Have you ever heard news reports quoting research findings like, "Thirty-five
percent of people do not eat enough fresh fruits," or "Seventy-five percent
of North Americans watch television for four hours a day"?
Research interviewers get the raw data for statistical information like
this by conducting telephone surveys with members of a selected group of people.
Sometimes research interviewers conduct these surveys in person.
Dottie Oliver is a phone room coordinator for a health studies center in
Seattle. She has worked in telephone research for many years.
Oliver was attracted to the work because she had been out of the workforce
for quite a long time. Research work was a good way to break into the labor
force again. Plus, the hours were flexible, which she liked.
"This was my first paid telephone job," Oliver says. "I had done volunteer
calling for organizations that were fund-raising and that sort of thing."
When Oliver started the job, she was given on-the-job training about how
to conduct a research interview. After that, the center provided her with
specific training for each project she worked on.
She has worked on studies dealing with HIV prevention, alcoholism and smoking.
"There is personal satisfaction in this type of work," she says. "Through
research, we have the ability to educate people."
In Oliver's first years on the job, interviewers were given stacks of paper
questionnaires. Researchers call these questionnaires "instruments."
She was also given a list of phone numbers of people to call. The people
on the list had been chosen because they represented a random sample of people
who met certain criteria. They may have been men or women within a certain
age range or parents with children between certain ages. Or perhaps they had
contacted a personal care clinic with a specific type of health problem.
Oliver would take a stack of these numbers and start calling. "I would
try to get an interview, or schedule an interview for another time if that
was more convenient," says Oliver. "When conducting an interview, I would
ask the questions that were on the instrument and record the answers that
the respondent gave me."
Today, most of the interviews are done using computer-assisted technology.
Oliver explains that everything is very standardized. The instrument has
been written according to survey standards. The interviewers must ask the
question exactly as it is written. When respondents do not answer according
to the scripted response category, the interviewers need to probe using scripted
methods of helping the respondent answer the question.
Sometimes the work can be stressful. People get impatient with long interviews.
Sometimes people are preoccupied with other things, such as television, radio,
pets or children. "And sometimes people are just plain crabby," Oliver says
with a laugh.
You need a thick skin to do this work. You must also have the ability to
take control. Interviewers must administer an instrument exactly as if the
respondent was reading it. They cannot answer questions unless they have been
provided with a glossary of responses. Every interview needs to be done exactly
the same way.
"I think that for someone looking to supplement income, it is an ideal
job," says Oliver. "The hours are flexible. You can almost pick the hours
you work."
Linda Panciera is a research interviewer. Most of the calls she makes are
on behalf of the local telephone company. It could be a customer satisfaction
survey, questions about long distance calling patterns or other similar topics.
Panciera works at the job full time. Originally, she started doing telemarketing
and sales. But after a time, she had the chance to do research interviewing.
"I like interviewing better than sales," she says.
Like most research interviewers, Panciera works on the computer. Sometimes
the questions require a "yes" or "no" answer. Sometimes there is an open-ended
answer. Open-ended answers are in response to questions that cannot be answered
with one word. Interviews can take up to 20 minutes because often the respondent
is preoccupied with other things.
Panciera likes the people she works with. But she says you have to be tough.
Sometimes the people you call are rude to you. You must learn not to take
that personally. And sometimes when she meets new people, they put down the
kind of work she does.
"If you like this kind of work, it's important not to let other people
influence you with their stress," she says. "Don't take things too seriously.
Don't let things get to you."
Paul Speidel is the training coordinator with a research company. Speidel,
who has a master's degree in archeology, started out doing telephone research
three nights a week. He was a self-employed consultant at the time.
Before long, the telephone work expanded to four nights a week, and then
to five nights. After a year, Speidel moved into a supervisory position. A
year after that, he began doing some training. In time, this expanded into
the full-time training coordinator position that he currently has.
When Speidel was interviewing on the telephones, he worked on a variety
of surveys. "There were public opinion surveys regarding issues in the news,
agricultural surveys where we interviewed growers about new products and other
agricultural matters, business to business studies and medical studies," he
says. "But the bulk was probably public opinion."
He enjoyed the work because he discovered that people are completely unpredictable.
He could never predict how a person would answer a question. "How I thought
they would answer would not be the way they would answer at all," he says.
Like the others, Speidel found that people can be rude and belligerent.
"But this was the exception, not the rule," he adds.
Speidel would come to work at 4. After being assigned his survey, he would
begin calling. He discovered that the faster he got started, the faster the
evening seemed to pass. "I was always keen to get the first few calls under
my belt."
Now that Speidel is a trainer, he has a good idea of the traits and attitudes
that lead to success. Good interviewers must be careful not to influence or
bias the respondent's answers by their own voice tone or by other verbal cues.
"An interview is not the same as a conversation," he says. "Interviewers
must be willing to change habits that could lead the respondent to answer
in a certain way."
Interviewers must also make the project sound interesting. "No one likes
to listen to someone speak with a dull monotone for 20 minutes."