Well-written phone survey scripts are essential for a phone survey campaign. Knowing what to say, how to pitch your survey, and how best to receive responses will elevate your campaign and bring you the results you look forward to.
What differentiates a good phone survey script from a not-so-great one is that the former accounts for every possible scenario that you may encounter. It could be an interruption, a network issue, encountering an answering machine, and so much more. Your phone survey script must cover all these bases so your calling agents are always prepared!
We’ve developed a few phone survey scripts you can refer to and replicate for your telephone surveys. We also have a few great phone survey best practices listed immediately – just for you! Let’s explore.
Key Takeaways
Phone survey scripts need to cover every scenario a calling agent might face, from recruited and random calls to reschedules, answering machines, and children picking up the phone.
Recruited vs. random calls
- Recruited calls reach respondents who already agreed to participate and have some familiarity with the brand or organization, making them easier to navigate.
- Random calls are cold calls to people who are not expecting contact and tend to respond negatively, so the script needs extra relationship-building effort to reel them in.
Script structure
- The survey spiel is the opening lines an agent delivers the moment someone picks up and forms only the first stretch of the full script.
- From the spiel, the agent branches into reschedule wording if the timing is wrong or straight into the survey section if the respondent is ready to answer.
- Random call scripts include a child section instructing the agent to ask for a parent or caregiver and to schedule a retry call if one is not available.
- The survey section opens with disclosures covering who reviewed and approved the survey, its objective, its funding source, confidentiality of personal information, and the respondent’s right to opt out at any point.
Using the scripts in practice
- Scripts should be treated as adaptable examples rather than word-for-word lines, since the recruited and random versions deliberately open differently.
- Merge tags such as {first_name} and {agent_name} personalize the conversation, while blanks are filled in with campaign-specific details.
- Call dispositions in CallHub’s software label each call’s outcome, such as unanswered, callback, uninterested, or survey done, and the scripts can be added to the campaign brief section for agents to reference during calls.
Phone survey scripts samples: Crafting an effective survey script
Survey response rates by year
- Recruited call: When respondents are expecting your call or
- Random call: You are cold-calling people for survey responses.
Recruited calls are easier to navigate because the people you reach out to already know about you. They have some idea about you, your brand, organization, mission, etc., and would be more willing to participate. It is an effective and efficient way to reach out to respondents.
Random calls, however, require relationship-building to begin with. Since respondents on a random call are not expecting your call and do not know you, they tend almost always negatively to respond to the call. Therefore, it would take extra effort and smart planning at the scriptwriting stage to reel them in and get them to take the survey.
In a call center, the lines an agent delivers the moment someone picks up are what the team usually calls the survey spiel — and it is only the opening stretch of the script. From there, the agent branches: into the reschedule wording if the timing is wrong, or straight into the survey section if the respondent is ready to answer. Writing those parts as distinct blocks is what keeps an agent from improvising mid-call.
We’ve come up with scripts for both scenarios for you to use.
1. Recruited call script
Introduction
Hi {first_name}, my name is {agent_name} and I’m calling from {company_name}.
I’m calling you about the ____ survey, in which you agreed to participate earlier. I would like to go through the survey with you now. Is this a good time to speak with you?
*If no, move to ‘Reschedule’ section*
*If yes, move to the ‘Survey’ section*
Reschedule
Thank you. What would be a good time to contact you again and review the survey? (Schedule callback disposition on the calling software)
Survey
Alright, let’s get into it then! Before we begin, I would like to share a few details about the survey.
- This survey has been reviewed and approved by _______. And
- The objective of the survey is to ________ and is therefore funded by ______.
- Please be assured that all your information, such as your name, address, email, etc., will be kept private and confidential.
- You can opt out of the survey at any point, and your participation is voluntary.
I hope these points have addressed any concerns you may have. We can proceed with the survey unless you have any questions.
*Begin survey*
2. Random call script
Introduction
Hello. My name is {agent_name}, and I’m calling from {company_name}.
We are conducting research on _____ and would like to know if you would mind answering a couple of questions. The survey would only take ___ minutes and would help us ________.
Would you be interested?
*If no, say thank you, end the call, and enter call disposition as ‘uninterested’*
*If it is not a good time, move to the ‘Reschedule’ section*
*If a child answers, then move to the ‘Child’ section*
*If yes, move to the ‘Survey’ section*
Reschedule
Thank you. What would be a good time to contact you again and review the survey? (Schedule callback on the calling software)
Child
Hello. Can I speak to your mom or dad? Or anyone else who is taking care of you right now?
If not available: Okay, thank you. Can you let me know when they will be back?
*Set the call disposition as ‘Retry Later’ and schedule a call back*
Survey
Alright, let’s get into it then! Before we begin, I would like to share a few details about the survey.
- This survey has been reviewed and approved by _______. And
- The objective of the survey is to ________ and is therefore funded by ______.
- All your information, such as your name, address, email, etc., will be kept private and confidential.
- You can opt out of the survey at any point, and your participation is voluntary.
I hope these points have addressed any concerns you may have. We can proceed with the survey unless you have any questions.
*Begin survey*
Add these phone survey scripts to the ‘campaign brief’ section of CallHub’s calling software, and you are all set to refer to it while making calls.
| * | Instructions to the calling agent |
| _____ | Fill details as per your campaign in the blanks |
| {first_name}{agent_name} | Merge tags to personalize the conversations |
| Call disposition | Call dispositions are a feature on CallHub to label a call according to its outcome. You can label calls as ‘unanswered,’ ‘call back,’ ‘uninterested,’ ‘survey done,’ etc. |
Read both samples above as examples of a survey spiel to adapt, not as lines to deliver word for word — the recruited version assumes the respondent already agreed to participate, while the random version has to introduce you from scratch, so the opening few seconds of each are deliberately different.
