Computer-assisted-telephone interviewing (CATI) guides the interviewer step-by-step through the questionnaire, dials telephone numbers according to a certain criteria set and analyzes processes in the background to enhance your cost and operations efficiency. Did you know that…
..CATI has been around for more than 40 years?
Until the 1970s telephone data collection relied on the use of paper questionnaires, which were administered by interviewers over the telephone. The data from the paper questionnaires then had to be manually edited, keyed, and processed before results could be distributed.
As computers advanced, becoming smaller and more powerful, the concept of utilizing them to conduct surveys was pursued. From simple solutions with basic options, CATI soon evolved into complex engines, and NIPO is proud to own one of the most proven and renowned CATI solutions on the market today.
Choose a solution that suits you best
When selecting a software solution, there are two options for conducting your telephone research: on premise or cloud CATI solutions. NIPO offers both options so you can choose the one that suits you best.
- On premise (NFS CATI solution): physical servers, CATI software and your survey data are stored and maintained within your own organization’s IT infrastructure, therefore you need to establish your requirements internally. Most CATI features are located within the CATI software, not the dialer itself, so you can connect a dialer of your choice to the software.
- Cloud (Nfield CATI solution – under development): your survey data is stored in the cloud infrastructure at Microsoft’s data center. Microsoft and NIPO are responsible for all maintenance, system upgrades, cooling equipment and power delivery tools. Most CATI features are located in the dialer, therefore it is not possible to connect a dialer of your choice to the CATI software. This solution is under development. For more information, contact us at info@nipo.com.
CATI features
Our CATI solutions power the largest telephone surveys in the world. Amongst market researchers, it’s wildly accepted as a reliable and robust telephone data collection platform. Our Sales Team are keen to work with you to understand your needs and assess what solution would work best for you.
The key features of our CATI are:
- CATI operations can be scaled up from six to thousands of interviewers
- It enables interviewers to work from anywhere (called virtual call centers)
- Questionnaires can be designed with easy-to-follow instructions and cues
- Respondents have the option to start a survey on the phone and complete it online later
- An open architecture allows features to be customized to meet different standards – for example, to control how many times a telephone number should be called, or the call-again delay for busy calls
- Listen and coach your interviewers live
- Quota targets can be viewed and managed in real time
- Changes can be made in real time without bringing operations to a halt to modify interview scripts or dialing parameters
- Progress and performance can be monitored in detail, regardless of the location of the interviewers
Even more, our CATI solutions offer advanced capabilities such as auto, progressive and predictive dialing to help you drive productivity.
- Predictive – the dialer determines that a percentage of calls will be unsuccessful and therefore makes a large number of calls in parallel and then routes the live call answers to the next available interviewer.
- Preview – the dialer makes sequential dials from a contact list and allows the interviewer to preview the contact record prior to the call and decide if they wish to proceed with a call or move to the next contact on the list.
- Power – the dialers connect interviewers to respondents more efficiently by allowing the interviewers to focus on live connections. When an interviewer becomes available, the system automatically dials the next contact.
