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Phone Survey Scripts: Sample Scripts And Best Practices

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Published: Jul 8, 2022

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 are looking 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 that your calling agents are always prepared!

We’ve developed a few phone survey scripts that you can refer to and replicate for your telephone surveys. We also have a few great phone survey best practices listed right after – just for you! Let’s explore.  

Phone survey scripts samples: Crafting an effective survey script

phone-survey-scripts-response-rates-by-year

Survey response rates by year

The figure indicates a notable upward trend in the overall average response rate over the years: 48% in 2005, 53% in 2010, 56% in 2015, and a significant increase to 68% in 2020.

However, when developing phone survey scripts, you need to consider if the people you are calling expect your call. You will need to craft your survey script depending on whether it is a –

  1. Recruited call: When respondents are expecting your call or
  2. 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 some extra effort and smart planning at the scriptwriting stage to reel them in and get them to take the survey.

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 reach out to you again and go through 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. 

  1. This survey has been reviewed and approved by _______. And
  2. The objective of the survey is to ________ and is therefore funded by ______.
  3. Please be assured that all your information will be kept private and confidential, such as your name, address, email, etc.
  4. 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*

call-centre-software-embed-cta

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 spending a few minutes 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 reach out to you again and go through 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. 

  1. This survey has been reviewed and approved by _______. And
  2. The objective of the survey is to ________ and is therefore funded by ______.
  3. Please be assured that all your information will be kept private and confidential, such as your name, address, email, etc.
  4. 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 dispositionCall 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. 
Key to understanding the phone script

With these phone survey scripts to follow, let’s take a look at some tips for creating a great phone survey script.

Tips for creating great phone survey scripts 

Crafting phone survey scripts for your research campaign needs you to consider a variety of 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 is going to 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. Customer satisfaction and market research surveys generally fall within the 10% to 30% range, while employee surveys typically see rates between 25% and 60%. 
  • The objective of the study – is it to improve your product, understand the public sentiment, or something else?
  • Duration of the survey – Is a respondent going to spend 5 minutes or the next 30 minutes going through the survey? Preparing them to spend a certain amount of time ensures they complete the survey without getting frustrated.
  • Confidentiality – Will you disclose personal or identifiable information that 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 can determine the respondents’ willingness to participate in it. 
  • Voluntary nature of participation – All respondents must be made aware that they can choose to stop participating in the survey if they wish to at any point. They can also refuse participation at the beginning of the survey in the interest of time and accuracy of the research campaign.

3. Your introduction

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

Research suggests that the impact of personalization is more pronounced when the recipients are conscious of the personalized elements involved.

4. Personalize conversations

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 make 3x more calls per hour than manual dialing, stay compliant with regulations, and much more. 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.

Conclusion

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

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