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Complete guide · 4 min read

CATI Telephone Surveys in India: The Complete Guide

Everything you need to know about cati telephone surveys in India: what it is, when to use it, methods, deliverables, timelines and how to choose a partner.

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Quick answer

CATI Telephone Surveys is a quantitative research approach. Computer-assisted telephone interviewing from our multilingual call centre. In India it is typically delivered through cati scripting, quota control, call monitoring, multilingual teams, and produces daily progress, clean datasets, topline reports.

At a glance

Guide type
Complete guide · 4 minute read
Method covered
CATI Telephone Surveys
Research family
Quantitative research
Typical timeline
2–4 weeks end to end, which makes it the fastest route to a representative read
Typical sample
300–800 completes; budget eight to twelve dials for every completed interview
Written for
Teams new to the method · Brand and category managers · Consultants scoping a study

Key takeaways

  • CATI Telephone Surveys is best used when you need numbers you can trust
  • India's diversity means city and language choices matter
  • Quality control is the main difference between good and poor vendors
  • Senior involvement drives the quality of insight

Reader intent

Who this guide is for

Three readers arrive here with different problems. Each should be able to act on this page without reading all of it.

  • Teams new to the method

    Start here if you know the business question but are not yet sure that cati telephone surveys is the right way to answer it.

  • Brand and category managers

    Brief an agency in the method's own language, and judge what comes back on more than its price.

  • Consultants scoping a study

    The methods, deliverables and timings here map straight onto a cati telephone surveys scope of work.

01

What is cati telephone surveys?

Computer-assisted telephone interviewing from our multilingual call centre.

It sits within the quantitative family of research methods. It is often combined with other approaches to give a fuller picture.

02

When should you use it?

Use it when a business decision is uncertain and the cost of being wrong is high.

  • Launching a new product or entering a new city
  • Explaining a drop in sales or share
  • Choosing between strategic options
  • Building a business case for investors or the board

03

Methods used in India

The right method depends on your audience, budget and timeline.

  • CATI scripting
  • Quota control
  • Call monitoring
  • Multilingual teams

04

Typical deliverables

  • Daily progress
  • Clean datasets
  • Topline reports

05

Making it work in India

India is many markets in one. Language, income, urbanisation and retail structure all vary by region, so a good study design reflects that diversity. This might mean regional quotas, local-language fieldwork, or separate readings for Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities.

06

How Market Research India can help

Market Research India designs and runs cati telephone surveys projects across 50 Indian cities and 30 industries. A senior research director leads every study, and our own supervised teams handle the fieldwork. You get clear recommendations, not just data tables.

Share your objective and we will send a scoped, fixed-fee proposal within 24 hours, with a recommended method, sample and timeline.

What goes wrong

Common mistakes in cati telephone surveys

Most disappointing cati telephone surveys studies fail for reasons that were visible in the design, not in the fieldwork. These are the ones we see most often, and what to do instead.

  • 01

    Calling only during office hours

    A sample collected between 11am and 5pm over-represents people who are not at work. Spread dials across three time slots and include weekends.

  • 02

    Dialling a stale list

    An unchecked database burns the budget on dead numbers before it reaches a respondent. Clean, dedupe and test-dial a sub-sample first.

  • 03

    A script written for the eye, not the ear

    Long scales and nested brackets work on paper and collapse on a phone call. Read every question aloud before it is programmed.

  • 04

    Monitoring too few calls

    Without live listening on at least 10% of calls you cannot tell a refusal conversion from a leading prompt. Audio-audit a further sample afterwards.

  • 05

    Fieldwork without an audit trail

    GPS tags, timestamps, audio snippets and back-checks are what let you defend a finding when a regional team disputes it. Specify them in the contract.

  • 06

    Significance claimed on thin bases

    A gap between two sub-groups of forty respondents is rarely real. Agree the minimum reportable base before field and grey out everything below it in the tables.

Run through this before sign-off

Your checklist before you brief anyone

A working sequence for a cati telephone surveys project. Most of it costs nothing, and it saves the two weeks a re-field would take.

  1. 1

    Clean, dedupe and screen the number list against do-not-call registers before dialling begins.

  2. 2

    Keep the interview under 12 minutes and read the script aloud before programming it.

  3. 3

    Train interviewers on refusal conversion, with a scripted response to the three common objections.

  4. 4

    Spread dials across morning, evening and weekend slots, with at least four attempts per number.

  5. 5

    Live-monitor 10% of calls and audio-audit a further 10% with supervisor notes attached.

  6. 6

    Publish the sample design, response rate and weighting scheme alongside the numbers.

  7. 7

    Agree in writing who acts on each finding, and by when, before the debrief ends.

Need cati telephone surveys?

Get a scoped proposal within 24 hours.

Explore CATI Telephone Surveys

Answers

Frequently asked questions

The questions buyers ask us most often before they commission cati telephone surveys.

How long does cati telephone surveys take?

Most projects take 3–6 weeks from sign-off to final report.

Can it be done online?

Many studies can be run fully or partly online. Some audiences still need face-to-face fieldwork.

Request a proposal

Talk to a cati telephone surveys specialist.

From guide to project

Where cati telephone surveys actually gets commissioned

If this guide has settled the method, these are the pages worth opening next: the service itself, and the markets where cati telephone surveys is most often run for our clients.

Keep exploring

More reading on cati telephone surveys

Grouped rather than listed, so you can find the one page you need instead of scanning a wall of links.

More on cati telephone surveys

14

Every angle we have published on this method: what it costs, how long it takes, how large the sample should be and how to choose a partner.

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Other complete guide articles

19

The same complete guide written for each of our other research methods, so you can compare like with like.

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CATI Telephone Surveys city by city

50

Local field teams, local languages and the sector mix each market is strongest in.

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Related research services

19

Quantitative methods first — these are the ones most often combined with cati telephone surveys in a single study.

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Turn these guides into decisions. Let's scope your study.

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