Exploring Respondents' Problems and Evaluation in a Survey Proposing Voice Inputs

Abstract

Integrating voice inputs into web surveys holds the potential for various benefits, including eliciting more comprehensive and elaborate responses or extracting additional information from vocal tones and ambient sounds. Nevertheless, important challenges persist, including technical problems, privacy concerns, and low participation rates. Given the limited knowledge on this subject, this research note addresses four research questions, distinguishing between two voice input methods (dictation and voice recording) and two approaches to presenting them (providing a choice, or pushing respondents toward voice inputs, with a text alternative offered only in the absence of response): RQ1. What reasons are provided for not opting for voice inputs when they are offered? RQ2. Which variables are associated with the reported use of voice inputs? RQ3. What challenges do individuals answering through voice inputs report? And RQ4. How do respondents evaluate the different methods of answering they employed? Drawing on data from a survey on nursing homes conducted in February/March 2023 within the Netquest opt-in online panel in Spain (1,001 completes), where participants were offered to respond to two experimental questions through voice methods, our analyses reveal that contextual factors and the perceived challenge of oral expression are key reasons for abstaining from voice input responses. Furthermore, individuals who exhibited complete trust in the confidentiality of their responses and those already using voice input in their daily lives were significantly more likely to opt for voice inputs. Among respondents utilizing voice inputs, recurring challenges included contextual constraints and difficulties in verbal expression, alongside technical problems. Despite these hurdles, a majority of participants found answering through voice easy, although a lower proportion reported liking it. These results contribute to the limited literature and can help enhance the effectiveness of voice input surveys.