A Response Rate Experiment Using Mail Questionnaires

Despite the disadvantages of the mail questionnaire (chiefly low and biased responses), it remains a valuable tool for research due largely to its success in collecting large amounts of information from widely dispersed respondents at relatively low costs. Research on improving mail questionnaire returns has been directed at three phases of the process: (a) the effects of contacts with respondents before receipt of questionnaires, (b) at the time the respondent receives the questionnaire, and (c) the time at which the respondent is deemed a non-respondent by failure to return the questionnaire. The present research deals with some problems of the second phase of the interview process, when the respondent receives the questionnaire.