scale surveys.

The software provides real-time reports to show the progress of the project. It also offers detailed reports on the performance of the interviewers based on the efficiency and productivity of each agent. The Rotator Survey does not depend on an internet connection to operate. It is designed so it can run on your server without needing any internet connection.

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Be Remote Ready with Voxco CATI: Engage Agents, Supervisors & Respondents

• Better manage remote agents and project assignments
• Connect with remote agents securely without installing any local software
• Efficiently monitor and record calls while ensuring data integrity
• Receive live project reports using dynamic telephony dashboards

10 – Nebu

Nebu offers web-based CATI software for remote interviewing processes, from anywhere with a reliable internet connection. The clients are given full control over the sample and quota. The CATI software can support any sample size, multiple languages, and number of quota calls.

Nebu allows supervisors and managers to monitor the performance of the interviewers for the purpose of quality assurance. The software offers real-time tracking, consistent reporting, open feedback fields, productivity reports, and many more to ensure quality performance.

Nebu CATI software solution is completely hosted. It is also a secure system in full compliance with industry best practices to ensure data protection, security, availability, and uptime.

11- MRDC

MRDC offers its CATI software under QPSMR. The user-friendly interface makes it easy for researchers to use CATI software with no training required. It is designed to take the load off the server and minimize data traffic. MRDC offers a CATI system with control and functionality to manage and give access to projects appropriately.

The CATI software offers tools like call management, dialers, managed samples, interviews, and more. The platform uses networked computers for your projects. It is designed so that you only have to connect to a central server at the beginning and the end of the interview.

12 – Survey System

Survey System offers web CATI software that interviewers can access from anywhere, provided they have an internet connection.

Interviewers can make calls via VoIP or the click-to-call feature. You can also make appointments to contact someone back, record the call or leave a note. The interface of the Web CATI software generates reports on the survey to effectively manage the projects. You can also track the performance and productivity of the interviewers.

13 – GreatBlue Research

GreatBlue offers an In-house call center, with its researchers using CATI solutions to ensure effective outcomes. The CATI solution is designed according to the survey instruments. GreatBlue ensures 100% TCPA compliance with the laws.

The platform ensures quality assurance during every project. Researchers are monitored during live interviews and survey calls, along with real-time monitoring of data to ensure accuracy. Interviewers are given rules and scripts they need to follow while interacting with the respondents.

14 – Sawtooth Technologies

WinCATI is the software solution provided by Sawtooth Technologies. It can function on a LAN or in the cloud. It integrates with VoIP to help lower costs. It also enables remote working by offering support over Microsoft’s Remote Apps.

WinCATI offers a wide range of functions – mixed mode interviewing, recording, sound play, and automated dialing.

15 – Issues Answers

Issue Answer has over 500 stations in the U.S. Issues Answer offers a web-based CATI platform.

The platform other advantageous features, such as:

• Multiple language capabilities – Transcription services & Native language interviewing
• Inbound and Outbound calls
• Call Recording
• Sample management
• Sample design

Issues Answers can make calls to telephone and mobile numbers. It also screens all the contact numbers to ensure that the interviewer is speaking to the right person for the project.

Factors to consider when looking for CATI Software

This sums up our top 15 CATI software. Let’s look at the aspects of the platform you must consider when you look for the perfect phone survey software for your research needs.

1. Research objectives:

Consider the purpose of your research before you invest in a platform. The research goal will help you determine the level of customization, survey capabilities, and data analysis needed to gather the intended data. This will help you identify which solution to invest in.

2. Scalability:

Assess the software for its scalability. Consider if it can handle the size and complexity of your research. Look for a phone survey solution that can manage large sample sizes, complex skip logic, and multi-lingual research efficiently.

3. User-friendliness:

Evaluate the ease of use for both the interviewers and the researchers. The best CATI software should offer an intuitive interface with a low learning curve, simple scripting tools, and comprehensive training.

4. Data security:

Your software should comply with the highest level of data security and privacy standards. Make sure it provides features like encryption, data storage, etc.

Selecting the best CATI survey software for your needs

The best CATI solution is the ones that help you engage your audience promptly and gather data efficiently. With an abundance of options to choose from, it's important to consider key factors like ease of use, scalability, data security, along with cost-effectiveness.

Ultimately, choosing the best phone survey software depends on the needs and goals of your research and organization. Voxco offers an array of advanced functionalities to handle small and large-scale research projects effectively. Streamline the data collection process, enhance phone survey quality, and make data-driven informed decisions.

Over time dialers have evolved to ease the flow of work for contact centers. Traditionally, businesses had to upload contact lists for outbound campaigns. However, auto dialer software dials the number automatically which helps streamline the workflow of outbound contact centers.

What is Auto Dialer Software?

Automated dialer software makes outbound calls automatically by pulling telephone numbers from a list of contacts. The dialer then connects the recipient with a live agent or a pre-recorded message.

Auto dialers eliminate the need to manually dial each phone number from the list. This spares the contact center agent to focus on other tasks and on the content of the message. A wide variety of industries make use of auto dialer software such as – sales & marketing, health care, hospitality, and education.

What are the important Auto Dialer functionalities?

Auto dialers often require hardware such as a computer, active telephone line, and a voice modem. Some software providers allow businesses to host hardware into their product for free or a subscription. Other providers require them to buy and host the hardware themselves.

Auto dialer software can

• integrate directly with existing CRM software of the center; or
• built into telecom services or infrastructure software of the contact center

Auto dialer software offers an array of functionalities to take the load off of the representatives. Some of these features are common such as managing lists, initiating calls, and reporting data. Some other features that you should look for when selecting Auto Dialer Software are:

Call Disposition: to track and report the result of a call

Call Recording: to assure the quality of call conversation

Answering Machine Detection: to screen and filter out calls that go to voicemails

Call Scripting: to help agents with responses for commonly asked queries

Local Caller ID: to display local ID to contacts by setting desired location and caller ID when making calls

Top 15 Auto Dialer Software

• Voxco
• Talkdesk
• Matrix
• Genesys Cloud
• Dialpad
• Five9
• RingCentral
• PhoneBurner
• ChaseData
• CallHub
• Voicent
• contactSPACE
• Nice inContact
• Nextiva
• Aircall

#1 – Voxco

With 25+ years of experience, Voxco is the leading Research Cloud software that provides Cloud-based and On-premise dialers to help you generate successful leads and provide excellent customer experience. Moreover, Voxco’s state-of-the-art telephony system can be integrated with Voxco’s CATI phone survey software.

Voxco’s Dialer assures an improvement in the productivity of your call center by 50%. Be it work-from-home or call center agents Predictive dialing adjusts the pace of your call volume to match the availability of the agents.

The software is built to handle the workload on any scale. It is TCPA compliant which enables your agents to reach customers on the telephone as well as mobile devices. You can easily integrate with the platform’s IVR to empower the callers with self-serve options.

Voxco capabilities confirm a seamless flow of work – call recording & monitoring, call detection, intelligent call routing, and a blend of inbound & outbound calls. There are more advanced features that users can enjoy and take advantage of in Voxco.

Single-system efficiency: Voxco dialer begins dialing depending on the rules set. There is no requirement for third-party dialer integration.

