Effects of Response Delay on the Quality of Satisfaction Data in Mail Surveys

Abstract

This study reports results of a test of the effects of response delay on four indicators of satisfaction data quality; item omission, section omission, response set bias, and response variability. Results support the study's major premise that the quality of satisfaction data decreases with response time. Late respondents to a mail survey of bank service customers had significantly higher rates of item and section omission than did early respondents. These findings underscore the importance of response speed in mail surveys and suggest that researcher reliance upon single indicators of response quality may lead to assessments of data quality which are incomplete and inaccurate.