Throughout the years, many brands have relied on in-person traditional focus groups to measure consumer feedback regarding their products, services, or new concepts.
While our market research company enjoys hosting these types of group discussions at our New York focus group facility, we also know there are other remote methodologies brands can utilize if this is not possible.
A great alternative to traditional focus groups is video in-depth interviews. In fact, our qualitative recruitment company recently saw this approach in action.
Drive Research completed a recruitment project for video in-depth interviews with remote participants across the United States. This blog post will outline our step-by-step process for how we found qualified participants for web interviews.
Our qualitative recruitment company outlines the step-by-step process of finding qualified participants for remote research methodologies such as video in-depth interviews and online focus groups.
Why Video In-depth Interviews?
Video in-depth interviews are a cost-effective qualitative research method used by market researchers to collect feedback, information, and opinions in a one-on-one setting.
Web interviews are conducted remotely, allowing the interviewer and the participant to be located anywhere with an internet connection.
Video interviews offer several features other market research methodologies do not such as:
- Review non-verbal cues. The interviewer is able to record non-verbal cues, which is an aspect of qualitative research that is oftentimes glazed over in phone in-depth interviews.
- Probe more feedback. With the interviewer and participant interacting in real-time, the interviewer is able to probe for more information, which is not possible in methodologies such as mobile ethnography.
- Access to a larger sample pool. With in-person market research interviews, recruiters have a limited sample of participants to choose from. Not only must participants meet screening criteria, but they must also live in close proximity to the interview site.
Video In-depth Interview Recruitment Objectives
A well-known computer technology company partnered with our national market research company to recruit participants for video in-depth interviews.
To qualify, the participants needed to meet the following criteria:
- Own a specific brand of laptop
- Have current or past issues with the laptop
- Have a functioning laptop with camera, microphone, and an internet connection to complete the remote video interview with
- Be a Generation Z, Millennial, or Generation X
Our qualitative recruitment firm also kept genders, geographies, races/ethnicities, and ages in mind to ensure the market research incorporated a mix of participants.
The Drive Research Approach to National Qualitative Recruitment
The qualitative recruitment process involved three different steps. Each of the three steps was essential to recruiting articulate, qualified, and reliable participants for the virtual interviews.
These three steps to qualitative recruiting are detailed below.
Step 1: Online screener
Based on the specific criteria participants needed to meet, Drive Research designed a recruitment screener to create a pool of pre-qualified participants who would be willing to participate in a remote, video in-depth interview.
To find participants, Drive Research sent the online screener to our in-house market research panel and advertised on social media.
The screener captured the information such as the respondents’ laptop brands and any current or past issues they’ve experienced.
Step 2: Qualification and registration phone calls
Once a pre-qualified list of participants had been formed, the recruitment team at Drive Research got to work. Our qualitative recruiting experts always follow online screeners up with qualification and registration phone calls.
This allows the recruiter to form a relationship with the participant and be their main point of contact through the market research study.
During the qualification and registration phone calls for this study, the recruiter asked questions to verify the key information and qualifying criteria from the online screener.
In this case, recruiters verified the laptop brand and model, as well as verified the issues they’ve experienced with them.
If the answers lined up with the participant’s online screener responses, the recruiter then asked follow up questions to make sure the participant was articulate and would be a good fit for qualitative research.
To complete their registration, participants were scheduled by the recruiter and sent a confirmation email personally from the recruiter they spoke with on the phone. To confirm their participation in the study, the participant must reply to the email.
Step 3: Reminder calls and texts
Once the participant was recruited, Drive Research utilized reminder calls and texts to ensure they would show up for their scheduled video in-depth interview. This step is critical to ensuring a perfect show rate.
The day before a scheduled video in-depth interview...
The participants received a reminder phone call from their recruiter.
During these reminder calls, the recruiter double-checks that they’ve tested the video chat link and reminds them to log on a few minutes before to avoid any technical difficulties.
On the morning of the remote interview...
The recruiter sent the participant a reminder text message with the time and logistics of how to join the interview.
Need more tips for qualitative recruiting? Drive Research shares four in this video.
Video in-depth Interview Recruitment Results
Although the results remain confidential with the technology client, Drive Research recruited with a near-perfect show rate for the video interviews.
Upon completion of the qualitative research, participants received a $75 Amazon gift card. These were processed by Drive Research within 24 hours of the participant’s interview.
Offering an incentive for video in-depth interviews is a great way to lower costs for qualitative recruitment. Here's why.
Contact Our Qualitative Recruiting Company
Drive Research is a national market research company located in New York. Our team has the knowledge and tools to quickly find quality participants for your in-person or remote qualitative research, cost-effectively.
Interested in receiving a proposal or estimate for a qualitative recruitment project? Reach out through any of the four ways below.
- Message us on our website
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 888-725-DATA
- Text us at 315-303-2040