4-in-1 Dialer: Preview, Power, Predictive, and Hybrid dialing modes improve the quality and speed of the calls. The 4 modes of dialing also enable you to schedule the pattern of calls per project.

Quality Control: You can monitor live calls for the purpose of quality assurance. You can also record calls to review them in the future.

• DNC numbers are also immediately filtered out of the list.
• Dialer dashboard allows supervisor to monitor productivity of each agent. You can track no. of calls handled, wrap-up time, pause and more.

Advanced Telephony Features: It is a flexible outbound calling powerhouse that comes with features like call transfer, conferencing, and audio playback.

• Call blending
• Skill set routing
• Transfer and return calls

Compatible with Protocols: Voxco Dialer supports VoIP licenses and telephony cards. The dialer supports analog and IP phones. It also connects to SIP trunks or standard T1 or E1 lines.

Flexible Pricing Options: Voxco offers flexible pricing models which are based on the requirements of organizations

#2 – Talkdesk

Talkdesk offers solutions through a single platform and helps contact centers reduce customer support costs. The software empowers a contact center with its customizable and future-proof design, helping businesses to improve customer satisfaction.

The platform has an intuitive interface and offers more than 60 integrations all in one place. It provides features such as: AI, analytics, workforce engagement, customer engagement and enterprise collaboration.

Talldesk offers multiple features to help you support your agents in the best way possible:

• Talldesk uses IVR (interactive voice response), ACD (automatic call distribution), and skill-based routing to ensure that calls only get routed to the most qualified agents who can meet the customer’s needs.
• The platform empowers the agent by displaying the caller’s name, contact history, and all relevant data on the agent’s screen in real-time. This way contact centers can support their agents to deliver a personalized experience.
• The software automatically sets up a new profile when a new customer calls.
• Talldesk comes with all needed features – call monitoring, call recording, and real-time reporting.

With its value for money, the software is easy to use for the agents. It offers three packages – Professional, Professional Plus, and Enterprise.

#3 - Matrix

Matrix auto dialer is built to suit contact centers of any size. The auto dialer software integrates with tools like CRM applications, landing pages, contact lists, and affiliate sites to improve productivity. You can also integrate your business tools using the platform’s API.

Matrix also offers many features to streamline the workflow:

• The software allows you to prioritize and improve your agent’s productivity with its reminders and callback calendars personalized for individual agents.
• The real-time dashboard allows managers to track the agents and their performance. You can see which agents are on call, duration, or waiting on calls.
• The automated triggers allow you to set up triggers to inform you whenever a lead converts into a customer.
• Matrix also provides features such as internal chat, call recording, blended inbound & outbound calls, warm transfers, wrap-up time, and more.

#4 – Genesys Cloud CX Software

Genesys Cloud is designed as an all-in-one cloud contact center to ensure that your agents can serve the customers with an exceptional experience. The auto dialer software is easy-to-use and with its intuitive interface, it helps boost agent’s performance.

Genesys Cloud offers several features to prioritize customer’s experience and agent productivity;

• Voice and digital channels allow agents to contact customers on their preferred channels.
• IVR empowers callers with a self-serve option like speech recognition and touch.
• Outbound calling – predictive, power, preview and more dialing mode- assures that agents can reach more customers and generate successful leads
• It also empowers your agents with multichannel recording, workforce management, quality management, and more features.

#5 – DialpadSupport

Dialpad is a cloud-based contact center that uses AI to empower agents with real-time customer insights. The software offers integration with Salesforce, ServiceNow, Zendesk, and more to help users onboard quickly.

Dialpad uses Voice Intelligence to monitor conversation with call transcription and live customer sentiment.

Dialpad Support offers free calls to Canada and the US. There are two packages- Pro and Enterprise

See Voxco survey software in action with a Free demo.

Book a Free Demo

See Voxco survey software in action with a Free demo.

Book a Free Demo

#6 - Five9

Five9 is a cloud contact center software providing solutions to over 2000 businesses worldwide. The platform is powered by Practical AI which enables your agents to provide customer experience via preferred channels – phone, chat, social media, email, and more.

• The auto dialer software supports a wide variety of dialing modes- predictive, preview, progress, power dialing mode, and more.
• Five9 pulls callers' information from your CRM and displays it on the agent’s screen before and during the call to help the agent offer personalized communication.
• The platform integrates with leading CRM packages like Salesforce, NetSuite, and Oracle. It also supports a blending of inbound and outbound calls.

Pricing in Five9 depends on the number of users, seats, and features used. Moreover, you can choose an annual or a month-to-month plan.

#7 – Ring Central

RingCentral is a cloud-based communication that offers communication across multiple channels to streamline the workflow. The platform ensures that agents can provide a personalized experience to every caller.

You can integrate any CRM or other back-end system with the software’s API to receive detailed information on the caller. The platform enables automatic display of caller’s past interactions, purchase history, ticket status, and more.

• Powered by inContact it offers ACD, IVR, CTI, auto dialer, and PBX.
• It also offers advanced routing to allow customers to self-solve their issues and skill-based call routing.
• You can track agent’s performance, KPIs, and customer experience with real-time dashboards.
• Leverage its Workforce Management, and schedule each agent’s schedule according to traffic, volume, training, and vacations.

RingCentral offers four packages based on per user for every month: Essential ($19.99), Standard ($27.99), Premium ($34.99), and Ultimate ($49.99).

#8 – PhoneBurner

PhoneBurner is a cloud-based software and can be accessed from anywhere by using its VoIP dialing. You can log in from your own computer and contact customers from the connected phone.

PhoneBurner offers various features to empower remote employees:

• Power Dialer
• Lead management
• Workflow management
• Email follow-up
• Dedicated admin portal
• Real-time reports and leaderboards

PhoneBurner makes it easy for you to manage contact lists and campaigns with its integrated sales CRM. It can also integrate your own CRM with Salesforce, HubSpot, Zapier, and more. The platform also offers a wide range of features such as call recording, call transfer, voicemail drop, one-touch emails, local ID tracking, email tracking, and many more.

There are three packages, price per user and per month: Standard ($126), Professional ($152), and Premium ($169).

#9 – ChaseData

ChaseData is built to support outbound, inbound, and blended contact centers. It is a cloud-based standalone contact center with customer support and service pre-built in the software.

• ChaseData includes different dialing modes – auto, predictive, preview, and progressive dialing. It also includes ACD to ensure that calls are routed based on language preference, skill, and training of the agent.
• The software offers security settings at the management level which allows managers to track campaigns.
• The auto-dialer software catalogs digital calls on the server for at least 90 days. This enables agents to review the calls later if required. The admin also has access to all the calls.

ChaseData offers three packages per user/month: Small Business ($89), Professional ($139), and Enterprise ($169).

#10 - CallHub

CallHub offers four auto-dialing modes to match requirements for every call – Predictive, Power, Preview, and Robo Dialer. Along with contact center solutions, it also offers Voice Broadcasting software and SMS Marketing software.

CallHub offers the following features to make the most out of the auto-dialer software:

• Local Caller ID
• Schedule follow-ups at a convenient time
• Monitor and join the live call for quality assurance
• Enable DNC or modify DNC list
• Skip over answering machine
• Screen and eliminate outdated and non-existence numbers.
• Segment telephone and mobile numbers

CallHub allows you to pay as you go, the pricing starts at $0.021 per call.

