Eddie Livingston is president of BankTrust, a banking firm with several bank locations. Eddie has been exploring the impact of service satisfaction with bank performance and is convinced that he can improve the bank's RONW if he can improve customer satisfaction. He has been contemplating a proposal from Tanner Research to begin a program of improving customer satisfaction. Tanner has recommended a survey of bank customers to establish gaps in service as perceived by the customers. Eddie knows that the bank has a list of all the customers and that this information is on an electronic database complete with mailing addresses and, for those having Internet service, email addresses. At the next meeting, Eddie expresses concern that sending a questionnaire to all bank customers is an inconvenience to them and he doesn't want to create more hassles. The researchers from Tanner Research assure Eddie that they can get the needed information for as few as a couple of hundred customers and that the results will be representative of all bank customers. Which of the following sample methods would most likely be appropriate?
A) simple random sample
B) judgment sample
C) stratified sample
D) cluster, area sample
E) systematic sample
Answer: a. Simple random sample