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Mode Sequence

A few years ago, I did an experiment with two sequences of modes for a screening survey. The modes were mail and face-to-face. We found that the sequence didn't matter much for the response rate to the screener, but that the arm that started with face-to-face and then used mail had a better response rate to the main interview given to those who were found to be eligible in the screening interview.

There are other experiments that use different sequences of modes. Some of these find that the sequence doesn't matter. For example, Dillman and colleagues looked at mail-telephone and telephone-mail and these had about the same response rate. On the other hand, Millar and Dillman found that for mail-web mixed-mode surveys the sequence does seem to matter, although certainly the number and kind of contact attempts are also important.

It does seem that there are times when the early attempts might interfere with the effectiveness of later attempts. That is, we "harden the refusal" early. If we could identify the cases for which this is true, then we could skip right to the effective treatment, instead of offering it to them when they've already decided not to participate.
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