# 11 – Voicent

Voicent is a cloud-based call center that comes with a built-in CRM. The auto-dialer software supports both inbound and outbound calls.

It comes with an automation feature that helps streamline the workflow and track calls, campaigns, and customers.

• The auto dialer software enables your agents to deliver pre-recorded audio messages to your contact lists.
• Agents can also leave messages on answering machines in their own voice or computer-generated voice.
• Voicent also consists of features that involve text to speech to send out personalized messages. It offers – auto, predictive, preview, and progressive dialer- for the call requirement of your agents.

Voicent presents a package that begins with $19 for unlimited calls based on per user per month pricing.

#12 – contactSPACE

The contactSPACE, a cloud-based call center, is easy to deploy that comes with three dialing modes-predictive, progressive, and preview- to make outbound calling more efficient.

It is a flexible software that contains target filtering to allow agents to sort call recipients. It also allows admins to categorize prospective customers to match the skill of the agents. With its Dashboard designer, you can monitor the agent’s performance in real-time.

contactSPACE presents four packages for its clients:

• Siler tier $105 per user/month
• Gold tier $139 per user/month
• Platinum tier $175 per user/month
• Diamond tier $239 per user/month

#13 – Nice in Contact

Nice inContact helps contact centers to maximize the quality of leads and put customers first. The cloud-based contact center displays features for inbound support requests. It helps agents to communicate with the customers using multiple channels – calls, emails, chats, social media, and more.

Nice inContact offers other features such as:

• Automatic Call Distribution
• Blended Predictive Dialing
• Call Recording
• CRM integration
• IVR
• Analytics and Reporting
• The platform also offers workforce optimization – e-learning, workforce management, and hiring.

Any information for the pricing package is not available on their website.

#14 – Nextiva

Nextiva uses Go Integrator to help connect your CRM with its software. The platform supports integration with popular CRMs such as Hubspot, Salesforce, Zendesk, etc. that helps streamline outbound calls for your contact center.

While Nextiva is not a true auto dialer software provider, you can still take advantage of effective tools to streamline your outbound calls.

Nextiva offers tools that match the capabilities of auto dialers, such as;

• Its flagship VoIP platforms allow voice & video calling, texting, faxing, and team chat, to improve performance and results.
• Click to Dial: Your reps can dial directly from the contact list uploaded in your CRM. Moreover, because of the flawless data harmonization with your CRM, your reps receive detailed information on each call they handle.
• Contact Popping: The feature displays all the relevant details of the caller by pulling it out from your CRM.
• You can easily segment lists in your CRM or you can split lists in other CRMs offered by the software to streamline outbound calls.

Nextiva’s Professional package costs depending on the number of users ranging from $21.95 to $27.95 per user every month. For contact centers using CRM like Oracle or Service Now, you should opt for the Enterprise package.

See Voxco survey software in action with a Free demo.

Book a Free Demo

See Voxco survey software in action with a Free demo.

Book a Free Demo

#15 – Aircall

Aircall is an easy to set up and use, cloud-based business phone for sales and customer support teams.

The auto dialer software helps reduce agent’s workload with its Power Dialer, click-to-dial, and more cloud features. With its skill-based routing, IVR, and live call monitoring capabilities it ensures that you offer an exceptional customer experience.

It also enables call centers to integrate with CRM, Helpdesk solutions, and other required applications. Moreover, the cloud-based system keeps the remote teams connected with the call center. It allows agents to work from anywhere in the world.

Research serves as an important input of data in the decision-making processes of multiple organizations. Given this integral role of research and data collection, building a research panel becomes absolutely necessary for any organization looking to gather comprehensive market data to find answers to their research questions.

Not everyone has the aptitude and knowledge base to answer peculiar research questions. With advanced automation and a plethora of research tools to choose from, it has become an easy task for any organization to look for individuals with the capacity to provide them with accurate information that will fuel informed decisions.

In this blog, we’ll learn all the steps for building a research panel, the benefits of an online research panel, and more.

What is a Research Panel?

Research Panel is a group of well-suited people who aptly meet the criteria of eligibility to become a respondent for a particular research topic. The task of building such a panel of individuals is basically comprised of separating targeted respondents from the rest of the market and using them as research participants for nuanced market research.

The focus here is on quality and not quantity. Your panel of respondents must include specifically those individuals who can speak volumes and make a legitimate contribution to increasing your know-how about the market in the current scenario.

Including a large number of irrelevant members as respondents, on the other hand, is a compromise that hinders research quality and has no value addition. This can make decisions based on such input have minimal to no impact and can even cause a downfall as a worst-case scenario.

The benefits of using a research panel

There are certain benefits that set apart panel research from any other research style. These benefits justify the use of a research panel to carry out effective and targeted data collection.

1. Highly reliable

The use of a research panel makes the research data gathered using such a panel highly reliable and dependable. The people who provide such data have up-to-date information about the market. Such information can be used to make impactful decisions as well as the same information can be replicated as input for other relevant studies.

2. Valid information

Data collected through research panels are highly accurate. The inputs that are gathered provide a cohesive overview of the research subject, which makes the analysis actionable.

3. Quick data collection

Panel research provides organizations with the freedom to use a small sample to gather all the data they need. The rigorous selection and screening of the panel members make them highly representative of the actual target market.

This eliminates the need for organizations to look for a large number of panelists. Moreover, the distribution and collection through online channels allow the collection of responses within hours.

4. Unbound research

With experts and professionals as panelists, organizations have the freedom to dive into technicalities to narrow the field of study. The use of jargon and field-specific terms can easily be done without causing ambiguity or confusion among the respondents. With this level of research, organizations are easily able to conduct nuanced research, identify pain points and come up with optimal solutions to complex problems.

5. Cost savings

Conducting research using a research panel is more pocket friendly than using any other sample of the population that might or might not provide you with the correct information. Organizations can choose to minimize sample size due to low sampling bias.

Moreover, brand-related surveys use brand advocates as respondents who volunteer for research without any requirement of incentives or rewards. Their general interest levels in the brand and its products generate authentic data without any additional cost.

How to build an online research panel?

The process of building an online research panel is quite detailed and involves several steps. In order to build an effective research panel, all the steps must be followed carefully.

Steps for building a research panel

1. Defining your research objectives
2. Recruiting participants
3. Screening and qualifying participants
4. Establishing communication channels
5. Incentivizing participation
6. Conducting research studies
7. Analyzing and reporting data

Let’s deep dive into all the steps to build an online research panel:

Step 1: Define your research objectives

Before you begin building your panel, you need to define your research objectives. What kind of data do you want to collect? Who is your target audience? What research methods do you plan to use? This information will help you identify the characteristics and criteria you need for your panel.

Step 2: Recruit participants

Recruiting panel participants is a meticulous activity.

You can recruit participants for your panel through various channels, such as social media, online advertising, and email campaigns.

Let’s review some of the most common channels of panel recruitment:

1. Email

This is one of the most common and effective channels of recruiting panel members. Emails generate a lot of commercial traffic, which can be contacted for creating panels. With automated email services, emailing potential panelists and enquiring for relevant information is easier than ever. It generates good leads as well as prompt replies that make it a highly efficient and viable option to be used as a panel recruitment channel.

