The benefits of recording and transcribing market research interviews

Market research is an asset to any business, regardless of its size.  It can offer valuable knowledge about your clients as well as your competitors. 

Clients

Carrying out market research with your clients enables you to understand their needs so much better.  You can discover which of your products or services they like or dislike.  You can find out why they come back to you time and time again.  You can ascertain just how much they’re prepared to pay for something.  You can even ask their opinion on potential new products without going to any unnecessary expense.

And once you’ve discovered as much as possible about your clients, you can turn your attention to your competition.

Competitors

It’s important to know who your competitors are, what they’re offering and at what price because it’s a really competitive market out there.  Obviously, if you’re a small company, you can’t compete with the national and international companies on discounts and perhaps volume of sales, but there is so much more information to glean from researching your competitors. Think about the who, what, where, when and how of your competitors to start off your research.

How Are Market Research Interviews Conducted?

One-to-One Interviews: where there is one interviewer and one interviewee, these interviews can be carried out either face-to-face or via the telephone.

Group interviews: usually one interviewer and between one and three interviewees.

Focus Group Interviews: a focus group usually has one or two interviewers and a large group of respondents (up to, say, ten for example).

What Benefits are there to Recording and Transcribing Market Research Interviews?

Regardless of which type of market research interview is carried out, the benefits are generally three-fold.

1.       Quick and Permanent Record

If your market research interview is recorded and transcribed, then it acts as a permanent document that can be referred to time and time again.  It’s quick, accurate and if a particular point in the interview needs to be referred to, then a transcript (with time markers if required) is much easier to flick through than an audio file.

2.       Interviewing Techniques

If you’re investing time in carrying out formal market research interviews, then it’s important that your appointed interviewer is highly-skilled.  The transcript is a valuable tool for monitoring the interviewer’s techniques and expertise.  It’s also a great way to analyse whether the correct data has been captured or whether questions need to be tweaked before the next round of interviews.

3.       Flexible Data Analysis

The data is much easier to analyse from an accurately prepared transcript than it would be from the audio file alone.  If the data is going to be analysed by more than one department in the business, for example, then a transcript can be quickly, confidentially and easily distributed to each relevant party.

So, there you have it.  There are many benefits to market research and even more if these interviews are recorded and transcribed. And if you’re looking for a highly-skilled transcriptionist, then just give Fingertips Typing Services a call.  We’d be happy to help.