The owner-operator of a hardware store in a Virginia suburb along the banks of the Potomac River wants to learn several things about his customers and his business. Over the past 5 years, he has kept meticulous records on the contact information for his most frequent customers through a point-of-sale information system his cashiers use. He offers attractive discounts on every purchase to customers who have provided their contact information (name, phone number, home address, e-mail address) for inclusion in the database. When the customer provides his/her phone number to the cashier during checkout, the discount is activated in the cash register and all information about the purchase (products, quantities, prices) is captured by the point-of-sale system and stored in the master database. The system tracks the number of check-outs made by database customers vs. check-outs made by customers not in the database. In the past year, 80% of the 50,000 checkouts have been made by customers in the database. The owner-operator wants to survey his customers to learn their level of satisfaction with his business and to learn their attitudes toward certain changes he is contemplating.
Which of the following survey methods would most likely produce a representative sample of the owner's customer population at the least cost:
a. telephone calls to 5,000 randomly selected people in the Virginia suburb where the store is located
b. mailers to 5,000 randomly selected homes in the same zip code as the store
c. e-mails to 5,000 randomly selected customers in the store's database
Which of the following questions on customer satisfaction with the owner's business is unblased:
a. Do you like our store hours during the winter season?
b. How likely is it that you will make your next hardware purchase from our store?
c. Would you buy more from our store if we lowered our prices?
d. Which of our competitors do you buy from when you do not buy from our store?
Which of the following is the best the method for randomly selecting customers for the survey to produce representative results:
a. choose young adults aged 25-40 for the survey
b. choose half men and half women for the survey
c. assign numbers to each customer record and use a random number generator to pick customers for the survey
d. choose customers with last names that begin with a vowel
Which of the following statements is most correct about the minimum size of the sample required for confidence in the results?
a. the minimum size of the sample is 10
b. the minimum size of the sample depends upon the size of the population
c. the minimum size of the sample depends on the level of confidence required in the result
d. the minimum size of the sample depends on the standard deviation of the population
Which of the following statements is most correct about response rates and sample sizes?
a. It is preferable to have a high response rate from a randomly chosen small sample.
b. it is preferable to have a low response rate from a randomly chosen large sample.
c. It is preferable to have a low response rate from a randomly chosen small sample.
d. None of the above statements correctly describe response rates and sample sizes.