2. Social media

The reach of social media has expanded far and wide. The worldwide user base of social media platforms such as Facebook, with over 2 billion users, and Twitter, with over 200 million users, is indicative of the kind of reach that can be generated using such platforms.

Organizations can engage with specific individuals using such platforms where the frequency of activity is very high. This makes these platforms highly reliable for generating quick responses. Maintaining an active social media presence and monitoring can go a long way in filtering users that show a designated behavior and in boosting the online brand imag

3. SMS

Short messaging services are the most widely used facility. It is a great medium to catch user attention and lure them to be a part of research panels. Survey links and invites can easily be shared among a large mass of audience through SMS facilities. It does not ask for an online presence and can be shared with anyone owning a mobile device. Brief introductions about the company and the research can be given using the multi-language functions that are provided in survey software platforms. This enhances user understanding and reduces chances of confusion.

4. Website

Website traffic can be scrutinized and nudged to join research panels. Companies have a large amount of direct and indirect traffic that visits their websites to accomplish multiple objectives such as customer service, increasing awareness, registering complaints, or addressing queries.

Using targeted landing pages and website pop-ups, companies can effectively push this online audience to join research panels. This will also have the additional benefit of recruiting brand advocates and customers as panel members, thus increasing authenticity and minimizing the need for incentivizing.

Voxco panel members are recruited through different means from trusted institutions that provide verified people best suited for any research requirement.

You can also use panel management software to help you automate this process.

You can also use panel management software to help you automate this process.

Step 3: Screen and qualify participants

Once you have recruited potential participants, you need to screen and qualify them based on specific criteria.

This step involves defining the criteria that each individual must meet in order to be qualified as a panel member for a particular study. This may include demographic information, interests, and behavior.

These criteria are then converted into a concise survey that is sent out to multiple databases of panelists. On the basis of their answers, a limited number of well-suited individuals get qualified as fit respondents.

It is imperative that all aspects are carefully deliberated over and covered to narrow down the eligibility criteria. This way, it will be easier to choose respondents who are more representative of the target population.

Step 4: Establish communication channels

You need to establish communication channels with your panel members to keep them engaged and informed. This can include email, social media, or online messaging platforms.

Step 5: Incentivize participation

Offering incentives, such as cash rewards, gift cards, or other prizes, can help encourage panel members to participate in research studies.

Step 6: Conduct research studies

You can use various research methods, such as online surveys, focus groups, and product testing, to collect data from your panel members.

Step 7: Analyze and report data

Once you have collected data, you need to analyze it and report your findings. This can involve using analytics software and data visualization tools to identify patterns and trends.

Overall, building an online research panel requires careful planning and execution. By following these steps, you can build a high-quality panel that meets your research objectives and provides valuable insights into your target audienc

Panel Management

Once you’ve selected your panel members, it is very important to keep them engaged. After building a research panel, you need to update it using a custom online research panel constantly. Panel management software is associated with the continuous creation and maintenance of panels. Customized profiling, continuous interactions, provision of timely incentives, and other activities all come under the purview of panel management.

Panelists, esp. customers, are interested in two-way interactions with the organizations. There is a need to come up with new and innovative practices to maintain panel members so that they don’t lose out their interest and the quality of research can be maintained.

FAQs

What is a research panel?

A research panel or custom online research panel is a group of dedicated respondents who agree to contribute their feedback and insights to a particular research. The members of research panels, also called panelists, are recruited by research firms via social media, websites, emails, etc. Most market research firms use research panels to gather accurate and reliable data for product development, social welfare, health infrastructure, etc.  

Research panelists are often given incentives such as cash rewards or gift cards to keep them invested in the process of research and boost active participation.

What are some common uses of research panels?

The most common use of online research panels is to gather accurate data for a study from a targeted group of customers that have been recruited based on various factors. This data ensures that the findings of the study are statistically significant and representative of the population they are studying.

Here are some of the common uses of a market research panel:

1. Gathering feedback on new products or services: Before launching any new product or service to the public, companies can use research panels to test their appeal. By doing so, they can get feedback on features, pricing, packaging, and other aspects of the product or service.

2. Understanding consumer behavior: Companies can also use research panels to better understand consumer behavior by collecting data on things like purchasing habits, brand preferences, and consumer attitudes. Then, they can use this information to build marketing strategies and accelerate product development.

3. Tracking trends: Another thing that research panels can help companies do is track trends in consumer behavior and changes in preferences over time. This can be valuable for companies that want to stay ahead of the curve and adapt to changing market conditions.

4. Identifying market opportunities: Online consumer research panels can help companies identify new market opportunities by gathering information on consumer needs and preferences. This can help companies develop new products or services that meet unmet needs in the market.

5. Conducting competitive analysis: Another amazing use of research panels is analyzing the competition. Gathering information on competitors, including their products, marketing strategies, and customer base can help companies identify areas where they can differentiate themselves and gain a competitive advantage.

What is panel management software?

Panel management software is a type of software used by organizations to manage and maintain their research panels. It is designed to automate many of the tasks involved in panel management, such as participant recruitment, screening, communication, and data collection.

Also known as online consumer research panels, panel management software typically includes a range of features, such as:

1. Participant recruitment: Panel management software can help organizations recruit participants for their research panels through various channels, such as email campaigns, social media, and online advertising.

2. Screening and qualification: Panel management software can screen potential participants and assess their eligibility based on specific criteria, such as age, gender, location, and interests.

3. Communication: Panel management software can help organizations communicate with their participants through various channels, such as email, SMS, and social media. This can include sending notifications about new research opportunities, updates on study progress, and incentives.

4. Data collection: Panel management software can automate the process of data collection through various methods, such as online surveys, focus groups, and product testing.

5. Reporting and analytics: Panel management software can generate reports and analytics based on the data collected, helping organizations gain insights into their research panels and make informed decisions.

Panel management software can be used by a wide range of organizations, including market research firms, academic institutions, and government agencies. Automating many of the tasks involved in panel management can save organizations time and resources while ensuring that their research panels are well-managed and productive.

The process of collecting market intelligence is a crucial one , especially when the organizations carrying it out rely on it to make informed business decisions. As a result , gathering market data in a quick and efficient manner becomes the need of the hour. Companies need to optimize their approaach to data collection in way that reduces their effort and provides them with qualitative input that assist intelligent follow-up actions.This can be easily achieved through internet panel surveys that not only provide organizations with the ability to gather quick data points within specified time frames but also recruits individuals with the right knowledge that increases the efficacy of the research process. This fast research mechanism even lets companies take advantage of opportunities that present itself in the market before the ccompetition , hence , allowing them to develop a stronger footing and cash in on growth opportunities.

Internet panels : The right respondents to your questions

Internet panels are specialized individuals who are equipped with the relevant information to answer specific research questions in the best possible manner. These people have high experience and intelligence in particular fields of organizational interest. This makes them highly eligible to provide prompt answers and deep insights that can serve as an impetus to the functioning of organizations. For example: for concept studies of products such as Kindle’s Fire tablet , the internet panel is likely to consist of low income working employees or students with a need for a tablet ,to carry out their day to day activities , within an affordable price range. Regular e-book readers and Amazon members wishing to integrate all their entertainment and work related actvities is another niche market that the product will appeal to and so , they must be consulted for authentic feedback that can be used to tailor make the product for the target audience.Internet panels allow organizations to hand pick the individuals that they'd like to carry survey for specific information. This allows the organisations to conveniently select the right people in the right number without any geographical restrictions. These answers then get combined into a cohesive overview of the topic of research through useful analytical tools that are designed to treat and summarize different types of information .

