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The Postal Questionnaire Method:

In the postal method a sample is built up and a mailing list is prepared. The questionnaires are then despatched together with a covering letter explaining the purpose of the study and asking for the respondent’s co-operation. Usually a pre-paid reply card or envelope is enclosed.

Advantages:

Low costs - The postal method is claimed to have the advantage of cheapness. Although theoretically this is true, it seldom happens that the response exceeds from five to ten per cent of mailed questionnaires.

Wide distribution – Where it is necessary to cover a very wide area there is a distinct advantage in using this method.

Speed – Another advantage of the postal method lies in the speed with which the replies are received.

Ease of reaching a specific class of people - The postal method can be used to advantage where the difficulties of personal interviewing would be considerable. Similarly, some people are not ready to grant interviews, although they would be prepared to fill in a questionnaire.

Eliminates interviewer bias - This indeed is a real advantage. One of the problems most difficult to solve is the possibility of the interview’s personality affecting the answers to a questionnaire, either because he directly influences the respondent by his manner or because he subconsciously introduces a bias by his wording of the answers.

Anonymity - In a postal enquiry the respondent remains anonymous, there is no need to indicate his identity on the reply sheet, and for this reason he is more likely to be frank in his replies.

Disadvantages:

The problem of non-replies - This is perhaps the most serious disadvantage of postal questionnaires.

When asking the question ‘Why only five to ten per cent of the respondents replied?’, it is reasonable to assume that it is because they were more interested than the remainder, as thus they were a biased segment of the original population.

Unrepresentative mail – Another serious problem is that of obtaining a representative mailing, particularly where a large sample is involved.

Length of questionnaire - Few people are willing to reply to a long questionnaire received through the questionnaire must, therefore, be short.

Ambiguity - In postal enquiries there is no interview to ensure that questions are properly understood and properly answered.
There is, therefore always a danger of the respondent misunderstanding questions or giving ambiguous replies.
Classification of respondent - Since the respondent is neither seen nor known it is impossible to know for certain how to classify him.