Example of how to use ownership mode
Attached is a file OWNERMODE.ZIP that contains an example of setting up ownership mode in your spec.
OWNERMODE.QPX is an example spec of how to set up your front end
OWNERMODE.FBL is a header file example of how to set up ownership mode in the fone file
OWNERMODE.RAW is sample to use with the above.
HINTS ON USING OWNERSHIP MODE
A) Ownership Mode allows you to assign certain phone numbers to particular interviewers. This typically occurs when there are long, involved interviews, or when there are particular interviewers that have the skills or knowledge needed to talk to a particular group of your sample.
B) Another use is to assign a number to an interviewer after they have started talking to the respondent – i.e. suspends, or anestablishedrelationship between the interviewer and the “gate keeper” can become more personable so that you improve the chances of getting through.
C) Ownership mode can also be used so that suspends are resumed by the same interviewer who started them.
D) Sample can be initially assigned to an interviewer, or can be assigned once contact has been made. Once that sample is assigned, the system will only present it to the particular interviewer, unless the Ownership mode is turned off for the whole study or the specific number is requested by another interviewer. If the specific number requested, the interviewer is warned that the phone record is owned by another interviewer. At that time, the interviewer may override the ownership for this call, in which case the call will still be owned by the other interviewer; or he may take the number for himself, in which case the number will belong to him from now on. Both of these features may be handled internally by the program or with special keywords by the interviewer.
E) The downside of ownership mode is someone has to keep an eye on records owned by interviewers who are not currently working and decide what to do with them, or likely lose those records entirely.
WAYS TO ASSIGN OWNERSHIP MODE
A) You initially assign the phone record to a specific interviewer using FONEBULD. Place “ID:xxxx” anywhere between one space after the phone number and before column 22 of the initial phone record.xxxxwould be replaced by the interviewer ID you want to assign to that record. When the phone file is built withID:xxxxin a phone record, the interviewer ID assigned is stored in the OWNER field in that record. If there is an ID in that field, whenSurventsearches for a number to call and that number is scheduled to be called, the interviewer with the ID specified will receive that number if they are available.
B) The phone file has a special switch called OWNER_MODE that can be set to YES or NO using FONEUTIL or SURVSUPR. If it is set to NO, the system behaves like it normally would if the phone records in the file were not assigned to a specific interviewer. This in effect releases all numbers that are still active to be able to becalled by any interviewer on the system. If it is set back to YES, once again numbers assigned to specific interviewers will only be offered to those interviewers.
C) You can assign ownership to the current interviewer by using a!PHONE,ASSIGN_CURRENT_INTERVIEWER_OWNER.
The!PHONE,ASSIGN_CURRENT_INTERVIEWER_OWNERwrites the ID of the interviewer into the owner field of the phone record.
D) A typical example of this is within the Suspend block, where you might want to assign ownership to this interviewer, since they have already established a rapport with the respondent.
E) Getting Numbers Owned by Others Using Standard Prompts:In the case where the number is specifically requested using a !PHONE,GET_SPECIFIC_NUMBER, and the number is previously owned by someone else, a message will be returned that the number is owned by someone else, and the interviewer will be re-prompted for a phone number to call. At that point, they can enter one of two keywords to get access to the phone number:
OVERRIDE:The interviewer will get the number even though it is owned by someone else. However, the ownership of the number will not be changed in the case where the call is not completed and rescheduled.
NEWOWNER:This will retrieve the number and the ownership will be changed to the ID of the requesting interviewer.
Getting Numbers Owned by Others Using Internal Controls:
The PHONE,GET_SPECIFIC_NUMBER statement has a format which records a code for the result of the attempt to find the number requested. You can then write code that will allow you to continue if you got a phone record, or reset and/or abort if you did not. If you use this mode and the phone number is owned by another interviewer, the letters “OA” will be recorded in the phone status field, meaning ‘owned by another’. Since there is no prompt at which the interviewer might enter override keywords, theOVERRIDE and NEWOWNER keywords can be programmatically executed by using a !PHONE,OVERRIDE_OWNERSHIP and !PHONE,ASSIGN_NEW_INTERVIEWER_OWNER respectively.