An AI voice agent can run a phone survey in Hindi, Odia, Telugu, Tamil or any major Indian language, and return every answer as a clean spreadsheet row. You upload a contact list, write 3-5 short questions, define the allowed answers, and the agent calls, asks, understands the spoken reply and records it. This is faster and cheaper than a telecalling team for large samples, and it reaches people who never open an online form. On Edesy it runs as an AI survey caller.
This guide covers question design for voice, capturing answers as data, choosing languages, planning sample size, and cost.
Run a 100-call pilot survey: Start free on Edesy — self-serve, Rs 50 free credit, no demo needed.
Why phone surveys still matter in India
Online surveys work for audiences that live in email and apps. Many Indian audiences don't: rural customers, older people, small shopkeepers, patients, farmers and students' parents. A phone call in their own language gets answers that a link in an SMS never will.
The problem has always been cost and consistency. Human callers get tired, read questions differently and log answers inconsistently. An AI agent asks every question the same way and stores answers in the same format.
What you can survey
- Customer satisfaction (CSAT) after delivery, service or support: see CSAT surveys
- Net Promoter Score (the 0-10 "would you recommend us" question): see NPS surveys
- Market research: product awareness, pricing reactions, brand recall: see market research
- Employee feedback for large field workforces: see employee feedback
- Beneficiary and citizen feedback for schemes, municipal services and NGOs
- Constituency and issue surveys: see AI calls for voter outreach
Designing questions for voice
A voice survey is not a web form read aloud. People can't see the options, so:
- Keep it to 3-5 questions, under two minutes in total.
- Put the most important question first. Some people hang up after two questions.
- Use closed answers: yes/no, a 1-5 scale, or three named options.
- Say the scale in words: "1 matlab bilkul khush nahi, 5 matlab bahut khush."
- One open question at the end if you need reasons: "Aur koi sujhav?"
- Introduce yourself and the time needed: "Main XYZ ki taraf se 1 minute ka survey kar rahi hoon."
An example three-question CSAT survey in Hinglish:
Namaste {{name}} ji, main ABC Store se ek automated call kar rahi hoon. Aapke haal ke order ke baare mein sirf teen sawaal hain, ek minute lagega.
- Kya aapka order time par mila? Haan ya nahi?
- 1 se 5 mein, aap humari service se kitne khush hain?
- Hum kya behtar kar sakte hain? Aapke samay ke liye dhanyavaad!
Capturing answers as data
Before launch, define each question as a data field with the answers you allow:
| Field | Type | Allowed values |
|---|---|---|
| delivered_on_time | yes/no | yes, no |
| satisfaction | number | 1-5 |
| improvement | text | free text |
| callback_requested | yes/no | yes, no |
After each call, Edesy extracts these fields from the conversation, so a reply like "haan, time pe aa
gaya tha" is stored as yes. You also keep the recording and transcript to spot-check answers.
Export results as CSV, send them to Google Sheets, or push them to your CRM or a webhook.
Choosing the language
Pick the language for each list, not for the whole survey. Edesy agents speak Hindi, Hinglish, Odia, Bengali, Assamese, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam and other Indian languages, plus English. Some practical rules:
- North India: a natural Hindi-English mix usually works better than formal Hindi.
- State-level surveys: use the state language, with English numbers if that is how people speak.
- Mixed lists: add a
languagecolumn to the file and split the campaign by language.
Language-specific pages: Hindi, Odia, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada.
Planning sample size and completion
Not everyone answers, and not everyone who answers completes the survey. Plan backwards from the number of completed responses you need, using your own past answer rates:
- Completed responses needed: for example 1,000
- Assumed answer rate across retries: for example 50%
- Assumed completion rate among answered calls: for example 70%
- Numbers to call: 1,000 / (0.5 x 0.7) = about 2,860
These rates vary widely by audience and relationship, so run a pilot of 100-200 calls first and use its real rates for the full plan. Retry unanswered numbers once or twice at different times of day.
What an AI phone survey costs
On Edesy, calls are billed per started minute at Rs 4-6 per minute depending on your prepaid top-up, and unanswered calls cost nothing. A 90-second survey uses 2 billed minutes, so a completed response costs about Rs 8-12. Keep surveys under 60 seconds where you can: a one-minute survey costs half.
Rules to follow
- Say who is calling, why, and that it is an automated call.
- Keep it short and let people opt out.
- Call within reasonable hours and respect DND preferences: see TRAI and DND rules.
- Store personal data under the DPDP Act: see DPDP compliance for voice AI.
Start with a 100-call pilot
Upload 100 numbers, write three questions, and see your real answer and completion rates by tomorrow. Create a free account and use the built-in survey and feedback template as your starting point. Planning a large or multi-state survey? Talk to us.