What is a personal interview?

Personal interview is the classic method of marketing research, when the interviewer gets the information directly from the respondent. The survey is conducted in a form of a personal conversation - without a third person. Personal interview suggests a high level of credibility and the possibility to demonstrate a lot of different materials (cards, photographs, drawings). Usually, a personal interview lasts for 25-40 minutes. The main advantage of the personal interview is that the interviewer sees the respondent and can be sure (observing the gestures and facial expressions) that the respondent understands the task completely. Interview is based on a formal questionnaire: each respondent is asked the same questions in a strict sequence. Each interviewer has to take a special training course: how to select respondents, how to make a contact, how to ask questions and work with the questionnaire. While it seems to be a very easy task , it is usually quiet difficult for the marketing department of a company to organize a consumers' survey . In the short time it is necessary to conduct hundreds of individual interviews. This requires a team of trained interviewers who must follow the way of selection of respondents and obey the rules of the interview.

What are the advantages of a personal interview?

• personal communication provides a high degree of credibility, the interview can be rather long
• there is an opportunity to show the respondent the demos (cards, logos, packaging designs)
• the subject of the research is disclosed
• allows you to conduct surveys of a narrow or difficult target group
• allows to carry out a survey exactly in the place where the subject of research is on sale
• you can conduct a research in places with bad telephone connection

What are the disadvantages of a personal interview?

• it is very time-consuming
• relatively expensive (compared to the telephone survey)

What are the stages of work using personal interview?

• development and distribution of questionnaires
• the development of the selection
• training of interviewers and planning of the routes
• field research and monitoring of the interviewers
• processing of the questionnaires
• construction of diagrams, tables, and allocations
• analytical description of the results of the interview

What are the possible options for the personal interview?

Personal interviews may be conducted at the workplace or residence of the respondent, as well as in a shop or on the street.

Personal interview at the residence of the respondent (Apartment interviews)

The interviews are conducted at a residence of the respondent. Housing survey is the most appropriate for an interview of this length. Most studies use location as a method of selecting households, combined with the age and gender characteristics of respondents. Apartment interviews are carried out on different days of the week and at different time, and if no one is home or the respondent is busy, the interviewer pays another visit to the chosen apartment. Conducting a survey at the respondents' residence allows to embody the selection that represents the population of the city. The Apartment interview method is very useful for demonstration and testing of product samples, to identify psycho graphic and behavioral characteristics of the consumers, to determine the structure of the consumption. The only disadvantage of Apartment interview is a very high price of this kind of the research.

Personal interview on the street (street survey)

The street version of the survey is the usual personal interview. The street version of the survey,(so-called "face to face" )is characterized with simple and precise questions. Therefore street interviews are always short. With the street survey mmethod we can get a lot of information from respondents with a high degree of reliability. Personal contact allows us to use the demos (pictures from advertising, product samples, etc.). When the selection is representative the respondents are chosen randomly with a twist (for example every third passer-by). With a target selection only particular respondents are questioned (for example, men 30-40 years old, car owners). All respondents' answers are written down in a formal application form. And the interviewer insists on completing the application form till the end.

Personal interview in organizations (the survey of legal persons).

This method suggests that we question the executives, the officials and the employees of the company. Normally the selection of companies is made according to a certain criteria (area, turnover, number of employees) coordinating with the purposes of the study. Sometimes the requirements for the study are so specific, and the number of organizations that would correspond with the requirements is so small that the survey turns out to be of a solid character. At a workplace we can demonstrate product samples, promotional materials, etc. It is very important when detecting the specialists' reviews, detailing the process of making purchases by legal persons, etc.