Face-to-face interviews, captured digitally, checked before they count
CAPI survey services put a trained enumerator in front of the respondent with the questionnaire on a phone instead of paper. Bharat Survey runs computer assisted personal interviewing for companies, research agencies, NGOs and government departments across India: we program your questionnaire with skip logic and validations, train field teams in the local language, collect offline in areas without signal, and hold back any interview that fails GPS, time or back-check tests. You get clean data days after fieldwork, not weeks after data entry.
Pen, clipboard, data entry later
Phone app, checked at entry
Your questionnaire is programmed in the form builder or imported from XLSForm, translated, and tested with dummy interviews for every route before the pilot.
Classroom briefing on objectives and each question's intent, mock interviews in pairs, then a field pilot. Enumerators who struggle in the pilot do not go to the main sample.
Each enumerator sees only their assigned villages or wards. Interviews save encrypted on the phone and sync later; the sync count is always visible.
Location is compared with the assigned area, very short interviews are flagged, and supervisors back-check a share by revisit or call. Flagged records go to a review queue.
Phone and online surveys reach people who answer unknown calls or fill forms on a smartphone. In India that leaves out many rural households, older respondents, women who do not control the family phone, and people with low literacy. For household surveys, farmer studies, health and nutrition questionnaires and anything needing observation or measurement, a face-to-face interview is often the only way to get a representative sample.
Consumption modules, household rosters and livelihood sections can run long. An enumerator keeps the respondent engaged, clarifies terms and follows complex routing that would break a self-completion form.
Photos of assets, shelf displays or facilities, observation checklists and simple measurements are only possible when someone is there. The app captures them with consent and location.
National statistical surveys in India are now run on CAPI with in-built validation. Departments commissioning their own studies expect the same.
| Factor | CAPI (face to face) | CATI (phone) | Online |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reach in rural areas | Strong | Medium | Weak |
| Questionnaire length | Long is workable | Short to medium | Short |
| Photos and observation | Yes | No | Limited |
| Proof of interview location | GPS on each record | Call logs only | IP only |
| Speed to first data | Days | Days | Hours |
| Relative cost per interview | Highest | Medium | Lowest |
Straight answers to the questions people ask most about this topic.
CAPI stands for computer assisted personal interviewing. An enumerator conducts a face-to-face interview and records answers on a phone or tablet app that applies skip logic and validation as the interview happens. Compared with paper, it removes data entry, catches errors at the doorstep and can record location and timing for verification.
Yes. Send it as a document or XLSForm. We program it, test every route, and share a test link or APK for your review. Translations are checked with you before the pilot, and any change after sign-off creates a new form version so data stays traceable.
Android phones running the Bharat Survey app, which is built to work on low-RAM devices and fully offline. We do not offer an iOS field app. Clients and supervisors use the web panel in any browser.
Each record carries GPS location compared with the assigned area, start and end time, and duration. Records outside the area, unusually short or duplicated go to a review queue. Supervisors back-check a share of interviews. Records failing checks are not counted.
Share your questionnaire, sample and districts. We will return a field plan, timeline and quote.
