What is a "good" return rate (%) on a mail survey? (The survey is part of a scientific research project)
441252
15-20 percent. JC Nunally, has done a tremendous amount of work in this area.  My last was 60% and I have seen 80% it is all in the presentation, protocal, and clever use of social utility theory.  Nunnally's book is Psychometric Theory
69861
Depending on the ad, my experience has been .5% to 2.0%.  If it's a raw text link on a page it could be anything from 0 to 2%.
638571
Accuracy of data.  Crap in, crap out.  Your analysis is only as reliable as the data which it was built upon.  Do the work necessary up front to ensure that you will receive, retain and transpose data properly.  If you're measuring effectiveness of a program your survey methods have to be developed with an idea in mind.  What are you trying to measure, what are you hoping to learn.  Now, does your survey capture the info that will give you those answers?  \n\nThis is increasingly easier with the automation of our programs, but user error is never to be taken lightly.  \n\nGood luck!
94987
It's a scam.  Generally, survey companies pay very little to begin with.  They give you lists of companies that may or may not ask you to participate in surveys. All they do is take your money and run.
353748
I'd would shoot for 10%.  The more the better but I think 10-20% is average.
18471
They vary but are usually higher than the first. I'd say somewhere around 10% to 12% is a good ballpark. Of course credit history has something to do with this as well.
418766
you're kidding right? I hope you don't use any of the data you collect on here for a school project. This is about the worst sample you can have for a survey. Your results are going to be pretty much worthless.
42426
There are currently no reliable ones because they all currently rely on self-selecting samples (something that makes the responses statistically biased)- typically, the raters are in bed with the businesses (a good example is InsiderPages.com, many thousands of ratings, almost all biased).  There are a couple industry specific ones that are decent though, but you'll probably have to pay for the info... like Angie's List (home related like contractors) and Zagat's Guide (which rates the service of restaurants pretty well).
890200
0% is exactly right.  You pay zero percent interest.  However there is always a catch.  If you miss a payment, all interest becomes retro active and suddenly you have interest up the waa zoo.  Also the interest rate is killer high.  I've seen over 24%.   If you don't pay it off in a certain period of time all interest becomes retro active and your in the same boat as above.  Read the fine print very carefully.  There is a catch in there some where.  Its a numbers game to them just like life insurance.  Most insurace companies will tell you at the begining of the year exactly how much they will pay in benifits, what they can't tell you is who it will be paid too.  Most people who write a loan know exactly how much money will be made in late fees.  What they can't tell you is exactly who will pay it.  If they write enough loans, they will make a fortune in late fees and interest.  So all they need to do is start writing zero percent loans to get a succor in the door (thats you by the way) who will say Oh look zero percent.  But in the course of the loan, you will screw up some where along the way and boom they have you.  Your odds of escaping with zero percent all the way to the end of the loan is only about 5%.  Every one is late once.  Or fails to pay off quite in time to meet the dead line.  So if they write enough loans 5 people will pay off in time.  95 people will eat dirt.  Enough dirt to pay the difference on the 5 who got away with zero percent.  Further more they got more sales by using the zero percent come on.  At least half of the buyers who bought would not have done so without the zero percent hook.  So for the price of interest on 5 buyers they got 50 more buyers than they would have had.  \n\nread the fine print and find out what the hook is.  If you don't know, your odds of falling into the trap is almost 100%.  Best bet is to not buy at all.  wait till you have enough cash to pay for it in full.  If you can't save up enough money to pay it all, how can you make payments?  Don't be stupid.  Thats what they are counting on.\n\nOne of the writers above gave a personal story of exactly what they are up to and exactly what happens.  They are not alone.  It is designed to burn you.  \n\nRemember any time some one puts a contract under your nose, you can be sure that the contract favors the person asking you to sign it.
669403
The old addage goes that "most things are worth what you pay for them", also "if it sounds to good to be true then . . . " and so on.  Whenever I've checked into these offers it involves answering a few questions which means getting your email on a gazzillion email lists, do you want that?
181963
My thesis is on graduated retirement programs. There's a suggestion for a topic.\n\n(I agree though, if you're looking to buy one, tsk tsk - some of us are working hard on ours! No fair!)
980084
It really depends on your market.... a good average is 10-15% of Gross revenue try the math after one quarter of advertising and adjust according to results.
250269
Not too good.  You should need a score of around 700+ to get the best rates.  The other answers are correct-probably 8-10%.
303069
Do a confidence interval calculation and see if the confidence level for the data you've collected is above that required for 98%.\n\nI can show you how but given your other questions, it's clear you haven't really done any work on this yet and you're just looking to get someone to do your homework for you.\n\nLet me know if you still can't do it after you've tried a while, and I might help you out.
307021
Try http://www.emigrant-direct.com  They seem to have the highest at 4.50%  However, INGdirect is a good one too, not as high of a return but very easy and trusting. http://www.ingdirect.com I don't have first hand experience with Emigrant.
532937
About 10%. Good luck!
689385
Target flyers to individuals who will be interested in what you have to offer. If I'm interested, then I'll read them.  If not, I throw them away.  If you can find a group of people who will respond, and won't throw them away, then you dont' have to spend as much making & mailing those flyers because you aren't just giving them to everyone.  Assume it costs you $0.50 per flyer to print & mail.  If you just send them to 500,000 addresses randomly, then that will cost you $250,000.  However, if it's just random, then most of those people will just throw them away -- which wastes your money.  But, if you use database marketing analysis (RFM, logistic regression, cluster analysis, CHAID, etc) to discover a small segment of 50,000 people who are highly responsive to what you have to offer, then you only spend $25,000 to mail to them, but a large percentage of them will respond and buy something from you.  You can check out the Direct Marketing Association, SPSS, and Omniture for more information.