Standardising how interviewers administer a questionnaire face-to-face to a respondent is one of the key aspects that we Market Researchers like to emphasise. Hence we hold elaborate briefing and training sessions for our interviewers on how to administer a questionnaire, and then try to enforce standardisation and interviewer integrity through elaborate quality monitoring systems.
In the whole process what we forget - or do not like to talk about - is that the responses we get to a question in a face-to-face interview is also based on the personality of the interviewer. An enthusiastic and charming interviewer gets a different response as compared to an interviewer who lacks self-confidence or is introverted. Based on my observations in the field, an enthusiastic or charming interviewer gets higher number of spontaneous brand recalls and greater depth of responses to open-ended questions. And, of course, self-confident interviewers also tend to get easier access into higher social class areas.
The Art of Interviewing has therefore similarities to the Art of Selling. No matter how uniformly salesmen have been trained, there are salesmen who - by the force of their personality - get a different response from their customers, and therefore get different results.
The "personality factor" of the interviewer becomes a major issue in Continuous Tracking studies where maintaining interviewer consistency over long durations of the track is critical. Drop-out rate of interviewers is rising at alarming rates, thanks largely to poor remuneration, low status and mounting refusal rates. In tracking studies when there is such a high churn rate it becomes a huge challenge, as every time an interviewer is replaced it results in data fluctuation because of the "personality" factor - no matter how well the new substitute interviewer has been trained. These kind of data fluctuations are euphemistically called "sampling error" and is not linked to any real market place events ("real" fluctuations).
With higher interviewer churn, a greater and greater proportion of the Face-to-Face Tracking data fluctuations will be interviewer related, and not due to market events. And despite longer and longer "rolling periods" to neutralise the variations, the data in Tracking studies will only continue to fluctuate even more due to interviewer churn. This will pose a formidable challenge to the Researcher - as not only would his research and interpretative skills be tested, but also his client handling skills to ensure that the client does not lose faith in the data and - more critically - in the philosophy of the Continuous Tracking system.
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The opinions expressed here are my own - and not necessarily that of the organisations I have worked for
In the whole process what we forget - or do not like to talk about - is that the responses we get to a question in a face-to-face interview is also based on the personality of the interviewer. An enthusiastic and charming interviewer gets a different response as compared to an interviewer who lacks self-confidence or is introverted. Based on my observations in the field, an enthusiastic or charming interviewer gets higher number of spontaneous brand recalls and greater depth of responses to open-ended questions. And, of course, self-confident interviewers also tend to get easier access into higher social class areas.
The Art of Interviewing has therefore similarities to the Art of Selling. No matter how uniformly salesmen have been trained, there are salesmen who - by the force of their personality - get a different response from their customers, and therefore get different results.
The "personality factor" of the interviewer becomes a major issue in Continuous Tracking studies where maintaining interviewer consistency over long durations of the track is critical. Drop-out rate of interviewers is rising at alarming rates, thanks largely to poor remuneration, low status and mounting refusal rates. In tracking studies when there is such a high churn rate it becomes a huge challenge, as every time an interviewer is replaced it results in data fluctuation because of the "personality" factor - no matter how well the new substitute interviewer has been trained. These kind of data fluctuations are euphemistically called "sampling error" and is not linked to any real market place events ("real" fluctuations).
With higher interviewer churn, a greater and greater proportion of the Face-to-Face Tracking data fluctuations will be interviewer related, and not due to market events. And despite longer and longer "rolling periods" to neutralise the variations, the data in Tracking studies will only continue to fluctuate even more due to interviewer churn. This will pose a formidable challenge to the Researcher - as not only would his research and interpretative skills be tested, but also his client handling skills to ensure that the client does not lose faith in the data and - more critically - in the philosophy of the Continuous Tracking system.
*************************
The opinions expressed here are my own - and not necessarily that of the organisations I have worked for
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