What are the advantages and disadvantages of postal questionnaires?

Answer 1

Questionnaires are one of the most convenient form of survey techniques. Postal questionnaires are those which are mailed to one's house.

They have several advantages like they can cover a lot of people hence increasing the sample size. They are highly targeted and also very affordable as the only cost is that of printing and distributing. There are several advantages for the respondent as well for example he/she would have more time to think and would be able to give more honest reply due to absence of the interviewer bias.

There are several disadvantages as well. Firstly only a very few people would be interested in filling out the questionnaire mailed to them in fact only those people would be willing to answer and mail back the questionnaire who are interested in the topic or subject which that particular questionnaire is about.

The body language of the respondent can not be observed as the respondent cannot be seen. Then even those people who do mail back the questionnaire might not have all of the questions answered in it. It can be time consuming as the questions are not answered there and then. Lastly the questions can be misunderstood.