Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions

  • 1. Who might want to use Big Ears and for what purpose?
    • a. If you have customers and need to understand what they are thinking, then BigEars is for you.. BigEars is used by senior management, marketing managers, hr managers, and research departments to directly and quickly address their information needs.
  • 2. What do these people use BigEars for?
    • a. The number one use is understanding customer thinking in order to grow a business. BigEars is also applied in many areas other than customer knowledge, including sales force feedback, call centre QA, customer satisfaction and agent feedback, recruitment interviews, staff reviews and exit interviews, change management (staff feedback), political polling, stakeholder consultation in local and central government. See the case studies section for a full list and some detailed information.

Signup and Pricing

  • 3. I'd like to pilot BigEars and see how it works in practice -how do I do that?
    • b. We've structured our pricing to make it easy for people to start using BigEars straight away. Sign up for an account on the website and you'll have a fully active account and phone number within 2 business days (usually within 1 business day). You can cancel your contract at any time, so you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
    • c. We encourage you to read our case studies, which document a range of different BigEars applications.
  • 4. What payment methods do you offer?
    • PayPal or electronic funds transfer into our account.

Survey Features

  • 5. How do I create a set of questions?
    • a. Creating surveys is easy, and is much like creating a traditional online survey. There is detailed help information online as part of the application.
  • 6. Does BigEars provide a panel of respondents to answer our survey?
    • a. Not at this time. Identifying and contacting potential respondents is up to you. Typically our customers are surveying their own customer base, and invite their to participate by email, letter, TxT or some other means. See the how does it work section for more information on inviting respondents to call.
  • 7. Do you do outbound calling, or do people call in to the survey?
    • a. Nearly all surveys are done with the respondent calling in to the survey, either by a local number, a toll-free number, or by a free Skype call. This has the benefit that the respondent is ready and willing to provide the information you want when they call. If you call them, there is a very high chance their mind is on other things, and that it is more inconvenient to them. The best time to participate varies greatly from person to person. we have people call at 6.30 in the morning and 11.30 at night. By letting them choose their moment, you maximize the convenience to them, which means more willing participation, and better quality data.
    • b. We can do outbound calling, and in some cases this is very appropriate and effective. Please contact us if you would like your survey to be outbound.
  • 8. Can the service be provided by regular phones /mobile phones /VoIP like Skype?
    • a. Yes, BigEars supports all of these access mechanisms. We provide local numbers, 800 numbers, SIP numbers, and free Skype numbers.
      • i. Our partnership with Skype means respondents can access BigEars surveys directly over Skype. They call to a free Skype number, which we provide to you. It works like a SkypeOut call, but the caller does not need a SkypeOut account and does not pay anything for the call.
      • ii. We can also provide SIP numbers for traditional (non-Skype) VoIP access to surveys.
      • iii. CAUTION. With all Skype or SIP based access to surveys, the call quality is dependent on the callers internet access bandwidth, and in some cases their location. These services work best in the United States, and in Europe. Get some test calls from representative users before rolling out a large scale Skype or VoIp based survey, or provide a regular phone number as well as an alternative.
  • 9. How many questions can be asked?
    • a. We don't impose a limit on the length of a survey -that's up to you. We strongly advocate, however, that the shorter you make it, the more effective it will be. Our customers generally operate in the 30sec-5 minute range. That's 1-12 questions roughly. If you have well motivated callers (such as for a job interview), then the length can be increased up to 10 minutes.
    • b. Our view is that in traditional surveys, people ask far too many questions. They can't decide which questions to ask so they put them all in. Respondents resent it when you waste their time like this. BigEars is completely dynamic, and this means you should throw away that old approach. Ask 3 specific questions, and change them, experiment, find the ones that get the good oil. Be targeted and specific, and don't be afraid of the answers. Instead of asking "How would you rate the features of our product?", say "Have you used a competing product?" followed by (if they have) "Describe one thing that that product does better than ours"
  • 10. Does it do quantitative and qualitative questions?
    • Yes. There are a large range of scales (how important, how satisfied, excellent to poor . etc) for fixed responses. You can also ask totally open ended questions, where the respondent can say whatever they like, and their answer is recorded and optionally transcribed. The audio and the transcription are both available for review on the website.
  • 11. Does the caller push buttons to answer the questions?
    • It's up to you. Many BigEars question use speech recognition, so the respondent can just say their answer. Out proprietary SmartInterview dialog handles the conversation with the caller in an intelligent, adaptive and robust way. Push button (touch-tone /DTMF) questions are also available, and in some cases (like entering an account number) it can be the best thing to do.
  • 12. How are open-ended questions handled?
    • a. Open-ended questions (where the respondent can say anything) are recorded and the audio to available to be listened to in the bigears site. You can also download audio clips for inclusion in presentations and reports.
    • b. You can optionally elect to have the open-ended recordings transcribed. There is an additional charge for this, as it is done by hand. If you ask for transcriptions the text is also available on the web.
  • 13. Does Big Ears work in any language?
    • a. BigEars is currently only available in English. It could be provided in other languages and we encourage you to enquire if other languages are of interest, so we can monitor demand. Please email us
  • 14. What kinds of transcripts does Big Ears generate?
    • a. Our transcripts are done by hand, and subject to a quality control process. All our transcribers are under a confidentiality agreement.
    • b. Our transcribers remove hesitancies (umms and errs) in the speech provided that they are not important to the response.
  • 15. Does Big Ears include tools for the analysis of the data collected?
    • a. BigEars provides multiple reporting views that most customers find ideal for their needs. We also provide the ability to download the results in CSV format for importing into spreadsheets and other programs for further analysis if required.
    • c. In addition we provide an integration interface that allows you to choose to automatically export a near real-time copy of all results to your own systems via the web.
  • 16. How soon after the survey can I get my results?
    • a. All responses are available on the website in near real time.
    • b. Transcriptions can take 15mins to 12 hrs to appear, depending on our load. Audio is available immediately.
    • c. You can elect to be emailed after every call (useful for high value calls like recruitment interviews), and /or to be emailed a results summary after every X calls.
  • 17. Can you ask a different question depending on the answer the caller gave? (Skip logic or branching)
    • a. Yes. the next question can depend on the answer to the previous question. This is essential for things like "Have you used the product?". If they have then ask them what they thought of it, if they haven't ask them why not. It's also very useful on scales. If they give a strong rating (e.g. very poor) it's a good idea to find out more about that with an open-ended question, but you don't want to waste time by asking everyone an open-ended question at that point.
  • 18. Does BigEars capture caller ID?
    • a. Yes, if it's not blocked by the caller the caller's number is displayed, as is their Skype name if it's a Skype call.

Uses for Bigears

  • 19. Who is using Big Ears so far?
    • a. Please visit our case studies page for customer quotes and references.
  • 20. How can people get more information about Big Ears?
    • a. If you have questions not covered on this website, please email them to us via our contact form and we'll be delighted to contact you promptly to discuss them.

Partners and Resellers

  • 21. This is exciting! Do you have a partner program?
    • a. Yes, our partner program is central to our business model. check here for more details.
  • 22. I'm running a survey on behalf of my client. Can I give my client access to their survey data without giving them my username and password?
    • a. Yes. We create a results only login for you to give your clients at no charge.
    • b. Please also visit our partners page for more information on how BigEars can add value to your client relationships.