Christian Kuhne 
Telephone Interviews on Winter Services for Private Households in Germany [PDF ebook] 

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject Business economics – Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 2, 3, University of Applied Sciences Berlin, language: English, abstract: It probably happens in the beginning of every winter season in Germany – real estate owners, renters, administrations of owner communities and other groups on the liable side rethink their spending for winter services. Some will need just seconds and go for
the last winter’s solution, but others will seriously consider changes or even take action to implement those. What is driving their decision? The other side is the tenant, thousands of private households or the “consumer” paying for a service unavoidable linked to the winter season in Germany. This side most likely rethinks their spending when they get the annual receipt of operating expenses. There is not really an option they have to avoid or reduce the costs related to winter services. Moreover, those costs are not even related to direct consumption. So, do tenants look for ways to reduce costs for winter services? Do they see value in this service or how much they are willing to spend for it?
The objective of this assignment is to answer the raised questions. To do so a precondition is to analyze the market of winter services in Germany according to general facts, types of contract, service features and way of contract closure. The investigations should be based on surveys research and secondary data.
The assignment starts with a quick recapitulation of the basics of telephone interviews. In a next section the German market of winter services is reviewed using secondary data mainly from the internet and from public statistics yearbooks. In a third section the design of the questionnaire is described that was used to gather an initial set of data. The main part of the assignment is designated to the analysis of the telephone interviews. The conclusions section should give the reader possible answers to the raised questions.