Are you considering conducting telephone research in and around the St. Louis, MO area, across the United States or around the world?
Are you looking for expert advice in designing a telephone study that will help you obtain the highest quality data?
Are you looking for a skilled and highly experienced team of professional telephone interviewers to help bring validity to your qualitative project?
We can help!
The Research & Planning Group has conducted tens of thousands of telephone in-depth interviews over the last four decades, and we can help you through the entire process!
Telephone in-depth interviews are a popular method of marketing research because they are:
- Able to produce detailed data that’s of a far higher quality than most other forms of research
- Excellent at providing extensive verbal data in the voice of the participants which can then be categorized and examined for common themes.
- Cheaper and easier than scheduling and conducting in-person interviews
- Scalable to regional, national or international participants without adding significantly to the cost since no travel is required.
- Convenient for participants, particularly those who are busy or who prefer to speak during off-hours.
The ultimate purpose of telephone in-depth interview research is generally to do at least one of the following:
- Obtain a stronger understanding of a topic from the participants’ point of view
- Measure sentiments such as satisfaction, likelihood to recommend or affinity for a brand or organization.
- Test newideas or concepts through descriptive language or provided stimuli.
- Prioritize new services, features or benefits.
- Drill down on an area that needs to be more deeply understood.
- Hear the voice of participants expressed in their own words and language to bring an organization closer to its customers or stakeholders.
Here are a few things we’ve learned about focus group research:
- In-depth interviews are the gold standard of opinion research. Because in-depth interviews are flexible and are able to incorporate both qualitative and quantitative lines of questioning, they are a powerful tool for collecting detailed, useful data which can stand up to considerable scrutiny.
One of the biggest advantage of in-depth interviews is in how the interviewer is able to use probing questions or request clarification when an answer is unclear or vague. Scales can be explained, and respondent errors (such as selecting the wrong end of a scale) can be corrected before they are made. Data quality is also easier to gauge since a human interviewer can terminate or immediately flag a questionable interview. - Telephone in-depth interviews provide considerable savings in time and cost over in-person interviews. While they can be cost-prohibitive to conduct in person, the telephone allows interviewers to quickly and efficiently gather data from all over the world with a simple phone call. Because interviews can be scheduled, there is no need to burn through large lists to meet quotas, and yet in-depth interviews are flexible enough that time-sensitive studies can be fielded relatively quickly if the criteria are appropriate.
- Telephone in-depth interviews are excellent for collecting verbal data but are limited when it comes to introducing visual stimuli or studying nonverbal responses. Telephone interviews tend to be focused on asking participants to respond to questions, and it can be challenging to utilize telephone interviews to showcase visual concepts.
Telephone in-depth interviews cannot utilize visual stimuli as effectively as in-person or virtual interviews can (often, how the stimuli will be displayed needs to be pre-arranged with participants), nor can they provide any visual cues on a participant’s body language or other nonverbal responses without the presence of a pre-arranged recording device. Even so, some professional interviewers feel that the lack of visual stimulation during the course of the interview can lead to higher-quality responses as the participant is forced to focus on listening carefully to the interviewer’s questions. - Telephone in-depth interviews are extremely convenient for participants because all they’re required to do is speak. Our professional interviewers have conducted interviews with participants who are driving, who are shopping, who are on vacation, or who are out and about engaged in activities like hiking or golfing. While this might sound like it could lead to distracted participants, the reality is that these are very natural times to participate in a conversational interview and being away from a workspace or computer can actually improve the attention span of the participant.
Whereas online and paper surveys require participants to focus their full attention to complete a survey (and may turn off those who tire quickly of providing detailed information or checking boxes), telephone interviews actually work best when the participant is relaxed and feels comfortable speaking. - Telephone in-depth interviews are a particularly good method for B2B (business to business) research. As surveys continue to become more widespread in every facet of life, it is increasingly difficult to get busy professionals to participate in surveys of any sort, even with a paid incentive. Telephone interviews are ideal for reaching busy professionals because they can be scheduled as high-priority tasks rather than added to a list of daily obligations. B2B interviewers often receive significant training on the research topic and in interacting with the business sector under study, and thus are able to conduct themselves appropriately and professionally.
One best practice we do recommend for B2B studies is to offer an incentive (or honorarium, if you prefer) to participants to show regard for their time and input. This can range from a small electronic gift card to checks more made out either to the participant or charity of their choice.
At RPG, we often design and conduct telephone in-depth interview studies from start to finish with heavy collaboration from our clients. While we are the experts on conducting research, we know our clients are experts on what we do. When we work together as a team, we can ensure that we get the best possible information to help our clients uncover what they need to know through research.
If you’d like to learn more about our approach towards telephone in-depth interview research, feel free to contact us. We’re always here to be a resource, and we’re happy to help you however we can!