A comparison of response characteristics from web and telephone surveys Catherine A. Roster, Robert D. Rogers and Gerald Albaum University of New Mexico Darin Klein Microsoft Corporation Increasingly, web surveys are being used to supplement telephone survey data and some predict internet methods will one day replace telephone interviews as the primary method for surveying general populations. Despite these trends, few studies have systematically compared response differences between the two methods. This article describes a study in which both telephone and web surveys were used to collect data on the corporate reputation of an international firm. Findings reveal significant differences in sample characteristics, response effects and overall costs. In addition to demographic differences, the web garnered a lower response rate, more item omissions, and produced more negative or neutral evaluations than did the telephone survey. Factor structure for the corporate reputation construct was simpler in the web-based data. Predictability of behavioural measures was essentially equivalent between the two modes; however, cost-per-contact was significantly lower in the web survey. Introduction A growing number of researchers regard the web as a speedy, cheap and effective alternative to traditional data collection methods. Not only can web surveys deliver large samples within a short period of time, but also they can do so without the costs of interviewers, training, postage, data entry, and a myriad of other associated expenses. Furthermore, industry experts argue that web-based surveys can offer higher quality data due to elimination of interviewer error and built-in checks that prohibit respondent errors (McCullough 1998; Dillman 2000). Concerns about internet access, technology unevenness, coverage error and sample representativeness, limited the early use of web surveys to International Journal of Market Research Vol. 46 Quarter 3 © 2004 The Market Research Society 359