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When I was growing up, my mom taught me how to make decisions and set priorities. A technique she taught me was to develop three good reasons to make a specific decision or take action. If you cannot come up with three good reasons, it’s time to look for other solutions.
We live in a virtually 24/7 world that empowers conversations around the globe. The power of technology continues to transform research. I, like so many of my colleagues, spent 20 years traveling North America to spend long evenings as my client-voyeurs watched the action on the other side of the mirror. I know the power of face-to-face focus groups and the rich insights they provide.
Sometimes, though, it’s impossible to get all of the right people in the room – literally! And when that’s the case, computer-aided telephone focus groups provide advantages and a viable alternative method of qualitative research.
Telephone focus groups allow all participants – far and wide – to simultaneously look at images, words or video via their computers linked to the Internet. There are many good reasons why information seekers should know more about telephone focus groups, but here are my top three.
- Geographic Diversity. Telephone Focus Groups allow for geographic diversity among the group participants. This is especially important in some business-to-business situations where participants feel more willing to share if there is not a local competitor in the same group. Other times, there may be very few potential participants who fit the target criteria – physicians who treat a rare disease, for example. Also, there are situations where targeted participants are by definition geographically distant, such as commercial farmers. In these situations the only practical way to get them talking collectively is through a telephone focus group.
- Integrated Individual and Group Data. Telephone Focus Groups, when implemented with special software like QualMeeting from 20/20 Research, allows researchers to gather both individual-level and group data simultaneously. A series of structured survey-like questions can be asked and data gathered from each respondent. At the same time, the moderator can engage all participants in a group discussion about the topic. This provides the best of both worlds — definitive answers to closed-end questions along with ideas catalyzed by group interaction.
- All Voices and Views. Telephone Focus Groups can significantly reduce the impact of bias by one or two outspoken participants and provide a degree of anonymity so that participants can speak more freely than they might in a face-to-face setting. By asking participants to type their initial reactions into a chat box or answer a structured question, the moderator can gather the opinions of participants uncontaminated by the other participants. The other participants also do not see negative body language. And, sometimes the best alternative is simply the mute button. Technical support can simply mute and un-mute specific lines so that the moderator can most effectively manage the conversations and allow everyone the opportunity to participate.
In this day and age of rapidly advancing technology, the computer-aided Telephone Focus Group combines some old world technology (the telephone) with high-speed Internet access to provide a now tried and true method of engaging participants in a focused discussion. At Kahle Research Solutions we have conducted hundreds of successful Telephone Focus Groups and our clients love the benefits, not to mention they do not have to travel.
Are Telephone Focus Groups right for you next project? If so, let’s connect.
