Braun Corporate Capabillities_031711

8/7/2019 Braun Corporate Capabillities_031711

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About Braun

Since its founding in 1995, Braun Research, Inc. has successfully completedover 7,000 phone and online data-collection projects for academic, political, non-profit and corporate clients.

From our more than 200 CATI-stations at three U.S.-based call centers inNebraska, Tennessee, and our corporate headquarters in Princeton, NewJersey, BRI’s nearly 60 full-time staff members and almost 700 trainedinterviewers dedicate themselves daily to excellence in research.

Braun Research is engaged in data collection via telephone, and internet for various survey research firms, government and advertisingagencies, foundations, universities and academic entities as well asreligious organizations.

Among the nationally-known research firms that have hired Braun Researchinclude the Gallup Organization, the Pew Research Center, the Eagleton Poll,Mathematica Policy Research, and the Washington Post. Braun Research hasworked for the New Jersey Department of Health and Human Services, as wellas other Government agencies, including the United States Departments of theTreasury and Defense and the Centers for Disease Control.

Quality Control

Quality control starts first and foremost with training. The more and better-trained the interviewers, monitors and supervisors are, the better the entire workproduct will be.

Quality control is also a function of maintaining and refreshing the trainingprocess and rewarding behaviors that keep all staff focused on every aspect of quality control, including execution of surveys, checking surveys for mistakes,and bringing attention to discrepancies in survey questions.

In these areas Braun Research maintains abundant resources. We typicallyreward employees, and publicly honor those who catch mistakes or bring to our attention issues that threaten the integrity of a study.



Braun Research Quality Control Initiatives

Braun Research has been hired by several nationally-known researchorganizations, including Gallup International, the Pew Research Center, ValidataResearch and the Eagleton Institute. In addition, Braun has also worked for the

New Jersey Department of Health as well as other Government agenciesincluding the United States Department of the Treasury which require highresponse rates. Braun employs techniques and standards approved by varioussurvey research academic organizations including AAPOR, CMOR and CASRO.

Braun’s highest priorities in fulfilling client expectations are: a) on-time delivery of collected data; and b) the certitude that the collected data is accurate and willmeet the objectives set forth for the project. To ensure that the collected data isaccurate, meaningful, and will meet client objectives, we have instituted severalquality control initiatives that are a fundamental part of the Braun methodology.

Interviewer Training

When first hired, all interviewers are instructed in Braun standards for datacollection. They are fully versed in all areas of the interviewing process: dealingwith gatekeepers; persuading respondents to participate in a survey; and theimportance of speaking clearly during an interview. They are also taught how toask probing questions during open-ended responses and how to recognize whenprobing is required.

Interviewers are briefed thoroughly on every study we field. Interviewer training

sessions are conducted by Braun staff or the client staff, depending on the needsof the study. The length of the training session depends on the complexity of thesurvey. Trainers will completely read through the survey with all of theinterviewers. The trainers will fully explain the survey introduction, review all of the important terminology throughout the survey and then ensure that all of theinterviewers are comfortable with the pronunciation of any complex terms.Interviewers also receive background on the study and a sense of the surveyobjectives. During the training session, careful emphasis is placed upon skippatterns, probes, and potentially sensitive questions.

Interviewers are re-briefed throughout the study to maintain interviewing

consistency and quality. Periodic reviews of briefings allow us to learn of issuesas early as possible in the field period so necessary adjustments can be made tostudy procedures or to the survey itself.

In addition, interviewers who are chosen to work on business-to-business (B2B)projects receive formal training in business structure and specific industry jargonthat may occur within a survey. These carefully selected interviewers are tested



for their business acumen before they are permitted to work on an in-depth B2Bproject.

Training in the proper execution of work is part of the process. Learning theresearch field is another. In adding to the training, interviewers, monitors and

supervisors are required to attend internally-developed classes to understandand refine their skills.

Monitoring

Monitoring occurs on all projects in the field. Each of our phone centers has amonitoring staff for each shift (day and evening). At minimum, there are personsassigned to the monitoring stations who listen into calls directly and others whoare assigned to monitor the floor.

Monitors use Lanasist software to plug into individual stations so they can follow

along both on screen and via audio feed. Clients can also listen into the systemand monitor calls if they desire. Upon completion of a monitoring session, eachinterviewer is given feedback from their team leaders as to their performance andthe clarity of their delivery and diction. The finer points of each survey arealways being reviewed with interviewers. In particular, it is important that our team leaders encourage interviewers as they discover techniques that improvecooperation rates and yield a higher quality of collected data.

A monitoring report for each interviewer is prepared at the end of every month.

Survey Testing

Every survey we field is tested by both the Assistant Operations Manager and aProgrammer. The survey is checked for logic, skip patterns, text, and grammar.All answer categories are reviewed and checked for appropriateness andcompleteness.

Verifications

On each study, at least 10% of completed interviews are verified. Surveyrespondents are called back from our phone centers to confirm the survey and tocritique the interviewer. If any problems are found with an interviewer, we thenverify 100% of that interviewers’ work.

Verifications are performed in a “rotation.” In the rotation, the Princeton phonecenter will perform verifications for calls made from the Nebraska phone center,the Nebraska phone center will perform verifications for calls made from theMemphis phone center, etc. This design was established to ensure verificationswere not hampered by friendships and associations.

Documents

Braun Corporate Capabillities_031711