Excerpt

So here is my question: What was the initial reaction from clients and market research vendors when they were told that telephone data collection was a viable alternative to door-to-door interviewing?

Do you think they decided they didn’t like this new methodology because they couldn’t see the respondent’s face if the interview was conducted over the phone? Or, did they say they tried telephone interviewing once, didn’t like it, and therefore were not going to use it again? Or, perhaps they expressed concern that people were not used to talking on the phone for as long as a survey takes. Or, maybe they said they were not making the switch because their clients weren’t requesting they do so.

I am asking because these are exactly the objections that I encounter when I recommend conducting online focus groups. Even though online groups have been available for at least 7 years, there is still a vehement prejudice against this methodology, and the reasons are the ones noted above: they can’t see the faces of the respondents; they had one bad experience that soured them “ forever;” participants can’t adapt to the new technology; and their clients aren’t asking for it anyway.

Seeing The Faces

I am sympathetic to the concern about losing facial expressions, although I think their importance is greatly exaggerated. Whenever we observe people in a traditional group, we are interpreting what their facial expressions mean. Anyone who has lived in different parts of the country knows that regional differences alone make such interpretations risky and often wrong.

My favorite example is former President Bill Clinton. He smiled all the time; it didn’t mean a thing. And while one can compensate to some extent by becoming knowledgeable about different regions of the county, people move around so much that it is often hard to know where people are from and how to interpret what their facial expressions mean.

Similarly, skeptics ask: “What about non-verbal cues?” There are ways to compensate for them online. In fact, the very act of having to type their responses forces participants to be more expressive in words to get their points across. Furthermore, the use of emoticons (smiley faces, frowns, etc.), short hand (e.g., LOL, for laughing out loud), capitalization, and punctuation enables participants to get their points across quite well.

Bad Experiences

Negative opinions about online focus groups are rooted in misconceptions about how online groups work. There are generally two stereotypes: either they are free-for-all sessions that veer out of control and provide useless information, or they are staid, boring events that are, as one prospective client recently told me, “like watching paint dry.” Of course, most of the people who tell me this have never actually attended an online group, or they fall into the “I tried ...