Who is willing to use audio and voice inputs in smartphone surveys, and why?

Abstract

The ever-growing number of respondents completing web surveys via smartphones is paving the way for leveraging technological advances to improve respondents’ survey experience and, in turn, the quality of their answers. Smartphone surveys enable researchers to incorporate audio and voice features into web surveys, that is, having questions read aloud to respondents using pre-recorded audio files and collecting voice answers via the smartphone’s microphone. Moving from written to audio and voice communication channels might be associated with several benefits, such as humanizing the communication process between researchers and respondents. However, little is known about respondents’ willingness to undergo this change in communication channels. Replicating and extending earlier research, we examine the extent to which respondents are willing to use audio and voice channels in web surveys, the reasons for their (non)willingness, and respondent characteristics associated with (non)willingness. The results of a web survey conducted in a nonprobability online panel in Germany (N = 2146) reveal that more than 50% of respondents would be willing to have the questions read aloud (audio channel) and about 40% would also be willing to give answers via voice input (voice channel). While respondents mostly name a general openness to new technologies for their willingness, they mostly name preference for written communication for their nonwillingness. Finally, audio and voice channels in smartphone surveys appeal primarily to frequent and competent smartphone users as well as younger and tech-savvy respondents.