With these phone survey scripts to follow, let’s examine some tips for creating a great phone survey script.
Tips for creating great phone survey scripts
Crafting phone survey scripts for your research campaign requires you to consider various things, from your objective to your target audience. Depending on these factors, you can add some of these best practices to design a survey script for the best results.
1. Determine your audience
The first step towards a successful research campaign and phone survey script is to determine who it will communicate to.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself:
- Is my target audience aware of me/my organization/my mission?
- How trusting are they of my brand?
- Do they have context around who we are?
- Would it be best to reach out to them via calls?
- Will my questions be easily understood by them?
- What value will this particular audience segment add to the research?
2. The content
When creating the content for the telephone survey script, there are a few checklist items that you can add. These include –
- Purpose of the call – It is easy to get confused between a cold sales call and a call for market research. Letting people know your intention at the start helps shift the conversation. The response rates for various surveys differ significantly. SurveyMonkey’s current benchmark guide, built on its 2025 platform data, puts email surveys at roughly 49% and web-link surveys at about 30%, while SMS surveys average closer to 19% and all-staff employee engagement surveys sit at around 22%.
- Is the study’s objective to improve your product, understand the public sentiment, or something else?
- Duration of the survey – Will a respondent spend 5 minutes or the next 30 minutes going through the survey? Preparing them to spend some time ensures they complete the survey without getting frustrated.
- Confidentiality—Will you disclose personal or identifiable information you receive from the survey, or will it be kept confidential? It is important to set the terms before you begin the survey.
- Funding – Who is funding this survey? This can determine the respondents’ willingness to participate.
- Voluntary nature of participation—All respondents must be aware that they can choose to stop participating in the survey at any point. They can also refuse participation at the beginning of the study in the interest of time and accuracy of the research campaign.
3. Your introduction in your phone survey scripts
The first few seconds of a call are extremely important in determining how willing a participant will be, their response to your participation request, and their trust in the survey. Therefore, pay extra attention to what you put down as your introduction in your script.
Add these pointers in your introduction to immediately create good rapport:
- Your name
- Organization name
- Purpose of the call
4. Personalize conversations in your phone survey scripts
Personalized conversations significantly improve response rates. In fact, personalization can improve conversion rates by 51%. You can personalize conversations by including these in your phone survey script:
- The respondents’ name
- Their city (if you have that information)
- Any interests like sports or entertainment
- Share how the survey would benefit them
A good calling software like CallHub will allow you to add information while uploading your contact list and use merge tags to personalize your conversations.
5. Text messages
A good practice while conducting phone survey campaigns is to pair them up with text messages. With CallHub, you can also automate text messages post each call. A good phone survey script paired with an impactful message will encourage more respondents to answer your survey.
Here are a few ways in which you could include text messages in your campaign.
- If a recipient wants more details about the survey, you can share a text message with a URL to all your FAQs.
Hi {first_name}
It was great speaking with you. Click on this link to learn more about the survey: <insert link>. Awaiting your participation.
Thank you
{agent_name}
- If a recipient chooses to be contacted at a different time, you can send them a message with the details of your call and the scheduled call time.
Hi {first_name}
It was great speaking to you today regarding the ____ survey. I look forward to speaking to you tomorrow at 6 pm.
{agent_name}
6. Use a good calling software
A good calling software can help boost your survey multifold. Here is how a good software can help you:
- Make more calls per hour
- Improve agent efficiency
- Dial calls automatically
- Save notes from each conversation
- Schedule callbacks
- Stay compliant with TCPA regulations
- Analyze and track reports
CallHub’s autodialers help you dial far faster than manual calling — an estimated 60–80 calls per hour on the power dialer and up to 110 on the predictive dialer — while keeping you compliant with regulations. You get to choose between three autodialers for your varied needs.
7. Tweak your campaign
As you conduct your survey over a period of time, you can regularly stay updated with your progress through tracking reports.
Understand what works, what does not work, and what kind of messaging you included in your phone survey script gathered what kind of response.
Continuously updating and changing your script to get the best responses is imperative in ensuring your survey is successful.
8. Use call transfer
A great feature to look forward to when conducting phone survey campaigns is live call transfer.
This is beneficial when you are cold-calling a list of numbers and asking them to participate in your survey. It enables calling agents to stay on the call and connect people to another agent or manager.
For example, if your agent is on a call with a person who needs far more clarity on the survey than the agent can provide, the agent can simply transfer the call to their superior and listen to the conversation.
9. Time your calls right
Timing your calls right is essential to improve your response rates and stay compliant with TCPA regulations.
Also, think about it. No one wants to receive a phone call early in the morning when they are rushing for work or late Friday night when they’re drained from a long work week. And if you’re cold calling them at these times, you are most likely to get a negative response.
Figure out timings that comply with the law in your state and experiment with different times that give you the best response. Use the reports feature on your calling software to get accurate data on what call timings work best for your phone survey campaign.
What’s next once you have your phone survey scripts?
Phone survey scripts are essential to the success of your campaign. Use our tips to create a survey script that boosts your market research campaign results.
If you would like to explore more resources for designing your telephone survey campaign, we suggest checking out our article Cold-Calling Market Research Is Easy. We Show You How.
Feature Image Credit: RODNAE Productions
