The Night Before Christmas: A Research Approach
If you have never done the hard work of interviewing your customers (or potential customers) by phone for surveys or in-depth interviews, you should. It will give you deeper insights into your critical business questions than any expert analyses about buyer behavior, marketing trends, or business best practices.
If you HAVE done the hard work of phone surveys, then besides deeper research insights into your business, we expect you will have a deeper appreciation for this holiday survey, written by Mitch Pravatiner, which is written in exactly the format that telephone interviewers typically see. We have worked with Mitch in the past, and he is a true pro when it comes to telephone interviewing. He recently shared this via aapor-net, which is a discussion group of research professionals who belong to the American Association of Public Opinion Research.
‘Twas the Night Before Christmas . . .
Hello, this is [NAME OF INTERVIEWER] from [NAME OF ORGANIZATION], an opinion research organization. Tonight we’re calling people across the country to find out what’s going on in their homes on the night before Christmas. Please rest assured that this is not a sales call, and that everything you tell us will be kept confidential. Would you be willing to participate?
Yes (CONTINUE)
No (THANK AND TERMINATE)
Q1 First of all, have you noticed any creatures stirring in your house tonight?
Yes (SKIP TO Q3)
No
DON’T KNOW (SKIP TO Q3)
REFUSED (SKIP TO Q3)
Q2 Not even a mouse? (DO NOT READ LIST)
YES, NOTICED MOUSE STIRRING
NO, NOT EVEN A MOUSE
DON’T KNOW
REFUSED
Q3 Have you hung any stockings by your chimney?
Yes
No (SKIP TO Q6)
Q4 How much care did you use in hanging the stockings by the chimney? Please rate it on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 means “no care at all” and 10 means “extreme care.”
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
DON’T KNOW
REFUSED
Q5 What would you say was the single main reason you hung stockings by the chimney? Was it:
In the hope that Santa Claus would drop in
To dry them after you had to walk home through a series of deep snowdrifts
They had developed runs, so there was no other use for them, or
Some other reason (SPECIFY)
DON’T KNOW
REFUSED
Q6 As far as you know, what visions have your children experienced in bed tonight? (RANDOMIZE)
(NO CHILDREN)
Barbie dolls
GI Joes
Chatty Cathys
Sugar plums
Betsy Wetsys
Cabbage Patch Kids
Tickle Me Elmos
Easy Bake Ovens
Candy canes
Radio Flyers
Fruitcake
Red Ryder BB guns
Other (if “yes” go to Q6a, otherwise skip to q7)
Q6a What other visions? (PROBE AND CLARIFY)
DON’T KNOW
REFUSED
Q7 Have you tried to get any sleep so far tonight?
Yes
No
DON’T KNOW
REFUSED
Q8 Were you awakened from your sleep at any time tonight?
Yes
No
DON’T KNOW
REFUSED
Q9 What woke you up? (READ LIST)
A loud noise outside the house
A loud noise inside the house
Indigestion from something you ate at the office party earlier today
Something else (SPECIFY)
DON’T KNOW
REFUSED
Q10 What did you do after you woke up? (READ LIST)
Got up to see what was going on
Shrugged it off and went back to sleep
Something else (SPECIFY)
DON’T KNOW
REFUSED
Q11 What did you notice after that?
A sleigh pulled by reindeer parked on the front lawn
A UPS truck that overturned after skidding on black ice on the street in front of your house
Several drunks who passed out on the lawn after leaving the party next door
Something else (SPECIFY)
DON’T KNOW
REFUSED
Q12 Was Santa Claus with the sleigh and the reindeer?
Yes
No
DON’T KNOW
REFUSED
Q13 How many reindeer did you see?
(RECORD NUMBER)
DON’T KNOW
REFUSED
Q14 Did Santa mention any of them by name?
Yes
No
DON’T KNOW
REFUSED
Q15 Which reindeer do you recall him mentioning? (DO NOT READ LIST; MULTIPLE ANSWERS PERMITTED)
DASHER
DANCER
PRANCER
VIXEN
COMET
CUPID
DONNER
BLITZEN
OTHER (SPECIFY)
DON’T KNOW
REFUSED
Q16 (ASK FOR EACH REINDEER NOT MENTIONED IN Q15)
Did Santa also mention [NAME OF REINDEER] by name?
Yes
No
DON’T KNOW
REFUSED
Q17 Did Santa move the sleigh anywhere after that?
Yes
No
DON’T KNOW
REFUSED
Q18 Where did he move it to?
The roof
The back yard
The alley behind the house
Somewhere else (SPECIFY)
DON’T KNOW
REFUSED
Q19 Did Santa enter your house after that?
Yes
No
DON’T KNOW
REFUSED
Q20 How did he enter your house?
Through the front door
Through the back door
Through the chimney
Some other way (SPECIFY)
DON’T KNOW
REFUSED
Q21 Can you describe Santa while he was in your house? (PROBE AND CLARIFY)
DON’T KNOW
REFUSED
Q22 Did you and he speak to each other while he was in the house?
Yes
No
DON’T KNOW
REFUSED
Q23 Which of the following best describes what Santa Claus did while in your house?
Filled the stockings and then left
Filled the stockings, then ate your Christmas cookies, and then left
Filled the stockings, ate your Christmas cookies, polished off your eggnog, and left
Something else (SPECIFY)
DON’T KNOW
REFUSED
Q24 How did he leave your house?
Through the front door
Through the back door
Through the chimney
Some other way (SPECIFY)
DON’T KNOW
REFUSED
Thank you. Those are all the questions we have for you this evening. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
—Joe Hopper, Ph.D.