Advantages of using internet panel surveys

The benefits listed below make a good case for using internet panel surveys :

Convenience :

Internet panel surveys are meant to offer convenience with quality. Surveys are designed and distributed through multiple channels with vast audience traffic that engage high number of relevant respondents while collecting intelligence in a quick manner. Organizations are not required to put in extra resources or effort to look for eligible respondents . Information gets sourced through multiple respondents without much hassle . Internet panel surveys , in this sense , provide a great deal of insights at minimal effort.

Highly representative :

The respondents in an Internet Panel Study are highly aware about the current market trends and customer preferences . Their answers and suggestions are much more representative of the actual market sentiment. This allows organizations to extract maximum information using a sample of participants. This reduces sampling bias and makes the implementation of modifications much more easier as it helps gain ready market acceptance . Organizations need not search for specified individuals that meet the eligibility criteria as such work can be feasibly outsourced

High-quality responses :

The high expertise of the respondents in the study helps gain quality insights . By quality insights , we mean that respondents are able to answer based on up to date market information and their own experience as well as researchers get to explore additional areas without worrying about the respondent's levels of understanding. The feedback provided by such respondents is authentic and can be trusted to deliver in terms of market results.

Economical :

As American author Seth Godin puts it : Everyone is not your customer. By spending on surveying large samples of data that might or might not help , you skim through the crowd to identify respondents that are fit and eligible to answer your questions. Moreover , you get to reach these individuals not through traditional methods that make the data collection process slow and tedious , but by accessing data throughout the world without being restricted by geographical barriers. This results in increased saving and increased earnings as a result of less cost and increased revenue from products modified to meet customer expectations , designed and improved using meticulous research .

Technical research :

Business research and market studies require respondents who can answer questions regarding consumer behaviour , customer psychology , market trends and many more highly technical areas of functioning which not any person with a generalized familiarity can answer. For specific studies , there is a requirement of experts in specialized fields who have been studying brand or customer specific behaviour for long periods of time and can back up claims with hard facts and figures . Traditional methods may not be able to provide you with professionals that make your research more concentrated. The researcher can easily dive into deeper aspects and use technical jargon without running the risk of confusing the respondent.

Panel Management

You've recruited a panel of individuals best suited for a particular research topic. Is it fair to contact them only when the organization is looking for answers?Maintaining panels of respondents is all about engagement. Panelists are interested in engaging in a dialogue with the organizations they are assisting. Sometimes , this lack of engagement forces the respondents to drop out of studies even when such studies are accompanied by incentives and rewards . This is particularly true for brand related studies where respondents volunteer to take part in research to help out the brand that they love or have shared a long journey with. Naturally , these people becomes the first choice for becoming a part of the respondent panels . But the lack of interaction can turn these brand advocates into passives or even detractors if the brands fail to meet their expectation levels in terms of generating engagement .So apart from surveying customers to know what they think about you , ask them to furnish you with information about them. This helps in creating database of panels. Further , using a feedback or open messaging mechanism makes panelists feel valued as well provides them with an open platform to express themselves freely . It sends a message that the organization is actually interested in listening and acting upon what their customers have to say which prompts these customers to put their best foot forward and be as comprehensive as possible while participating in the research.

How to recruit survey panels using Voxco?

Voxco actively surveys and manages panel of respondents using Voxco Panel management system that integrates seamlessly with Voxco online . Selection and screening takes place that gathers 90 data points from each individual panelist. Research is distributed and collected within hours through an efficient distribution and collection process. Logic functions ensure error minimization to maintain the accuracy and authenticity of data. These specializef panels are carefully selected to meet the peculiar needs of organizations in the best possible manner.Explore Voxco Survey Software

Before starting with what Textual Analysis is, let’s first start with understanding what “Text” actually means. We use the word text very often in our lives when it comes to sending messages on social media or when we see something written somewhere we process it as a “text”. But it would be safe to say that the meaning behind the word text actually run deeper than most of us ever thought.

Text, when we talk in academic terms, is basically anything that presents meaning to someone who is studying it. So when we say text, we can only think about newspapers, books, billboards, magazines and even our messages on the phone. But in reality, text can also include movies, songs, videos, painting, maps, a view, animations and literally everything that you can see with your very own eyes. That’s true! As long as we are looking at something, studying it, processing it in our brains, and deriving conclusions out of it, we can go ahead to call all those things a TEXT.

What is Textual Analysis?

This is where Textual Analysis comes into the picture. Textual Analysis is a term used to study and understand texts. It includes exploring the languages, symbols, patterns, pictures in the text.

Textual Analysis helps us understand and have a detailed idea about how people communicate their ideologies and thoughts and experiences through texts. Most of the time, texts such as a video interview, a newspaper article, or a voice message tells a lot about how a certain topic is being influenced by a certain group of people.

Example: A politician is giving a speech on television.

Textual Analysis will help understand the way he is preaching his historical, cultural, social, political points of view and the people who are listening to him may have a similar way of perceptions and this can really come in handy with the analyst when he is exploring a big theory.

What are the approaches of Textual Analysis?

Rhetorical Criticism:

It is a systematic study to describe, analyze, interpret and evaluate the messages that are hidden in the texts. The process of rhetorical criticism comprises of five steps:

• Purpose of the message
• The understanding of the historical, cultural and social context in the message.
• Using it to evaluate society.
• Can build a theory and its applications.
• Teaching people how effective persuasion works.

Content Analysis:

Is used to identify the messages occurring in the texts and enumerating them. It is generally not preferred by researchers as they work on the data that already exists rather than generating new data. The content analysis makes it hard due to the practice of coding the data and labelling them, which in turn includes training the researchers for the same.

• Qualitative content analysis- focuses on the actual meaning embedded in the message rather than the number of times the message has occurred.
• Quantitative content analysis- a step-by-step procedure where the research questions are answered in a proper manner.

Interaction Analysis:

It includes studies right from linguistic features like words and sentence formation to non-verbal factors like hand gestures and eye contact, topics that people discuss, the purpose of specific actions and speeches. Interaction analysis is viewed as a much more complex process that includes massive information on the topic and a strong ability to coordinate on the part of the researcher. It takes for a researcher to arrange for group meetings and observe the functional messages that are being exchanged during the discussion and the conversants’ actions.

Performance Studies:

Focuses on the richness of the text and its aesthetics while. A researcher puts up a performance using the texts to act out how it affects a conversation.

• Select: identify a text to examine.
• Play: try on different vocal and body language.
• Testing: conclude ways of understanding.
• Choosing: select a valid interpretation.
• Repeating: refine the chosen interpretation.
• Presenting: report of what has been discovered.

How and where is Textual Analysis helpful?

With the knowledge of all approaches, we can evaluate our text with Textual Analysis. Let's take a look at how textual analysis helps us to understand texts from different fields.

