If you search for online survey software, you can wade through several pages to find different products. However, few of these offer mixed modes or multimode surveys. Ignoring the paid-for advertising, the first page of the search (using incognito mode in Google Chrome) at the time of writing this article gave me a choice of SurveyMonkey, Google Forms and Qualtrics.

Security and data privacy continue to grow in importance. New laws in the EU under GDPR are designed to make care of personal data increasingly important to companies. Whilst there is an established and obvious need for data security with online surveys, there has arguably been less rigour with CATI surveys.

Although there has been a big movement to online surveys, CATI (computer assisted telephone interviewing) still has a big role to play in market research. The true cost of CATI software, however, is often overlooked.

As more and more market research surveys are conducted online, older technologies tend to stand still. Why? Because the software companies are racing to be leaders in the next big thing. This can leave a void meaning that older technologies don’t develop as much as they could.

Ease of use, functionality and cost are probably the three main drivers for purchasing any software. In my view, most CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing) software packages fail on at least one of these criteria…

Market research has adopted technology at varying speeds in its history, often at a different rate to other industries. Why is this? Is it important? CAPI (Computer-assisted personal interviewing), CAWI (web interviewing), CATI (telephone interviewing), tabulations, reporting and dashboarding all pose different wants and needs.

The CATI market has clearly shrunk in recent years with the advent of cheaper and faster online surveys. Telephone surveys of the past are often now conducted online. There are few new products in the CATI software market, but…