Are you considering conducting 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 web-based study that will help you obtain the highest quality data?
Are you hoping to have video or audio recordings of the interviews that can be cut into a clip reel you can use at a presentation or meeting?
Are you looking for a skilled and highly experienced team of professional online interviewers to help bring validity to your qualitative project?
We can help!
The Research & Planning Group has conducted tens of thousands of in-depth interviews over the last four decades and hundreds of online interviews over the last few years, and we can help you through the entire process!
Online (also known as virtual or web-based) in-depth interviews are becoming a more 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.
- Able to introduce visual stimuli such as advertising concepts, branding or logo concepts, videos or so much more!
- Able to record behavioral demonstration data such as online shopping, web browsing habits, software usage, task completion and much more.
- 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.
- Extremely engaging, ensuring higher-quality data and more enthusiastic participation.
The ultimate purpose of virtual 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.
- Record rich media such as images, audio or video which are suitable for presentations and clip reels.
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. - Online 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.
- Online in-depth interviews have become quite easy to conduct thanks to mobile devices and comfort with online conferencing software such as Zoom, Teams, Meet, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Signal, GoToMeeting, Facetime and Join.me. Virtual interviews used to require extensive setup and tech checks to conduct effectively, but they are far easier to conduct today because the general level of comfort with online communication platforms has grown significantly in recent years. Any participant with a mobile phone or tablet can easily participate, and it’s easier than ever to have participants participate in demonstration activities using tools such as screensharing, polls or whiteboards.
Of course, the potential for using technology also comes with many hard lessons to learn through practice, and our research team has found that some activities are easier than others to utilize via online in-depth interviews, and we’ve also found that there are many factors which can create bias in the results if they’re not carefully accounted for in the research design. It’s important to have good guidance for knowing when it’s best to utilize webcams, when it’s best to utilize chat, when it’s best to utilize asynchronous methods and when it’s best to consider other variations on the traditional interview approach. - Online in-depth interviews are extremely convenient for participants because they can participate from just about anywhere. While online interviews require a bit more focus and attention than telephone interviews, they are quite engaging and generally keep participants’ attention since they are using audio/visual technology platforms to directly interact with a human interviewer, allowing for stronger social cues and greater opportunities for building rapport and empathy. They are also decidedly convenient for participants since they can often join from their mobile device from a comfortable place, and it’s quite common for participants to situate themselves in their offices, in their homes, while they’re out and about or even while traveling or on vacation.
The design of interviews can also ask them to participate from a particular place. Interviews can be conducted while participants are in stores and they can be instructed to use the rear-facing camera on their mobile device to give a point-of-view perspective on what they are seeing. Interviewers can also ask participants to screen-share their own web browsers or mobile phone screens and demonstrate behaviors such as web browsing or software usage. Some online interviews even incorporate visual elements or periodic survey questions to gather real-time data which can be reported immediately via a dashboard or automated report while verbal data are in the process of being analyzed. - Online in-depth interviews are a good alternative method for B2B (business to business) research when telephone interviews aren’t enough. 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. Online in-depth interviews are a good alternative for reaching busy professionals because they can be scheduled as high-priority tasks rather than added to a list of daily obligations. Because these interviews are often conducted with webcams, they feel natural to the participants and are quite similar to having a one-on-one meeting. 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 online 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 online 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!