Textual analysis in Cultural and Media Studies:

In these fields, researchers consider music, videos, audio, images as text and use them for their evaluation. Hence researchers try to dig up the social and cultural context with these texts by evaluating the choice of words, location of the text, design, audience, etc. Textual Analysis here, therefore, is usually qualitative.

Textual Analysis is Social Sciences:

As the name suggests, it is about drawing social relations and understandings by analyzing texts in the form of interview videos, etc. It takes a more quantitative approach where the researcher might look at how many times a certain word or a phrase is repeated in the text.

Textual Analysis in Literary Studies:

This includes working on texts in the form of poems, novels, theatre, etc. and the researcher focuses on the narratives, rhymes, metaphors that are being used in order to draw out meanings from them. This application of textual analysis mostly focuses on unintended connections between the texts.

What is Inferential Statistics?

Inferential Statistics in quantitative research works in addition to Descriptive Statistics. Where descriptive statistics helps to summarize the characteristics of a sample population, inferential statistics focuses on using that summarized data and predict the characteristics for the larger population.

Hence, inferential statistics allows a researcher to make assumptions based on small populations, for the bigger populations. It uses measurements from the sample group and makes generalizations based on them for the larger groups. In essence to what is being said, if you want to identify whether the current statistics are descriptive or inferential, the key is that descriptive statistics works on your current sample data set and inference statistics work on concluding data in addition to your sample dataset which is comparatively huge.Example:You want to know the occupations of people in a village. You collect sample data from diverse villagers. After performing descriptive statistics on it, inferential statistics will give you an idea about what all occupations the rest of the villagers must be into.

What are the problems faced while collecting samples in Inferential Statistics?

• You have to make sure the sample data you select is diverse and random. This will avoid the results being biased. The sample data needs to be representative of the entire population for your assumptions to be accurate. 
• Errors in sampling can happen when you don’t cover some data from the population in your data. It creates a difference between the actual values of the population and the values that you have measured. This can happen irrespective of the first point. Nevertheless, there are various probability sampling methods to help avoid this like Systematic sampling, Cluster sampling, stratified sampling as Simple Random sampling. 

Ways of estimating population parameters from sample statistics:

It ideally tells us how to convert descriptive statistics to inference statistics. As the heading suggests, there are two characteristics:

• Parameter- Describes the entire population (mean of the population).
• Statistic- Describes the sample data (mean of the sample).

Inference statistics help us to use the sample statistic and describe the population parameter by taking sampling error into account and minimizing the difference between the two.

Types of estimating the population:

1. Point Estimate- It uses the sample data to calculate a single value or point, a statistic that is the best estimate of a population parameter. It identifies a point in some parameter space. 
2. Interval Estimate- Unlike point estimate, interval estimate gives a range where the parameter is expected to belong to. 

• Confidence Interval: Most common type of use of Interval Estimate. It is a range of values where the estimates are expected to fall on running the experiment again or on re-sampling. Hence, it is the mean of estimates which can fall on either on plus side or minus side of the variance (upper and lower bounds). Confidence level states the percentage of times we can expect the value to fall between the bounds. More the confidence level, the more the estimates are likely to fall in the same upper and lower bounds of the confidence interval. 

What is Hypothesis Testing in Inferential Statistics?

It is a statistically followed process to testing the assumptions made depending on The morris sample data. Let’s take an example along with the five steps to be followed while performing Hypothesis Testing;

Step 1) State Null hypothesis (H0):

It is an already accepted fact. Analysts try to eliminate or nullify the null hypothesis.

Step 2) State the Alternate hypothesis (Ha):

It the opposite of the null hypothesis and analysts try statistically to prove the alternate hypothesis right. If it is proved that the alternate hypothesis is right then the null hypothesis is automatically rejected. And vice versa.

Step 3) Determine Significance Level (α):

It is a determiner that states the probability of the alternate hypothesis being right. It uses a significance level which tells how confident you are in your conclusion. Generally it is 0.05 (5%) to start with. If α=0.05, then it will mean that you can 5% support the alternate hypothesis (meaning reject the null hypothesis). But it would mean that you were wrong to reject the null hypothesis.

Step 4) Calculate p-value:

It is a probability value in favour of the null hypothesis. Significance level supports the alternate hypothesis, p-value supports the null hypothesis.

• High significance level -> alternate hypothesis (null hypothesis rejected)
• High p-value-> null hypothesis (alternate hypothesis rejected)Step 5) Conclusion:

On basis of the above conditions, you can accept or reject the hypothesis by looking at the percentage of p-value and significance level.Example:(H0)- Obese people are insecure about their weight.(Ha)- Obese people don’t let their weight pull down their self-confidence. (α)- 0.05P-value- 0.02Conclusion- on interviewing several obese people you found out that many people are body positive and are comfortable in their skin. P-value is 0.02 which is way low than the significance level of 0.05, you failed to prove the null hypothesis and thereby accept the alternate hypothesis saying obese people don’t let their weight pull down their self-confidence.

What are Statistical Tests in Inferential Statistics?

Useful to test out predictions and hypotheses, it also eradicates sampling errors.Parametric statistical tests- more powerful due to their defect detection. It does so by making assumptions regarding the normal distribution of scores, the definition of the population by sample data, etc.Non-parametric statistical tests- do not make any assumptions and are distribution-free tests.

What are the types of Statistical Tests in Inferential Statistics?

Comparison tests-

It looks for the differences in mean and medians or scores. To know which test approach will suit the aim, you need to check if your data meets the conditions for the respective tests.Type of Comparison testParametric?What’s being compared?Samplest-testYesMeans2 samplesANOVAYesMeans3+ samplesMood’s medianNoMedians2+ samplesWilcoxon signed-rankNoDistributions2 samplesWilcoxon rank-sum (Mann-WhitneyU)NoSums of rankings2 samplesKruskal-WallisHNoMean rankings3+ samples

Correlation tests-

Tell the level of association between two variables.Type of Correlation testParametric?VariablesPearson’srYesInterval/ratio variablesSpearman’s rNoOrdinal/interval/ratio variablesChi square test of independenceNoNominal/ordinal variables

Regression tests-

They show if you change the predicted variables whether it causes the output variables to change or not. Depending on the number of variables you have, you can decide whether to take the regression tests or not.Types of Regression testPredictorOutcomeSimple linear regression1 interval/ratio variable1 interval/ratio variableMultiple linear regression2+ interval/ratio variable(s)1 interval/ratio variableLogistic regression1+ any variable(s)1 binary variableNominal regression1+ any variable(s)1 nominal variableOrdinal regression1+ any variable(s)1 ordinal variable

Whether you are a market researcher gathering customer insights or a social scientist exploring human behavior, listening to respondents’ unfiltered and unrestricted voices can provide more valuable insights. And, so thematic research stands as a powerful data analysis method that empowers researchers to gather textual feedback and harness the potential of data.

In this blog, we’ll dive into thematic analysis and how it aids the world of research.

What is thematic analysis?

As the name suggests, Thematic Analysis means analyzing the patterns of themes in data. It is a method of qualitative data analysis. It means this method can be used to analyze non-numerical data such as textual feedback you gather using surveys.

