In some areas of research, telephone is still a better contact method than a pure online survey. For instance with difficult to reach groups such as business or medical specialists, or where live interactive dialogue is needed and online discussion forums aren’t immediate enough or detailed enough. However, the main problem with telephone research is the inability to show prompt material, such as product profiles for conjoint tasks, pricing work or audio or video or imagery.

Sometimes this can be addressed with static web-pages that are introduced to the respondent by email. But in situations where the prompt material changes depending on the respondent’s previous answers or due to randomisation, static web pages are extremely restrictive.