How to Improve Research Quality by Interviewing the Right People

How To Improve Research Quality By Interviewing The Right PeopleB2B International

1. Ask the sales force for their “Christmas card list” of contacts.

They all have one and this is very often a definitive list of who they think it is worth speaking to.

2. Look for contacts beyond those with a procurement title.

In b2b decision making, procurement personnel may be day-to-day contacts but key decision-makers are often located in other departments.

3. Start the list building process early in the program.

Do not wait until the questionnaire has been developed and do not assume that the list can easily be assembled at the last minute. Building the list usually takes time.

4. If you have to build your own list of contacts, do not be too ambitious.

It is better to get 100 interviews with the right people than 1,000 interviews with the wrong people. Quality beats quantity in list building.

5. Be realistic when specifying what to include in the contact list.

You need the name of the company, its location, the telephone number of the contact, and the contact’s name. Everything else is nice to have but not vital.

6. Don’t leave the list building task to a junior person.

It should be supervised by the research executive in charge of the project as it is one of the most critical components of the research design.

7. Make sure that questionnaires have numerous screening questions. Do not rely on screening questions such as “are you the person responsible for buying metal cutting oils?”. The fraudster who wants to complete a questionnaire for the incentive will answer “yes”. Consider putting screening questions into a context which gives people a choice of different subjects.

8. Include some open-ended questions in panel questionnaires.

It is surprising how often people catch themselves out by putting an answer to an open-ended question which identifies them as clueless. It has been known for some respondents to complete more than one questionnaire in at attempt to earn incentive points but their laziness catches them out as they copy and paste the same open-ended answers.

9. Watch for the flat liners in online surveys.

People who give the same rating scores to a question may well be rushing through the questionnaire without consideration and replacements should be sought from the panel company.

10. Look at the time it takes people to complete an online interview.

If it is less than half the time you consider to be a reasonable average, throw the interview out and obtain replacements.

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To read the full article and learn more about market research and respondent selection, click the link below.

Improving Research Quality Through Respondent Selection