The process involves systematically organizing and interpreting open-ended feedback to uncover meaningful insights and identify underlying patterns within the data. Tools such as text analysis software help you automatically perform analysis and identify themes and patterns.

The analysis approach enables you to contextualize experiences, understand participants’ perspectives, and explore the hidden meaning behind their behavior.

Example of a real-world application of thematic analysis.  

Say a tech company conducts market research to understand customer satisfaction. The company collects textual feedback from all its active customers.

The company uses text analysis tools to perform thematic analysis to make sense of the data. After careful analysis, they identify several recurring themes such as “customer support,” “billing,” “ease of use,” and “product performance.”

Through this analysis method, the tech company can now quantify the recurrence of each key theme and draw insights into areas that need improvement and where they excelled.

How does thematic analysis help in research questions?

The patterns can be analyzed by repetitive data reading, data coding, and theme creation. The importance of thematic analysis is in exploring human experiences, attitudes, and behavior.

• It allows you to discover patterns and trends, thus revealing recurring themes that may otherwise go unnoticed.
• You can generate a rich and nuanced understanding of respondents’ perspectives.
• It helps you contextualize data by offering a comprehensive interpretation.

Let's take an example to understand how thematic analysis helps in research questions.

How has social media changed over the years?

The above research will need you to gather data from sources, blogs, news, interviews posted online. Interview a few new generation users of the platforms and the old users to gather intel about how they use the social platforms and what their experience is.

Also read: Quantitative Research Question

Who does thematic analysis?

Some of the established players have started implementing Thematic Analysis to improve their Manual Rules processes but tend to produce a list of terms that are difficult to review. This approach works well for text analytics platforms that are focused on improving the customer experience. However, it avoids generating generic solutions that are usually not designed to solve the problem.

Only a small portion of feedback is linked to the top 10 themes. Uncategorized feedback means that you can't slice the data to get deeper insights. Thematic research is a method that can easily analyze text-based feedback from multiple sources, such as email, social media, and real estate brokers.

What are some best practices for survey data visualization?

As we are towards the end of the article, let’s look at some of the best practices to ensure consistent, efficient, and comprehensive data visualization.

1. Ensuring interpretability and clarity:

Use visualization elements that are clear, concise, and easy to interpret. Use appropriate labels, titles, and context to communicate complex information with completeness clearly.

2. Consider accessibility of the report:

Make survey the survey data visualization tools like Looker Studio accessible to all responsible users. The platform must adhere to data security standards and guidelines to ensure any authorized user is unable to access it.

3. Ethical data handling:

Leverage a survey analytics software that adheres to data privacy regulations and ethical standards when handling survey data. Obtain informed consent from respondents and implement robust data security to protect data integrity and uphold ethical principles.

What are the advantages of using thematic analysis?

Thematic analysis in qualitative research is an unsupervised approach that enables you to create categories and perform statistical tests without having to set up any rules or procedures in advance.

1. In-depth insights:

The method allows you to gain deeper insights into participants’ motivations, emotions, and perspectives.

2. User-friendly:

The analysis is highly accessible as most modern survey software provides you with the capability of text analysis.

3. Holistic understanding:

Exploring multiple recurring themes in context with the research objective creates a comprehensive understanding of the topic.

4. Applicability:

The data analysis method is useful for various fields like market research, customer experience research, social research, healthcare research, etc.

What are the disadvantages of using thematic analysis?

Thematic analysis is an unsupervised approach that enables you to create categories and perform statistical tests without having to set up any rules or procedures in advance.

1. Overlooks minor themes:

Often times, you may overlook minor themes or less recurring patterns, leading to oversight of crucial insights.

2. Limited context:

Thematic analysis is typically phrase-based. Sometimes, it can't capture the meaning of a phrase correctly. For instance, in a complex narrative it can't capture the customer's intent to stop using the service.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_Sz8DEQEBc

What are the different types of thematic analysis?

With an adequate understanding of the method, let us dive into the various types of thematic analysis in qualitative research.

1. Inductive:

Focuses on developing a theory. This approach is used when there is not much information available on a topic and you have to build a theory straight from scratch. You can always validate this approach but it is hard to prove that observation made from this approach is correct. The inductive approach consists of three stages:

• Observation- a road has a busy traffic
• Look for a pattern- the road has busy traffic from 9 am to 6 pm.
• Develop a theory- a road has busy traffic during working hours.

2. Deductive:

Focuses on testing an existing theory. It totally depends on the Inductive approach as you start from working on an already existing theory. You go on formulating the theory and derive a conclusion out of it. The genuineness of deductive theory depends on how much true inductive theory is. The deductive theory has four stages:

• Starting with a theory- the road has busy traffic during working hours.
• Formulate a hypothesis- generally, all roads are busy during working hours.
• Collecting data to study hypothesis- observing all the roads during the working hours every day.
• Analyze the result (does the collected data reject or validate the hypothesis)- since all the roads are busy during working hours -> support a hypothesis.

3. Semantic:

Focuses on the details of the data. We research the data on the grounds that it has some secondary meaning and purpose to it. This will help to construct insights and information regarding how the data was being used.

4. Latent:

Focuses beyond the semantics of the data and works more on the underlying meanings, concepts, and assumptions that we made earlier with the semantic approach.

In order to choose the best-fit approach for your study, go through its requirements and which approach or combination of approaches will best align with your data.

Also read: How to make the most of your data analysis in research?

How to conduct thematic analysis?

There are six steps involved in conducting thematic analysis:

1: Familiarization

2: Coding

3: Generating themes

4: Reviewing themes

5: Defining themes

6: Writing

Once you have gathered adequate data and chosen your suitable approach, it is time to follow the following steps to build your thematic analysis for your problem statement.

Step 1: Familiarization

It is important to be familiar with the data before we begin to dig deep into the individual topics. This can include re-reading the whole data, having an overview of its context, and taking out personal notes if necessary. This is will help you to know your data.

Step 2: Coding

This includes highlighting or labelling certain words or group of words or even phrases in the data that all together indicates something. This something will come in handy when you are trying to grab the essence of the data. Let's take an example to understand this:

Example: How has social media changed over the years?

Let's say we are interviewing an old social media user here and her opinion on the problem statement. She says,

"I think the social media platforms are not for us oldies anymore. The trends are rapidly changing and there is always something new on the wall every day. It becomes difficult for people like me to keep up with those. Hence we often feel disconnected."

Now we can derive codes for the highlighted phrases like; Fast change | Uninterested | Discomfort

Step 3: Generating Themes

Now that we have our codes, we can derive themes from them. Themes can have several codes indicating the same expressions. As for our above example, we can have a theme called "not satisfied" for all the codes we derived from the interview. This will give an idea about how many codes are being used again and again and which ones of them serve no purpose so we can just discard them.

Step 4: Reviewing themes

Here we compare the themes with our original data and look for any missing points or irrelevant results. We can modify our themes depending on how they satisfy and justify the data after tracing them back to it.

Step 5: Defining themes

Further ahead, we can name the themes depending on what they indicate and what we get to understand from it about the data.

Step 6: Writing

For the last step, we will the results that we have come to and the conclusion that our thematic analysis has helped us to understand. As per our example, we can conclude that social media has changed so much that the older generations find it hard to interact with and result in their dissatisfaction on the matter.

