SSRS EVP Chintan Turakhia Virtually Presenting at GOR 2021

September 10, 2021 – 7:30 to 9:30am EST

EVALUATING PROBABILITY-BASED TEXT MESSAGE PANEL SURVEY METHODOLOGY

Authors: Chintan Turakhia; Jennifer Su

Organization: SSRS, USA

Relevance & Research Question: With increasing cost of data collection for phone, mail and in-person modes, the need for robust online data collection methodologies has never been greater. Text message surveys have a unique advantage in conducting short, quick turnaround surveys in a cost-effective manner. Text message surveys can also be quite effective in reaching harder-to-reach populations.
To-date, the use of this methodology has been limited due to concerns of low participation rates and representativeness of text message-based surveys. Also, majority of Text message-based survey research to-date has been conducted via opt-in panels. SSRS has launched the first TCPA-compliant nationally representative probability-based text message-based panel. This paper explores the effectiveness of probability-based Text message survey panel as a data collection methodology.
Methods & Data: Data collection was conducted via an interactive text message survey (as opposed to sending a web survey link via Text message). The advantage of this methodology is that the survey can be administered via smart phone or other phones thereby improving coverage. No internet service is required as the Text messages are sent via mobile service. To evaluate the effectiveness of Text message-based survey methodology in generating projectable population-based estimates, we conducted Text message survey and a parallel survey fielded via RDD phone.
Results: In this paper, we provide demographic and substantive comparison of RDD phone and text message-based survey methodology.  Our findings suggest that Text message surveys produce very similar results to time-tested RDD phone methodology.
Added Value: In addition to providing methodological guidance on implementing Text message surveys, this paper also provides best practices guidance in implementation of Text message-based surveys.