26 May 2021

The Census Contact Centre, which provided information support and help with filling in the census forms (questionnaires) to the public during the whole 2021 Census received almost 270 thousand phone calls. Besides usual questions about how to fill in the census forms (questionnaires) properly, inquirers also asked, for example, how to enumerate prisoners abroad or inhabitants of a convent. Operators of the centre often learned a lot about lives of the callers while handling the phone calls, there was even a marriage proposal.

“Despite several ways of automatic answering questions that were largely used, there were still many people wanting to solve their questions directly with the staff of the Contact Centre. Sometimes it was very demanding for the operators to communicate with the inquirers, however, it was also very important in order for the Census to be successful. In a satisfaction survey, nine out of ten callers gave positive reviews regarding the help of the centre. The whole team of the Contact Centre deserves great thanks for that,” Jolana Voldánová, the 2021 Census spokeswoman, says.

The 2021 Census started on Saturday 27 March and finished on Tuesday 11 May 2021. The Census Contact Centre, operated by the Conectart company, was in operation for almost ten weeks, daily until late evening hours, including Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. Over 180 operators were answering the phone calls.

People were most frequently asking the centre about how to enumerate several private households that do not have common budget but live together. Frequent were also questions about how to enumerate household members working abroad, questions about confirmation that the census form (questionnaire) has been sent or whether it is possible to correct wrong data in an already sent form (questionnaire). Many people also needed help with filling in information about commuting to work and to school during the pandemic.

It was important for many respondents to know what purpose data from the Census will serve to. Some needed to receive information as to where the nearest contact point of the Census is, i.e. where it was possible to pick up census forms (questionnaires) or to submit the completed ones.

Questions imposed were very diverse and so was the length of phone calls ranging from those lasting several seconds to hour-long calls. While communicating with inquirers, operators received information, for example, about municipalities that do not exist anymore, about activities of politicians in the period of normalisation, or about difficulties of living with other people in some municipalities.

“People who were calling us during the Census were in various moods. They were happy, angry, in a hurry, kind, or annoyed. We advised parents whether and how to enumerate their adult children, helped to decide how many census forms (questionnaires) people living in duplexes should fill in. We were also comforting those who could not or were not willing to get counted (enumerated) online – by telling them that they also will be visited soon by their census officer (census enumerator). We helped many people fill in correctly the part devoted to work and advised to those measuring their houses with a tape measure in order to fill in the precise floor area of the dwelling (flat),” Šárka Jelínková, the main instructor of the Census project of the Conectart company, said.

People were often telling various interesting stories related to the Census to the staff of the Contact Centre. It is because small accidents happened from time to time – like the one when a cat destroyed an already completed census form (questionnaire). Among unique questions were those how to enumerate a Czech citizen in a prison abroad or how to enumerate nuns in convents. There was also an inquirer with bad conscience who was trying to get counted online and by mistake he provided the address of his neighbour as his place of residence. Allegedly, he was thinking for a long time after that where the neighbour would be enumerated and whether he thus caused some problems to the neighbour.

There was also a funny question of an inquirer regarding a possibility to enumerate his pets instead of his contentious wife, because those are, allegedly, the real members of his household. One of willing female operators even received a marriage proposal from a man offering his son to marry her when she helps him fill in data about housing.

Contact:
Jolana Voldánová
2021 Census spokeswoman
Mobile phone number: +420 704 659 357
e-mail: jolana.voldanova@scitani.cz