So that is how to regulate your perfect Thematic Analysis for the next time you decide to research a problem statement.

Conclusion

In qualitative research, thematic analysis is a powerful and flexible data analysis tool with an ability to produce comprehensive findings, reveal underlying meanings, and detect patterns that aid in drawing data-based conclusions as well as decisions by researchers. To leverage the full potential of this approach, integrate it with quantitative and other qualitative data analysis methods. Mixed-method blends the benefits of both analysis approach and empowers you to generate broader and rich insight.

FAQ’s

What is the thematic analysis method?

The thematic analysis refers to the process of identifying, interpreting, and reporting these themes in textual data. It is a method for identifying, analyzing and reporting patterns within data.

What are the 5 steps of thematic analysis?

The common approach to thematic analysis involves five steps:

1. Familiarization
2. Coding
3. Generating themes
4. Reviewing themes
5. Defining and naming themes

What is the meaning of making thematic analysis?

Meaning-making thematic analysis involves interpreting the data to derive deeper insights and understand underlying meanings.

What is an example of doing thematic analysis?

A thematic analysis example could involve studying participants' experiences on dating sites. Researchers used a thematic analysis to study participants' experiences on dating sites, analyzing qualitative data to identify trending issues and recurrent patterns, providing insights into young females' mindsets and social interactions.

Discourse analysis is a qualitative research method used commonly in the field of social science, humanities, cultural studies, and more. The approach refers to the process of analyzing a written or spoken language in its social context.When you google the word “Discourse” the first thing to come up is “written or spoken communication or debate”. And as Cambridge would say, “discourse is communication in speech or writing”.What we get to understand in simple words is, Discourse refers to a discussion concerning a topic. It can be done in writing or even face to face. In other words, discourse can be communicated through words.For instance; 

1. A teacher discussing math with his students.
2. A team talking about their project.

Let’s understand what is discourse analysis and how it is used in everyday life.Start Creating Surveys Now

What exactly is Discourse Analysis?

According to the famous Oxford Dictionary, Discourse Analysis is “Linguistics, a method of analyzing the structure of texts or utterances longer than one sentence, taking into account both their linguistic content and their sociolinguistic context; analysis performed using this method.”Discourse Analysis is a method to study the written & spoken language which deals mostly with its social use. Understanding the cultural and social context of the languages is an important agenda for discourse analysis. Using that helps to mend their linguistic and sociological aspects.Discourse analysis aims to research the working of the language and learn the meaning derived from the words, depending on the situation. In the process of analysis, the context of the conversation is taken into consideration along with its meaning.For instance, the context may include the location of the speaker or non-verbal cues (body language) at the time of the discourse. In written communication, images and symbols used may encompass the context.

Why do you need Discourse Analysis?

Let’s understand with an example. You are analyzing a speaker’s speech, for you to understand the context of his speech completely, you will need to study the background of the speaker, why did he choose to speak on that topic, the background of the audience, and that of the locality he is speaking in.One can also predict the power imbalance amongst the people by observing them talk to each other. How they are cultivated in culture and communicated through a language. Hence this analysis approach can prove a perfect fit to assess social issues.Example:A politician (someone with more power) talking to their followers (someone with less power).You can use discourse analysis if you want to understand the following factors in the way the two groups communicate. 

1. Power or Inequality 
2. How do the two groups communicate in a specific context (in a public procession with media Vs. in a meeting with no media)
3. Ideology - how ideas and beliefs are shared using verbal language
4. Achieving social goals using verbal communication 

Approaches to Discourse Analysis

Depending on one’s purpose of the analysis, there are two main approaches of Discourse Analysis one can use. These are namely:

Language in use:

This approach focuses on the regular use of language in communication. It includes paying attention to sentence structures, grammar, phonology, etc. It traces back to formal ways of language usage, language in use pays attention to proper rules of grammar and when the language sounds ok to a native.This method helps in understanding the technicality of the language and how it is used in day-to-day conversations.Example:The language English has the prefix “un” and the suffix “able” as in “unpredictable” However, an English speaker may say, “That’s un-flipping-predictable”. From a language-in-use perspective, the infix “flipping” could be confusing. Discourse analysis can be used to examine what is the role of the infix, or how it helps in everyday conversation.

Socio-Political:

This approach of discourse analysis focuses on not only the technicalities but also on how a language influences the social and political context and another way round.

1. Critical Discourse Analysis- focuses on the power spectrum. Eg: Teachers and their students.
2. Normalized power- firm and suggestive, refers to one’s existence in the society and within its norms. E.g., people not talking in the library.
3. Repressive power- is confidently believed. E.g.: parents threaten their kids with a punishment.

If you look closely, the above sub-approaches are related to each other.

Steps to carry out in Discourse Analysis

Finalize your approach:

You need to decide what approach you want to use. This depends on what you are going to use discourse analysis for. Understand the aim and objective of the problem and research questions. You need to have an approach or a combination of an approach that best satisfies your research and best aligns with your study’s purpose.

Gathering Data: 

Once you have finalized your approach, it’s time to collect your data. Discourse analysis uses data in the form of talk or text.You can use the following resources to gather qualitative data to examine discourse:

1. Newspapers and periodicals
2. Brochures or other marketing materials
3. Government documents 
4. Social media comments, online forums, and website comments/reviews
5. Interviews or qualitative surveys

To avoid irrelevant and redundant data, make sure to answer the “what” “why” and “who” questions with respect to your case study. This will help you save time and keep your research on the right track.

Investigating context:

The key is to understand the concept and its meaning. Look to it that you come up with answers to

1. What is it?
2. Why is it?
3. When did it take place?
4. Where did it happen?
5. Who was in it?
6. What does it say about society?
7. How is it conveyed?

Analyzing gathered data:

After collecting the relevant data, look for patterns and themes. Examine elements you identify in the data and relate them to the themes and patterns relevant to your research purpose.For example, you can examine words or statements that relate to the dominance of the politician towards the followers. The words can include themes that reflect values or beliefs towards those with less power or body language that shows authority. 

Final review:

This includes returning to your research questions and seeing that you have satisfied all concerning requirements. After assigning attributes to the elements, you should start examining the meaning of the language.Analyze in a broader context to draw a better conclusion for your research.

Discourse Analysis: Real-Word Example

The example is how a healthcare facility used discourse analysis to understand the dissonance between patients and care providers.In a study funded by The Health Foundation, discourse analysis was applied to transcripts of conversations between doctors & patients were used to examine where misunderstandings were occurring.Two consultation audio-recording of 25 patients of breast cancer diagnostic consultations were analyzed using theme-oriented discourse analysis to investigate the moment of dissonance.The result of the discourse analysis showed that 8 out of 25 patients or their partners deferred the clinician’s treatment decision. Six patients asked for a recommendation.In medicinal science, discourse analysis helps physicians ensure that they are understood by their patients, especially those with limited language skills.

Summing up,

You are all set to conduct your discourse analysis. The vital thing to remember is that the process considers the social & cultural context in which language is used.Therefore, discourse analysis can be used in business research, academic research, or government research, as long as the aim is to understand the aspect of communication.Wondering what will be the cost of conducting survey research using Voxco?Get a free quoteExplore Voxco Survey Software