Data Collection Implementation: Integrating Frame Data with Locating, Targeted Incentives and Case Assignments

Music City Center 

The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), a triennial national survey fielded since1983 has enlisted a professional interviewer workforce trained to conduct face-to-face interviews. In response to longer term declining response rates and more recent workforce challenges stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, protocol updates have been necessary to preserve the quality of the survey. During the 2022 SCF a series of updated fielding protocols were incorporated including adaptive survey design strategies and enhanced communications designed to engage respondents more responsively across the data collection period. This presentation will discuss how these different strategies have been more formally implemented within the 2025 SCF to guide data collection operations, including a more robust advance mailing protocol, an online contact portal for potential participants to provide contact information to the research team, more structured use of pre and post incentives, and the greater use of targeted contacting protocols designed to adapt to less predictable changes in the interviewer workforce. This presentation will discuss the effectiveness of the recent protocol changes as well as their integration into traditional face-to-face interviewing protocols and strategies designed to maximize data quality.