Importance of Excellent Interviewing Skills

One of the essential skills required to conduct extensive market research is ‘the art of taking interviews’. It’s an incredibly effective way of carrying out primary research, i.e. collecting data from respondents directly, by asking them questions, especially the critical ones: open-ended questions which require more than just one-word answers and can further lend a good deal of assistance in conducting an in- depth analysis. As one of the leading market research firms, worldwide, we offer various qualitative and quantitative research services that require commendable interviewing skills, such as telephone survey, in-depth interviews, and intercept interviews.

So, we have an exclusive team of well-trained interviewers that conduct interviews whenever required for any client. Certain factors actually help to determine how stellar you are at interviewing, such as:

• Your ability to convince
• Your command over the chosen language
• Your adherence to compliances

Since interviews are an integral part of our research services, especially when it comes to clients that require thorough primary research, to figure what changes they’re supposed to make in their marketing strategies or products. So, we, at Unimrkt Research, give exclusive training to all our interviewers to ensure our interviews are high-end and smooth. We cover the following aspects of interviewing skills in our training sessions:

• Appropriate fact finding by asking clarifying questions
• Being watchful to be able to capture accurate responses
• Active listening to avoid selective listening
• Call control
• Keeping the respondents engaged on long research calls
• Objection and query handling
• Ensuring respondent comfort
• Art of intervening instead of interrupting
• Being professional, avoiding casual slangs and direct response
• Proper hold & mute process
• Response comfort
• Greeting at the start of call and ending the call by expressing gratitude

After finishing training sessions with our interviewers, we conduct mock or sample calls to make them experience what it’s like to take an interview and prepare them for actual interviews. We evaluate each and every phase of a sample call based on the following parameters:

Phase 1: Opening

• Salutation
• Self and company preface
• Explanation of the rationale of call
• Timeline revealed (if required)
• Study incentives informed (if required)

Phase 2: Compliance

• Conducting a survey with target respondents
• Accurate screening done
• Accuracy of data captured
• Data captured with respondents’ consent
• Quality and confidentiality statements read
• Correct and complete information provided
• Appropriate probing done
• No promotion
• No falsification
• Handling queries or objections (if any)
• Proper use of phonetics (interviewers’ discretion)
• Verbatim delivery of the script

Phase 3: Communication

• Polite and professional approach followed
• Rate of speech and voice clarity maintained
• Appropriate energy and enthusiasm
• Interruption/cross talk evaded
• Long pauses/dead air avoided
• Active listening
• Appropriate hold/mute procedures followed (if required)

Phase 4: Language

• No Mispronunciation
• No Grammatical Errors
• No miscellaneous errors

Phase 5: Closing

• Scheduling callbacks (no obligation)
• Asking for referrals (no obligation)
• Thanking and closing the call

Post-call evaluation, interviewers are given constructive, honest feedback and are asked to attend advanced training sessions for improvement. As you can see, it takes a lot of learning and discipline to become an expert in the field of interviewing since it might seem convenient on the outside, but it is not really that convenient. In fact, it takes a great deal of patience and practice to actually master the art of successfully conducting an interview. So, if you want to collaborate with a team of highly trained interview experts who can carry out thorough primary research for your brand or products, or services, contact Unimrkt Research.