RTNielson Company - Capabilities

Products RTNielson Co. Uses

Computer Technologies

CATI Software
Sawtooth Ci3 CATI (DOS and Windows)

Dialing Capabilities
Pro-T-S Predictive and Proactive Dialer

Tabulation Software
SPSS
Wincross

Voice Capture
The Pro-T-S System records open-ended responses in a .WAV file.

Voice Playback
The Pro-T-S system permits a .WAV file recording to be played to survey respondents.

Web-based Software
Sawtooth Sensus Web

Professional Interviewing Staff

Hiring
The RTNielson Co. has demanding pre-employment screening criteria. We hire only individuals with high potential for becoming successful political interviewers. All applicants must pass a reading, grammar and spelling test prior to being hired. People of all ages and backgrounds make up our interviewer pool. Our interviewers are motivated by the quality and accuracy of their work and receive a flat wage.

Training
We have an outstanding and comprehensive training program. During the initial orientation and training sessions, interviewers learn the basic requirements and skills of quality data collection. The classes include making extensive practice interviews and receiving individual coaching from the monitoring supervisors.

To maintain their interviewing and polling skills, all interviewers attend weekly in-service training sessions. Interviewers also receive daily pre-shift briefings not only to address project-specific issues, but also to review general interviewing topics. Our interviewers understand that political research is a scientific activity. Before they conduct their first live interview, they are fully prepared to collect reliable data.

Monitoring
All of our interviewers are monitored multiple times during every shift. The monitoring supervisors provide our employees with immediate feedback reports and individual coaching. This continuous feedback with interviewers ensures accurate data collection and strengthens their interviewing skills. We prepare regular monitoring reports that track and review each interviewer's progress. Our supervisor to interviewer ratio is 1:8.