How to conduct surveys and interviews

First you need to design you questions. For more on this see Questions to use and questions to avoid using 

If you are talking to people in person, you will need: 

• A clipboard and a printed copy of your questions  
• Printed copies of the answer options for the rating scale questions. These should be printed at a large enough font size to ensure interviewees can read them 
• A handheld Dictaphone plus spare batteries or printed copies of an answer sheet that you fill in during the interview; plus a couple of pens  
• Some form of identification – a badge or lanyard - to show you work for the host organisation or are an official contractor 

You will need to identify a location where there will be plenty of potential interviewees passing by. This location also needs to be reasonably quiet and somewhere were you will not be blocking access for other people.  

If your interview takes more than 5 minutes you should provide somewhere for interviewees and their companions to sit.  

If you are talking to people by phone or video-link you will need to recruit interviewees in advance, and agree a suitable time and way to reach them - phone, Zoom, Teams, Google Meets etc. It is worth offering more than one option as people often have preferences. Interviewees may only be available for phone or video-link calls in the early evening or day-time during weekends. So you need to be available at these times.  

We recommend emailing interviewees the questions in advance, so that they have a good understanding of what the discussion will cover.  

As with in-person interviews, you will need a copy of the interview questions in front of you, and a way to record people’s answers. If you plan to digitally record the interview you must obtain the interviewees permission in advance. Zoom and Teams allows you to record conversations and then save the audio file to your computer.  

For phone interviews you will need a Dictaphone and put your telephone on speaker-phone.  

Basically this is the same as preparing for conducting interviews. However, since you are mostly asking closed questions, it is easier to print copies of the questions and accompanying answer options. The person conducting the survey can then fill in the answers as the interviewee provides them.  

When asking rating scale or multiple-choice questions you should show people a printed copy of the answer options, as well as reading them out loud. 

When you first approach a potential interviewee, you must:  

• Introduce yourself and explain on whose behalf you are collecting the data ‘Hello my name is … and I work for’ 
• Explain you are conducting interviews with people who … in order to … 
• Clearly and honestly state how long the interview will take 

People’s biggest fear is that it will take a lot of time. Quickly dispelling that misunderstanding is crucial to successful recruitment. But remember you must stick to the promised duration. If you say it will take 3 minutes, that is how long you have got.  

Avoid sounding apologetic - go easy on saying ‘please’. It is easy to inadvertently imply you are about to do something unpleasant to them. Be confident that they will be happy to help and flattered that are interested in their opinions. 

If need be, reassure potential interviewees that you are not going to test their knowledge. People often say: 

“Oh but I am not an expert on that”  

‘I’m only here with my partner. They are the one who knows all about …” 

In such cases, reassure them that you need to hear from all of the audience, and that everyone’s opinion is important for your research.  

If the person you have selected is below the age of 18 you must first ask for permission from the accompanying adult – a parent, guardian, teacher – and then that of the interviewee.  

Conducting interviews with children below the age of 8 is tricky, and you might want to consider using other methods instead. For more on this see Choosing the best evaluation methods for your evaluation. If nothing else you will need to use simpler questions.   

We recommend scripting a short introduction to ensure that all the interviewers use the same words and cover all these points.  

Finally, be OK with ‘No’. It happens, some people will say no. It is not personal, just move on to the next potential interviewee. 

You have recruited your interviewee; now you are ready to ask your questions. Remember to: 

• Smile, make eye-contact; and speak with confidence  
• Read the questions in a clear, neutral voice to avoid suggesting answers 
• Only use the wording on the question sheet. Never ad lib. You need to ask the same questions of each interviewee 

If your interviewee has misunderstood a question, use the pre-scripted prompt to clarify what you are asking about.  

When you ask an open-ended question – where interviewees must answer in their own words – it is vital to give them time to think. The first thing most people say in response to an open-ended question is “I don’t know”. Most of the time they do not mean that - they actually mean “wait a moment I need to think”. After a pause to reflect, they will provide an answer.  

So once you have asked an open-ended question, wait a few seconds. If an answer is still not forthcoming, use the pre-scripted prompt - an alternative wording of the question. If that does not elicit an answer, mark as ‘Don’t know’ and move on to the next question. 

If the interviewee’s answer is very brief – just one or two words - or you are not sure what they mean, you need to probe for more detail.  

“Tell me more about that” is often enough, or “What in particular did you enjoy / dislike / remember about … ?”  

We recommend adding suggested probe questions to your survey or interview sheet.  

The easiest way to capture people’s answers is with a digital recorder. A basic Dictaphone will be fine. This makes interviewing much less stressful for you, and the interviewees. However, you need to provide a bit more reassurance at the start of the interview. Explain that the recording will only be heard by the person analysing the data, and will then be deleted. And explain the interview will be anonymous, you will not be asking for their name or contact details. Check they are OK with you recording the interview. If not, you will have to record their answers by hand.  

Recording answers in writing is a feasible option, but it is harder to capture the exact wording of people’s answers. And you will not be able to record nuances such as humour, sarcasm, hesitation, or uncertainty.  

If you are struggling to write fast enough, it is fine to ask the interviewee to pause for a moment while you catch-up. They will appreciate that you are trying to accurately record what they say.  

Ideally, you will interview one person at a time but given that most of your audience are in couples or family groups, that can be difficult.  

Sometimes their companions are happy to wait quietly for the interview or survey to finish. Sometimes they want to join it. If the latter, make sure everybody gets a chance to answer. A phrase such as “and what do you feel about that” comes in handy. If you are recording the answers by hand, note which person said what.