CSR: A Valuable Alternative to Focus Groups
CSR’s qualitative approach delivers more and better information without the limitations that focus groups can impose. We offer two attractive alternatives to focus groups:
- In-depth, one-on-one interviews (IDIs) conducted face-to-face in focus group facilities;
- In-depth, one-on-one interviews (IDIs) conducted over the telephone.
Face-to-face interviewing
We have conducted as few as 14 to as many as 210 (over several geographic locations) face-to-face, one-on-one interviews (IDIs) at focus group facilities. This venue allows you to sit behind a two-way mirror and observe “live” immediate behavioral responses to questions and materials as discussed with and/or presented to research participants. This unique twist on qualitative interviewing takes the focus group element of “live observation” to a more sophisticated level with greater understanding and depth.
By integrating real-time, face-to-face interviewing with our proprietary methodology of transcribing and coding the responses to every single question from every single participant, CSR eliminates the group-think bias that is inherent in standard focus group discussions.
One-on-one telephone interviewing
Telephone interviews offer many of the benefits of in-depth face-to-face interviews, but also offer other benefits that are not easily achievable through face-to-face interviews or focus groups. These benefits include:
- Better representation. Both focus groups and face-to-face interviews conducted at a facility are constrained by location and time.
Interviewees who do participate in a study may not be truly representative of the entire targeted population, because they may represent only that population
who found the location and time convenient.
Furthermore, enticing prospective participants out of their homes or offices to go to a facility is more difficult, time-consuming, and expensive than inviting them to take part in an interesting conversational interview over the phone in the comfort of their own environment. In addition, the honoraria paid to participants in telephone research is generally half, and often even less, than the amount required to lure participants to a focus group facility. - More privacy. A series of one-on-one interviews has the benefit of making participants feel a greater sense of privacy, which makes them more likely to share their innermost thoughts and to converse more freely about issues that trouble them or that they don’t understand without the risk of facing negative feedback from other members in a group. Furthermore, a telephone conversation is more conducive to an honest and open exchange, particularly in areas where people feel reluctant to share thoughts in a group, or they are conscious of being observed by others (for example, when discussing their financial situation or high-tech products that they don’t understand).
In addition, CSR’s costs are competitive with costs for focus groups, particularly if three or more focus groups are planned.
