ACCA Applied Knowledge · Management Accounting · Sources of data
A firm surveys its customers using a postal questionnaire. Which of the following is a recognised disadvantage of this method compared with personal interviews?
A low response rate is the recognised disadvantage of postal questionnaires. Many recipients do not reply, and the researcher cannot probe answers, which can make results unrepresentative. Postal surveys do reach dispersed people cheaply and avoid interviewer bias, so those are strengths rather than weaknesses.
- AA low response rate is likelyCorrect
- BIt cannot collect data from geographically dispersed customers
- CInterviewer bias is high
- DIt is always more expensive per respondent
Explanation
Postal questionnaires often suffer low response rates and cannot probe answers. They reach dispersed respondents cheaply and avoid interviewer bias, so those options describe advantages, and the cost is normally lower than interviews.
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