A Comparison of Mail, Fax and Web-Based Survey Methods

This study compares mail, fax and web-based surveys in a university setting for response speed, response rate and costs, and found that the fastest method was fax, followed by web surveys with 5.0 days to respond, and mail surveys with 16.46 days.

Abstract

This study compares mail, fax and web-based surveys in a university setting for response speed, response rate and costs. The survey was distributed to 300 hospitality professors randomly chosen from the Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education members listed in the organisation's online directory as of April 2000. It was found that the fastest method was fax, with an average of 4.0 days to respond, followed by web surveys with 5.97 days. The slowest method, as expected, was mail surveys, with 16.46 days to respond. On average, the response rate was 28.91%: 26.27% for mail, 17.0% for fax, and 44.21% for web surveys. An LSD-type z-test shows significant differences between mail and email/web and between fax and email/web, but no significant difference between mail and fax. In addition, data were analysed for data consistency and cost.