Assuring Quality in Telephone Studies

By Peter Apostol and Stephanie Apostol

WestGroup employs many "behind the scenes" tactics to ensure the highest standards of quality are met for all phases of your research projects. We thought this would be a great opportunity to explain how WestGroup consistently delivers high quality telephone interviewing research services. It doesn't just "happen," it takes a great deal of effort and commitment.

Quality Focus Begins with Interviewer Training

Initial Training —

All of the telephone interviewers go through a rigorous 20-hour training process before they work on "live" projects. Interviewers are monitored with silent dial- in equipment to ensure that they are conducting the data collection procedures correctly. The first day's work on every project is carefully reviewed to determine that all questions are being asked appropriately and any open-end questions are being probed and recorded correctly.

On-Going Training —

• The Professional Interviewer Certification: Once an interviewer is fully trained, and they have been here for 3 months, they are eligible to sign up for the Market Research Association's (MRA) Professional Interviewer Program. The training is done by one of our Supervisors who is specifically dedicated to the training of our interviewing staff using the MRA's materials. The test is then sent in to the National MRA headquarters where it is then graded and determined whether the applicant has met their standards of excellence to be certified as a professional. Passing this difficult exam requires an 80 percent or better and is one way in which WestGroup promotes internal opportunity for advancement and employee longevity.

• Project Training: When a new project is ready to "go into the field," an initial briefing is conducted by the Project Director and the Project Field Supervisor. Clients are invited to attend and assist in the briefing of the interviewers. During a briefing the "big picture" of the project is explained, the questionnaire is reviewed, special instructions are given, and interviewers ask questions. It is really motivating for interviewers to understand the significance of their part in the overall scope of a research project.

• Training Workshops: Special workshops focus on a specific element of the interviewing process. Most recently, the interviewers received special training on open-ends and probing. Although all interviewers initially received this training, refresher courses reinforce the previously learned materials and provide a platform to present new techniques.

Technology Keeps Quality, Productivity Up

Telephone data collection is accomplished mainly through WinCATI (Windows based Computer Aided Telephone Interviewing). This type of system automatically directs interviewers to the correct position in the survey and minimizes the interviewer's need to make judgments on how to interpret the questions and which questions to skip in the survey.

WestGroup's interviewing system also uses the valuable supervision software system, CATIHelp. This program helps supervisors to monitor through numerous checks, ranging from the time of day the interviews are conducted, to length of time of each interview, to individual interviewer surveying patterns. It also provides computer- aided quota and sample management.

Supervising and Monitoring for Consistent High Quality

Every interviewer is continuously monitored by our experienced Supervisory staff and by our Dedicated Monitor, resulting in a ratio that is never more than 8 interviewers to 1 supervisor. As an added benefit to our clients, each interviewer can also be regularly monitored through WestGroup's silent-monitoring system to ensure they are adhering to WestGroup's strict interviewing standards. "Off-site" silent monitoring is also available for those clients who are unable to come to our location. This allows you to dial in from your location to monitor interview quality and hear your customers firsthand.

A Team Effort Yields Success

We feel the more eyes on a project, the higher the quality of the data. Each project at WestGroup will be checked by at least three qualified employees before it even enters the field. Once the study is in the field, interviewers have been trained to catch any errors, and ask all appropriate questions regarding the accuracy and validity of a project. After the completion of 50 interviews, "marginals" are reviewed to ensure the research tool is effective, and to allow for any necessary changes to be made early on in the research process.

Professional Interviewing Environment Fosters Dedication

WestGroup interviewers work in a professional environment where they are treated as professionals. WestGroup management and analysts interact with interviewers on a daily basis. Interviewers feel comfortable giving feedback to their supervisors and project directors. It is often this feedback that determines the success of a project because interviewers feel they are a part of a professional team: they care about their projects, they enjoy their job, and they stay at WestGroup for a long time. This makes all the difference.

Important questions to ask research suppliers

• What type of Quality Assurance program do you have?
• What kind of training does your interviewing and supervisory staff receive?
• Do you have silent monitoring? How frequently is it done?
• Do you have off-site silent monitoring?
• What steps are taken to ensure the integrity of the programmed version of the questionnaire?
• Are briefings with interviewers routine at the beginning of a project?
• What sort of statistics are kept on interviewer performance and how?
• What is your supervisor to interviewer ratio?

FEBRUARY 2001 Answers:
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