|
Tax Assistance Telephone Survey (TDI)
due in two weeks Once again, visit the IRS website: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=107930,00.html Make a note of the target groups that are eligible for these free tax assistance programs. Volunteers believe that not enough people are taking advantage of these free programs, but they are not sure why. One possible way to initially explore this issue is to interview Texarkana MSA residents who are members of the targeted group. Below is a letter that could be sent to our client to propose such a project. If the client were to agree that a telephone survey should be conducted in the manner proposed in this letter, write the script for this telephone interview. Your survey should include a combination of quantitative measures as well as exploratory qualitative probes. Refer to our Tax Assistance Recruiting Screener assignment: your telephone survey must be based on the same general research objectives of that study as well as follow the same general issues of quota sampling. In these telephone surveys, however, we would like to to interview a total of 100 respondents with 75% being within the immediate area of Texarkana, and 25% from the outlying areas. Note that you might not be administering the survey yourself. Therefore, anything not to be read on the phone should be put in bold and capital letters. Be sure to clearly identify branches and skips when needed. Don't forget to identify your survey form with the study number and study title.
Dear Ms. Ieress, As a followup to our phone conversation, here is a proposal to explore some initial answers to the kinds of questions that you had. Objective The present study would be an initial exploration into questions associated with why qualified people might not know about and might hesitate to participate in this free program. Methodology Our proposal is to randomly call Texarkana area residents, limiting respondents to a quota sample that includes people within the confines of Texarkana and some people who live in outlying areas (e.g., Ashdown, AR). The respondent's location would be determined by asking the zip code as an initial screening question after the introduction. The next screening question would screen people with regard to being able to qualify for the program. Once past these screening questions, we would continue to interview qualified respondents with regard to the issues below. The total number of respondents in the study would be 100, including 25 from outlying areas and 75 in the immediate vicinity. Question Areas Recommended survey flow is as follows:
Analysis Some of the questions will be quantitative (attitude scales) and some questions will be qualitative (open ended). We will provide you with a summary of the numerical averages of responses to quantitative questions, and will provide a written summary of the qualitative responses. Where appropriate, these will be broken out by the respondents' geographic locations. Timeline Our estimated timeline is as follows: Week 1: Write and edit a telephone questionnaire. Weeks 2 and 3: Conduct the telephone surveys. Week 4: Compile and analyze data, write reports. Week 5: Present results to you orally and in written report form. Budget Since the materials that we would consume are part of the normal, reasonable costs for a student, there will be no cost to you for materials. Since this is a student learning project, there also would be no cost to you for time. However, since students cannot be asked to incur the costs of long distance phone calls to outlying areas, you would have to allow these calls to be made from your shop. Ms. Ieress, please let me know if you need any additional information. If you believe that anything in our proposal should be changed, let us know as soon as possible. Thanks for this opportunity for our students to work with you. Sincerely, - Bob O.
|