Class-5 (UNK)

Class - 5

Data Gathering

Whether In-house agency should be preferred over outsourced one for data gathering / fieldwork – (Outsourcing Field work means field manager and field supervisor are not on payrolls of the research agency) In-house should be preferred because in the scenario where agency outsources the field-work, less stringent quality control is found in field-work. At least field manager and field supervisor should be on the payroll of the agency (responsibility of correct, authentic field work lies with the agency). In-house is costly, but quality of field-work can’t be sacrificed at the sake of cost. In case outsourcing by the agency can’t be avoided, undertaking from the outsourced supplier needs to be taken by the client that even after project is finished, quality control will be maintained for the report / data supplied for the field work done

Why in-house training is important – Before finalizing the questionnaire, it needs to be seen whether a respondent understands the question very easily listed on the questionnaire. Also, every questionnaire needs to be asked exactly in the same manner as per the questionnaire (as questionnaire is structured – same sequence of questions) which is practiced via an In-house training. Hence, in-house training is essential to ensure that questionnaire is structured and this structure is followed across all interviews.

In-House training

1. Making initial contact

2. Asking questions

3. Probing

4. Recoding responses

5. Terminating interview

Making initial contact and securing the interview

Making initial contact means greeting the client and taking permission for the interview by giving ball park time

Whether client’s name should be mentioned by the interviewer – NO, only to be mentioned in doing a satisfaction survey. Also, it creates an auspices bias (respondent’s answer will be driven by client’s name and not his liking for the product). Hence ask – I am doing a study on chocolates, do you have sometime to interview please (& then proceed with the interview).

Always take the ball park number (Say 20 minutes or more for a 30 minute interview) and take the actual time while never following any of the following scenario –

· Foot-in-the-door – Ask 10 minutes and take 30 minutes

· Door-in-the-face – Do a little warm up, do irrelevant talk (like asking - how was your day today), and then start the interview.

Asking the questions

· Exactly as worded – Because questionnaire is structured and interviewer can’t change the order, wordings of the questionnaire as per his / her convenience. (No marks for the interviewer for changing the wordings on the questionnaire).

· Read slowly – Asians read very fast.

· Questions in the proper order – Questionnaire is structured (All quantitative are structured)

· Ask every question - Many times, people uncomfortable with a slide tend to either skip it or skip some part of it.

· Repeat questions that are not understood – How to ask respondent whether he / she has understood or not –“May be I was too fast or May be I was not right in communicating, allow me to repeat the question for you. May be I was not clear in clarifying what the question was, please allow me to repeat the question again”.

Probing techniques

One must probe, but not nag – Probe meaning to dig deeper to get to the real root cause but probing questions will stop at sometime, nag means to probe even after user has stopped answering the question (Like asking questions and giving respondent reasons for asking these questions like - I have to meet my target else I will be fired etc.)

Probing – Drilling down deeper to get to specifics. Should probe 2-3 times and not beyond that. Probing is used for open ended questions. For Example –

1. Why do you eat chewing gum – Because I like the taste

2. What specific about the taste do you like – I like the sweetness

3. What sweetness do you particularly like (very sweet / too sweet/ just sweet / mildly sweet) – Just sweet

Instruction on questionnaire will say – Record Verbatum probe probe probe – It means all verbal communication should be recorded for the open ended questions and interviewer should ask 3 times to probe and get the required response.

To get to the specific answer, there are some tactics to be followed which are as follows –

1. Repeat question – How a question is repeated – “May be I was not clear, allow me to be clear”.

2. Silent probe – Asians in particular will give an answer to a question they asked if there is pause of more than 15 seconds between question asked and respondent answering. The respondent should be allowed to think even for a minute to answer.

3. Repeat reply – Instead of asking respondent to repeat the answer (which may seem rude on some occasions), tell respondent – correct me if I am wrong but if I understand it correct, this is what you have said / let me summarize your reply for my (interviewer) better understanding and ask clarification for the previous response.

4. Neutral question – Many times, interviewer is tempted to give the opinion whenever the topic is of great interest to the interviewer (should keep a straight face and not participate in any discussion for giving an opinion. Example – Respondent says – “These days, salary are not as per proportion to the skill”. Interviewer replies –“Yes, even I am going through the same problem”). It becomes an interviewer bias.

Recording the response – Must be clearly mentioned on the questionnaire – from what the response should be recorded (pen – blue / black, pencil, color pen etc.) and how (by circling, crossing etc.). Generally, interviewer records the response in pencil during the interview as during the interview, interviewer might want to erase something. But when it is handed over to the client, it is recorded in pen (meaning it is a confirmed questionnaire).

Terminating the interview – Ask screener question upfront on the questionnaire, no matter how sensitive / generic they are. If the criterion is not met, said Thank you and terminate the interview.

Re-interviewing may be required in case a product test is been done – Product is been given today for use and want to interview again to evaluate the product’s effect / usage capability from the respondent (user). Re-interview may also be required for a critical respondent who had earlier cut short the interview / given an incomplete interview.

What is required in field-work management:

· Select the right respondent / field-staff

· Train the right field-staff

· Supervise the interviewer

· Control the field work

Good field-work management techniques are called back-checks (field work checks). 2 kinds of back-checks are done – Through accompriments and tele-calls. In 15% cases, the field manager / supervisor will accompany the interviewer (accompriments). In another 35%, they will call up the respondent and ask few questions from the questionnaire just to make sure that the interview was actually carried out. Hence, industry norm is minimum of 50% back-checks through accompriment / tele-call in research world.

Interview cheating –

· Filling in fake answers or falsifying the interviews

· Verification by interview

Tips for Middle-East interviews –

· Male interviewer will interview male only and not female (especially an arab female interviewer). Female interviewer can though interview both. In schools also, after grade ¾, boys and girls can’t sit in same class as per ministry of education.

· For Arabs, interview must be done in Arabic as that is their preferred language and they can express themselves. For interviewing Indian sub-continent people, Malayalam is preferred and then Hindi / English / Urdu.

· One can’t do street intercepts in Middle-east (considered as rude, offensive and illegal and interviewer can be taken to court of law), need prior permission from shopping centers (even if interviews are done in their parking lots). Authorities in middle-east won’t allow for street interviews.

· No gifts given to respondent.

· Culturally it is very rude to joke (make fun of) about Arab’s culture. No opinions about religion to be discussed with anybody at any point in time.

About Arab culture –

· Very family oriented / close knit. Most important meal for them is lunch. Between 3-4 pm in afternoon, they have lunch – a typical family affair where even the male member participates for a full fledge lunch. After that from 3:30 PM to 5:00 PM is siesta time (sleeping time) and after that, typical Arab will socialize in the following order – 1^st his close friends, 2^nd his acquaintances (associates), 3^rd his relatives, 4^th his distant relatives and lastly comes his spouce (Which spouce?).

· Since, students of SP Jain can’t speak Arabic, they can’t interview arabs, hence, method of sampling is convenient sampling.

· When recession started, Ministry of labor sent the notification to all companies stating that they are not entitled to lay off nationals.

· Earlier (before Sheikh Zayed died) all male nationals, will get a plot of land from government free of cost (to build his own house) as soon as they reached the age of 18. Now people of Dubai have realized that they are not a oil-rich economy and people have become more concerned for education.

· National – Only when person is born to a national, else they are expats.

Whether strategy should come before / after the plan? – AFTER. One plans to go to a friend’s place (Plan is – GO HOME, Strategy – FLY / WALK / RUN / via VEHICLE). Then he strategizes as to how to go there (mode of transport, which rode to take, by when should reach etc.). Hence, strategy always supports the plan.