Interviewer Monitoring

Monitoring Different Aspects of Interviewer Behavior

When interviewers are employed to collect data, they play a central role in the success or failure of a survey. The first responsibility of the interviewer is to persuade the respondent to take part in the survey (for face-to-face interviews, this may be preceded by the need to locate the respondent). Persuading the respondent to participate is not a simple task. It requires a unique set of skills to tailor the conversation to the respondent and win his or her trust while maintaining a professional and courteous presence. More often than not, the interviewer will have only a few seconds before the reluctant respondent will break off from the interview. By monitoring the interaction between the interviewer and respondent, information can be gathered to reduce the frequency with which these break-offs occur.

Once the interviewer gains the trust of the respondent and begins to conduct the interview, a different set of skills is required to ensure the respondent answers every question and does so accurately. If the interviewer is not efficient in administering the questionnaire, break-offs may occur before the interview is completed. There also may be questions that a respondent is not comfortable answering. The interviewer must be able to persuade the respondent to answer these questions without offending him or her or biasing the response. Unless the interviewers are being monitored, those managing the survey have no way of maximizing the frequency and quality of the response the interviewers attain.

Interviewer monitoring also may provide study managers with information that allows them to identify potential problem questions, scripts (verbatim), and nonverbatim delivery. While cognitive testing is typically used to revise survey questions before they are put into the field, there is always a nonzero probability that interviewers still will have difficulty administering a question or that a question still may be misinterpreted by respondents. Interviewer monitoring provides an additional mechanism by which to evaluate the effectiveness of the questionnaire in producing the data desired. If the script or question is verbatim, the wording can be modified based on the information gathered while monitoring. If there is a problem with the way a script or question is being delivered, this information can be used to help the interviewer find a more effective delivery.

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