Insights

Data Collection that Builds Trust – Surveys, Forms and Yes, Telephone Polls

Jan 07, 2021

Sing it any way you want, but the message is forte – opinion polls are a tried-and-true medium for collecting data around ideas, trends, public perceptions and more. While most polls these days are conducted online, historically, this hasn’t always the case. As hard as it may be to remember (especially in today’s age of rapid digital transformation), there once was a time when there was no internet and thus no online forums, no Twitter, no discussion boards, etc.

In the absence of these platforms, however, there still were ways of gathering opinions and data related to everything from automobile ownership to political opinions and beyond. What was the most popular and widely utilized format you may be asking?

Yes, before there were email surveys, online forms, etc., data was most commonly collected by pollsters who leveraged telephony to directly contact consumers and users to obtain feedback. While the advent of today’s hyper-digitalized world definitely contributed to quieting the use of telephone polling, perhaps one of the biggest crescendos in the ruination of telephone polling comes thanks to the onset and rise of robocalling.

To understand how and why robocalling had such a dramatic effect on telephone polling, however, it’s helpful to first gain a greater awareness of the history of polling in general. The concept was founded and made popular in the 1930s by George Gallup, a professor of journalism at Northwestern University, who believed strongly in the notion that public opinion could be quantified. How does one go about quantifying opinion, however? According to Gallup’s methodology, the key to obtaining valid data was to get the right cross-section of society to participate and respond to surveys. Ergo….

Sounds easy enough, no? Unfortunately, as Gallup found, collecting data was cumbersome at best, and near impossible at worst. In an age (once more), where there was no internet, no digital connectivity, etc., surveyors typically interviewed people while in passing and/or transit, such as while waiting for the bus or the train, and therefore, not overly engaged. As a result, even when hundreds or thousands of subjects were interviewed, the feedback hardly captured a proficient and usable cross-section sample.

Thus the question was begged for Gallup – how to approach driving engagement in a manner that produces more trusted feedback and authoritative data? The answer – Leverage the power of voice, or, more specifically, call households and conduct interviews with consumers and users in an environment where they are comfortable and undistracted. And thus we saw the birth of telephone surveys and polling – a trend that would last for the better of six decades. As a veritable platform, telephony proved to be a highly successful method for not only reaching individuals and extracting data, but also a more agile way to collect data that promoted diversity, responsiveness and participation.

As a personal project, I decided to put Gallup’s approach and methodology to the test by conducting my own informal poll around a subject near and dear to me – one that you may have noticed was discussed earlier in this article. Yep, I asked my professional and social circles how they felt about calls they didn’t recognize and more specifically….

Before I dive deeper into discussion however, I should provide the following disclaimer – my polling was motivated in large part by professional curiosity and that the individuals I surveyed definitely do not represent a systematic sample, nor were my techniques and methodology deliberatively scientific. In other words, I asked a lot of people I know a lot of questions and collected their responses.

And here’s what I found….

For the most part, if someone doesn’t recognize a number from an incoming call, they are NOT answering the call. We’re living in an era of increased caution and awareness and based on the feedback I received, these sentiments can definitely be extended to telephony. From blunt replies such as “I don’t pick up random calls” to more open-minded (yet cautious) responses such as, “I do want to participate in surveys, but don’t always recognize when they are calling me,” the over-riding sentiment was that people in general have a certain level of fear when it comes to the telephone – a fear of scams, bad actors, fraudulent activity and most notably (if I may reiterate)....

In fact, one peer I queried flat-out stated: “I cannot trust a caller simply based on their number being shown on my phone screen.” At a time when confidence is paramount and trust is hard-won, it’s critical that Caller ID information is recognizable and trusted. While it’s no secret that trust in telephony has eroded in the recent past, the end to the trend is much closer than you may think, thanks in large part to recent advances including the STIR/SHAKEN framework, aggressive issued orders from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and more sophisticated authentication enablement solutions.

At Somos, we’re committed to stopping robocalling’s trend life cycle by investing in technology, solutions and platforms that help drive trust, transparency and fairness. Rooted in our authoritative registries, which provide trusted sources that Responsible Organizations (Resp Orgs) and Service Providers rely on to innovate, grow and thrive, we continue day in and day out to deliver registries, products and services that not only help proactively combat illegal robocalling and spam, but that also comply with FCC STIR/SHAKEN standards.

Just like Gallup discovered ages ago, when it comes to polling and data collection, aggregation and management, the key to success is having information that you can trust to be accurate, relevant and substantial. At Somos, we hold tight to these findings and apply similar principles to everything we do. Our customers drive our decisions, and we look forward to continuing to poll them – via telephone and beyond! – to ensure that our products, services and solutions are always tried and true.

Sri Ramachandran

SVP & Chief Technology Officer