Data Collection – Methods, Types, Tools, and Techniques

Data revolves around numbers, facts, symbols, objects, or events collected from various sources. Businesses use different methods of data collection to obtain the information required for making better decisions. After data gets collected, organizations analyze and process it to get the desired results. Jump into this article to learn about what is data collection and what kinds of data collection tools and data collection techniques exist?

What Is Data Collection?

The modern world is heavily reliant on data, highlighting the significance of data collection. For the sake of quality assurance, research integrity, and making well-informed business decisions, accurate data gathering is essential.

During gathering data, researchers must determine the different data types, data sources, and data collection methods. You will quickly discover that there are numerous methods of data collection. Data collection is heavily used in the academic, business, and government sectors.

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Data collection is an important part of business success because it allows you to ensure the data’s accuracy and relevance to the company and the problem at hand. The data gathered enables organizations to evaluate previous strategies and remain informed regarding the necessary changes.

Data insights can make you conscious of your company’s efforts and provide actionable steps to improve a variety of strategies, from changing marketing strategies to evaluating customer complaints. Accurate data collection methods combined with the trending technologies of present times can help your business grow at an unprecedented scale. 

Decisions based on inaccurate data can have far-reaching repercussions. Therefore, it’s critical to have confidence in your own data collection processes and abilities. Business professionals can feel confident in their business choices if accurate data is collected.

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What Are the Different Methods of Data Collection?

Before collecting data, a researcher must choose one between the different methods of data collection. The preferred method of data collection depends on the addressed research question, the required type of data, the available resources, and the deadline for data collection. We will soon see that there are many different data collection methods. The two major types of data collection are primary and secondary data collection methods. 

Primary Data Collection Methods

Primary methods of data collection involve collecting data specific to the researcher’s motive and are highly accurate. Primary data is obtained from first-hand experience, and it hasn’t been used in the past. The primary types of data collection include quantitative and qualitative methods. 

Quantitative Methods

The quantitative types of data collection method involve the use of statistical tools. These data collection techniques forecast demand according to historical data. These primary methods of data collection are particularly for long-term forecasts. Since these types of data collection involve statistical methods, their subjectivity is minimal. The different quantitative data collection techniques are as follows:

• Time Series Analysis: The time series revolves around the different values of a variable in sequence. The sequential order is called a trend, and it is presented at equal time intervals. With the help of patterns, businesses can predict market demands for a projected time.
• Smoothing Techniques: Smoothing techniques can be used when the time series is missing major trends. They remove a random variation in past demand. It aids in finding patterns and demand levels with the goal of projecting future demand. The simple moving average method and the weighted moving average method are the most commonly used smoothing demand forecasting approaches. 
• Barometric Method: Researchers use the barometric method to predict future trends according to current developments. Past events act as leading indicators for predicting future events. The barometric method for collecting data is also referred to as the leading indicators approach.

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Qualitative Methods

Qualitative methods of data collection are useful when historical data is unavailable. The quantitative types of data collection methods are also valuable when there are no mathematical calculations involved. 

Qualitative research is closely linked with words, feelings, emotions, sounds, colours, and other non-quantifiable elements. These methods of data collection depending on experience, perception, intuition, conjecture, emotion, and so on.

Quantitative methods of data collection do not clarify the motive behind participants’ responses. The data collection techniques frequently fail to reach underrepresented groups. 

Moreover, you will need a long time to gather data using qualitative methods of data collection. In most cases, quantitative and qualitative types of data collection methods are combined.

The different qualitative data collection techniques are as follows:

• Interviews: In this method of data collection, the interviewer asks questions to the respondents in a face-to-face or telephonic conversation. The interviewer notes down the responses of all the participants. It is one of the types of data collection that is only useful for a small number of respondents. When there are too many participants, repeating the same process over and again is tedious and time-consuming.
• Polls: Polls are questions where respondents can choose from different options. Polls are useful methods of data collection when you need to understand the sentiment of the audience quickly.
• Surveys: Surveys are useful for gaining insights into the opinions, preferences, and feedback of the target audience. Businesses often use surveys to understand how the target audience feels about their products and services.
• Focus Groups: A focus group usually includes 8 to 10 participants discussing the common areas of a research problem. Every individual in a focus group presents their opinions about the concerned issue. A moderator is present to regulate the entire conversation. In the end, the focus group usually arrives at a conclusion. 
• Delphi Technique: The Delphi technique involves offering market experts estimates and assumptions of forecasts made by other industry experts. The experts are expected to revise or reconsider the estimates and assumptions according to the information collected from other experts. The opinion of every expert on demand forecasts can help formulate the final demand forecast.
• Questionnaires: A questionnaire is one of the written types of data collection. A questionnaire includes a set of printed open-ended or close-ended questions. The respondents are expected to answer according to their experience and knowledge about the issue. While a questionnaire can be a part of a survey, its end goal is not always a survey.

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Secondary Data Collection Methods

Secondary data refers to second-hand data that have been collected by others. Secondary data have already undergone statistical analysis in the past. A researcher usually asks someone else to collect secondary data or look it up from somewhere else. 

Secondary data is easier to collect, and the process is less expensive than the primary methods of data collection. But concerns surrounding the authenticity and correctness of secondary data are quite prevalent. A huge majority of secondary data consists of quantitative data. 

Unlike primary data collection techniques, you won’t find any methods of collecting secondary data. Since the data has already been collected, researchers can collect secondary data from various sources. The sources of secondary data for an organization can either be internal or external. 

Some internal sources of secondary data for an organization are as follows:

• Financial Statements
• Customer Personal Information
• Executive Summaries
• Mission and Vision Statements
• Health and Safety Records of a Company

The external sources of secondary data for an organization include the following:

• Business Journals
• Internet
• Government Records
• Libraries
• Press Releases

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Tools of Data Collection

Now that we have learned about the different data collection methods, let’s look at the different types of data collection tools. The major tools for data collection are as follows:

• Word Association: The researcher offers the respondent a set of words and asks them what comes to their mind after hearing every word.
• Role-playing: In this data collection tool the respondents are provided with an imaginary situation and asked how they would react.
• Sentence Completion: In this data collection tool the respondents are asked to finish incomplete sentences so that the interviewer gets an idea about their ideas. 
• In-Person Survey: The interviewer asks face-to-face questions to the respondent. 
• Online Surveys: The interviewer asks questions to the respondent via online or web platforms. 
• Mobile Surveys: An interviewer asks questions to the respondents via SMS or mobile apps. 
• Phone Surveys: Researchers ask questions to the respondents during a telephone conversation. 
• Observation: One of the best tools for data collection is simple observation. 

Challenges Faced in Data Collection

Some common challenges faced during data collection are as follows:

• Poor data quality
• Discrepancies between sources
• Data downtime
• Errors in large databases lead to ambiguous data
• Duplicate and overlapping data available on different sources
• Presence of excessive data
• Inaccurate data
• Hidden data
• Low response from surveys or interviews and other issues while researching