Editor’s note: Michael Halberstam is president of Van Nuys, Calif.-based Interviewing Service of America, a market research data collection and processing firm.

If you’ve ever attempted to conduct a telephone market research survey simultaneously in several foreign countries, you know what a daunting task it can be. You are typically faced with the need to brief and field-supervise in various locations around the world, time zone changes, poor quality and consistency of local phone systems, translation difficulties, inconsistent sampling and interviewing techniques, and to top it off, each country can have several different cultures. Even if you haven’t conducted a survey of this type, you can probably imagine the hurdles that have to be overcome to successfully complete multinational data collection. Fortunately, with recent improvements in telephone technology and falling international telephone rates, data collection can now be implemented worldwide using U.S.-based data collection firms.

Until recently, international phone rates made it cost-prohibitive to execute global telephone interviewing projects from the U.S. However, international per-minute rates have fallen since the 1984 breakup of AT&T. This was fueled in part by competition from various long distance providers negotiating for agreements with phone companies around the world.

Cost and consistency

Today, instead of having to spend the time investigating, selecting, and managing independent data collection companies in many different countries simultaneously, you can call upon the services of domestic firms. In this way, U.S. firms can avoid many of the problems previously stated, which can result in unnecessary changes and errors and add cost to your project. You also eliminate travel expenses required to brief and supervise numerous individual data collection firms in various countries. If you utilize a domestic firm, you are also conducting business in a time zone much closer to home, eliminating the need for odd-hour phone calls to discuss changes or project status. Using a single source also helps reduce translation difficulties, communications problems, and ensures accurate and consistent data collection.

Global telecommunications improvements and variances

It is also important to note that while telecommunications technology is advancing rapidly around the world, capabilities and costs vary widely from country to country. And, there are countries that continue to pose specific challenges. We experience some of the highest phone long-distance rates in the world in Mexico. Historically, Italy and Spain have had inconsistent operator and directory services and in parts of Africa as well as countries behind the old Iron Curtain, phone service at times is non-existent. The cost of telephone surveying in Asia varies widely. We find that while China’s rates are beginning to come down, Vietnam and Cambodia have extremely high phone rates.

The percentage of household phone penetration in many of these countries is lower than American firms are used to, therefore care must be taken in how a data collection strategy is developed. In Vietnam’s major population centers, for example, phones are accessible to most families but it means that an apartment building with 10 families might share one common phone. However, a normal telephone survey would not provide you with a representative sample of the total population due to a lack of phone access in rural communities. Working with a firm with strong local knowledge is critical to developing a proper interviewing strategy which addresses these issues.

Addressing cultural differences

Cultural differences in foreign countries are also extremely important when conducting research over the phone. There are cultural nuances that can significantly affect the quality of the data being collected. You can do almost the same types of surveys you can in the U.S. Keep in mind however, that contrary to popular belief, the whole world doesn’t revolve around the U.S.! So be prepared to reevaluate your process and approach. The most common misconception is that any survey designed for the U.S. will or should work anywhere. While I believe researchers intuitively understand this, they are often upset when told a certain question won’t work.

Some topics are very sensitive, such as health care, public opinions regarding politics and social issues, taxes or insurance. Expect differences in household composition as well as extreme differences, or in some cases extreme similarities, between generations on various topics. In short, be prepared for variations from what you might normally expect.

For example, when surveying in Japan, the topic often determines whether it is appropriate to speak to the male or female head of household. Not surprisingly, it is easiest to survey topics of general interest or universal appeal, such as television and radio. Questions about music or sports, or general news items also make it relatively easy to gain cooperation for surveys. Surveying general buying habits or advertising is also acceptable.

With so many families working outside the home at small, family-owned businesses, it is often easier to find people at home all day rather than Monday through Friday between 5 and 9:30 p.m. or on weekends. This is because family members have more flex scheduling. This scheduling, combined with larger multi-generation households, means that someone is home more often to answer the phone. Historically, researchers shied away from calling homes too early for fear of skewing the sample toward unemployed females.

U.S. data collection goes global

International research is a natural outgrowth of the domestic multilingual/multicultural research being done by U.S. data collection companies. Prompted by the results of the 1980 Census, many data collection firms began to aggressively explore the ethnic markets in the U.S. Segmentation tools used to differentiate large ethnic communities in the U.S. based on surname were created and data collection techniques were fine-tuned. Over the years we have seen the need for domestic ethnic data collection continue to grow, especially among the Hispanic and Asian segments of the population. And the growth of non-U.S. research among the top 25 research firms between 1995 and 1996 was reported as 11 percent by Advertising Age. As phone rates continue to decline, we expect to continue to see growth in the international segment.

Consistent with industry needs, telephone data collection is commonly conducted from the U.S. in many of the world’s largest industrial countries, such as the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and India. However, we also execute phone interviews in Poland, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Chile.

International interviewing provides an excellent vehicle for U.S. data collection firms to better utilize their resources. By interviewing 24 hours a day we are able to match the lowest phone rates with local calling times worldwide. Because of the large mix of immigrants in the U.S., companies are able to utilize foreign-born nationals who are capable of bilingual interviewing in English and numerous native languages - giving local insight into markets around the world.

Formula for success

So what is the formula for successful international survey research? Create a sound strategy, work with a research firm known for its international work and execute your data collection through a company with experience in multilingual interviewing - one that has the language capabilities and that also understands each country’s cultural nuances, the influence of special holidays and events, as well as local telephone system limitations. Ignoring either the ethnic populations in the U.S. or international markets can prove extremely shortsighted for any business with plans for significant growth in the future.