No doubt that collection of fair and suitable information is extremely dependable on the work of the interviewers. Falsification, neglected questionnaire space — aren’t these possible? We take great pains to avoid such problems.
Our interviewers conducting in-home investigation are mainly women aged 28 and older. They are subjected to a thorough assortment, moreover, firstly attempt to participate in test-projects. Unfortunately, on average, to every ten potential employees looking forward to work in our company and to conduct research only one person suits our requirements.
The company has developed work instruction for an employee ‘Instruction for an interviewer”, which is to be studied by each employee. It contains basic requirements for conducting sociological and market research, principles of sampling and route design. Also, it explains typical methods and phrases to minimize response rate, examples and rules of filling in field documentation, etc. on average, 30 pages. Once in two months each employee is to take examination, which assesses his knowledge of rules and requirements of the company.
Briefing and training is part and parcel of every project. Thorough questionnaire guiding and simulation games are held before each investigation.
Before launching a project, a series of pilot (test) interviews is a must, what helps to make further crafting and improvement of the research tools, if necessary.
In the course of the working process, for better and minute control an interviewer fills in a special route map to trace all his actions and movements in the framework of the survey (time, arguments for response rate, addresses, first names, surnames of the respondents engaged in the research). Afterwards, route map information comes into computers for further analysis.
Control procedures are realized by qualified specialists, who are not to be acquainted with the interviewers. The following types of control are obligatory:
Monthly bulletin for employees is considered to be a certain inner PR element, a mean to maintain positive atmosphere amongst members of the company team. It comprises piles of useful information, company news, reveals a list of those honored and rewarded by top managers.
