4 Tips For Applying Long Interviews

In previous posts on this blog we have insisted that field surveys that last a long time usually mean high incidences. This situation increases costs and estimated times since it implies recruiting people who are willing to collaborate with us despite the limited schedules that many of us have. Although on many occasions we would like to obtain all the data and information with shorter interviews, this is not possible in all cases.

Should we give up going as deep as we need to in the quest for greater participation? Not necessarily. However, getting good numbers of productivity and quality of the findings implies a series of strategies and techniques that are well worth knowing. Here are four tips for applying studies that include long interviews.

  1. Persuasive pollsters. Many times people get bored or desperate when approached in a monotonous or rushed way. Keeping the respondent attentive is crucial to retaining them until the end of the questionnaire and ensuring that they respond attentively. In this type of research, it will be necessary to have friendly, empathetic interviewers who manage to convince people to complete their participation successfully and completely.
  2. Offer an attractive incentive. There is a saying in our region that says «depending on the toad is the stone». The same principle applies to studies in which the time we request from a person is greater than what they can give us without further complication. For this reason, a budget must be considered to offer an incentive for those who participate in our studies and that results in a good compensation for collaborating with us. Nor should we forget that not all the people who collaborate in our interviews can receive economic or in-kind incentives. In those cases, consider offering valuable information or a summary of the findings of the study in which they participate.
  3. Make appointments. There are many ways to get people to answer our questions. Normally long questionnaires are not applied at points of influx. When we apply interviews in homes or in companies, it is possible to obtain collaboration for a longer time. However, we depend on the availability of who attends our request. For this reason, we must not rule out making a first contact to arrange a specific time for our interview and then return to apply them.
  4. Design dynamic surveys. When planning an investigation, we can fall into the trap of designing a questionnaire that seems boring and monotonous for those who agree to answer it. It should be sought that the flow and the questions are not perceived as a repetition of reagents that despair people or make them answer for answering with the sole purpose of dispatching our pollsters as soon as possible.

Our more than 19 years of experience in LATAM allow us to support you with these and more tips so that your company knows Latin American consumers better. Write us today to be your regional allies in Market Research.