Depth Interviews

The wrong way…

Ever wonder how research companies can talk to 500 people and still not learn anything?

It seems hard, but it’s actually pretty easy. Just figure out the best way to do things, and then do the opposite.

If you always focus on cutting interview times and maximizing profits, then you can’t go right!

A few tips:

• Discourage interviewers from ever probing or following up (shorten those calls!)
• Encourage the interviewers to ask questions quickly and robotically; avoid conversations at all costs (shorten those calls!)
• Hire low-wage interviewers and don’t provide training
• Make interviewers work long hours, and make their jobs as tedious as possible

Not only will your data be worthless, but you’ll also bore your customers and diminish your brand by making your company look lame and uninspiring!

The Magnetic way

After a conversation with a customer, we ask our interviewers, “What did you learn?”

We employ highly trained, well-paid interviewers, and encourage them to have conversations with people, to build rapport, and to use the interview itself as an opportunity to enhance customer relations and build connections.

We don’t focus on hitting quotas, but on conducting productive, high-quality interviews that actually generate useful customer feedback and insights.

How often has a brilliant customer comment gone ignored because it didn’t fit into the research company’s reporting format, or wasn’t a question asked to all 300 respondents, etc.?

It should never happen, and it doesn’t with us.