One Missed Call: Measure of Cell Phone Usage in an RDD Telephone Survey

Telephone products such as answering machines, caller-ID services, and cell phones simplify modern-day life yet present an increasing challenge for survey researchers. In particular, contact and response rates have suffered due to changes in telephone usage patterns. To understand the effect that these technologies have on our research center, we examine cell phones, whose growing presence stands to greatly impact survey research. Through an RDD telephone survey, we examined cell phone usage, screening behavior of unknown numbers, reactions to survey research, and incentives, as well as potential cell phone behavior. Our study revealed a high prevalence of cell phone usage even among those who also own a landline telephone. We found that overall data quality is not impacted, as simple weighting techniques ensure that our collected data are representative. However, this dual telephone usage and the increasing future use of cell phones are still potential challenges to our research institution.