A few weeks ago in my POLS 195A class, all the students had to participate in a survey. We were those people that call you and ask if you are interested in doing a survey. It was interesting to be on the other side when I have answered the phone so many times to people asking if I would like to take a survey. Whenever I have answered the phone and it has been a person asking if I want to take a survey I usually say no. After being the person on the other end I would definitely take the survey if I had time and if I did not have time I would be very polite about saying no. It was a very challenging experience because I had called over a hundred people and only two people took and finished the survey. I got hung up on countless times and even encountered some extremely rude people. Many people simply did not answer their phones, which was better than the rude people. I do not think there was anything I found to be enjoyable or rewarding about working on this survey. I had way too many rude people to find anything about sitting in a room for four hours cold calling people enjoyable.

What I learned from this survey was that people do not want to take surveys over the phone. Many people are going to be rude, and the few that do agree to take the survey are going to wonder why it is so long and boring. I also learned that mainly women answer the phone.

My suggestions for next time would be to make the survey shorter if possible. Also avoid calling cell phones because people do not want to waste their minutes. Also, in order to get a more diverse sample, it would be great to ask for a male or a female or find things to ask that would change up who people are giving the survey to.

Words of the Week:

reticent: disposed to be silent or not to speak freely; reluctant or restrained.

volatile: tending or threatening to break out into open violence; changeable or mercurial.