Limitations Of Telephone Survey:
(1) Brief questionnaire required: In telephone interview, the questionnaire must be brief because lengthy interview with the respondent is not possible. As a result, telephone interview is useful for collecting limited information on specific points as the length of telephone interview is always very short. A respondent can close the conversation quickly as per his desire.
(2) Limited / Brief information available: In telephone interview, the replies given by respondents are always brief and limited information is given. The communication with the respondents is oral/verbal. Detailed discussion is not possible. Interview length is limited. This narrows down the scope of survey. There is time limit for telephone interview. Even visual aids cannot be used in telephone survey.
(3) Difficult to contact large number of respondents: It is difficult to contact large number of respondents, as many persons do not have telephone facility. As a result, the coverage of survey is limited. Similarly, many people may not be willing to talk over telephone. This restricts the scope of telephone survey.
(4) Non-verbal responses are not available: In this method, observation of respondents is not possible. As a result, non-verbal responses cannot be seen and noted.
(5) Non-availability of proper sample: In telephone survey, it is difficult to get a representative sample. It is only the list of telephone subscribers which can used for selecting samples.
(6) Limited coverage of sample: Respondents from remote places cannot be contacted by this method. Even poorer sections of the society are not covered by telephone survey.
(7) Limited questions: Questions of very personal nature or questions requiring lengthy answers cannot be asked in telephone interview. This makes the interview incomplete. Bias on the part of respondent is also possible.
(8) Interviewer’s bias: There is a possibility of interviewer’s bias in this survey method.
(9) Difficulty in checking validity of information: It is difficult to check the validity of information supplied on phone. Even the person on telephone may not be the real respondent.
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