Curmudgeon to Curmudgeon, Part II

I had an unexpected meeting with a client today that confirmed some conclusions I drew last week. He told me more about the complaint calls his client received about interviewers at my competitor’s phone room. He listened to recordings of two of the calls that generated the complaints. He said both the interviews were by the same interviewer.

My client told me that on one of the calls, the guy said the respondent’s name wrong and got impatient with her. The interviewer said, “Have you done a survey before?” in a real snotty tone of voice. When my client talked about it with the guy’s supervisors, they said they considered the performance acceptable. My client was incredulous. He said he told the other company that he fired them because they were endangering his relationship with his client.

I figured the complaints about rudeness stemmed from the interviewers becoming impatient with elderly respondents. I told my client this, and added that it’s easy to do if you don’t get over yourself. He tried not to let me see him smile, but said “Exactly right.”

Now that I am an independent interviewer, I would like to focus on conducting business to business projects, gathering competitive intelligence. I still plan to focus on that area, but my current project causes me to believe that perhaps I have skills that I take for granted. Apparently, not everyone can be patient when conducting telephone surveys with an elderly population. I need to find a way to gauge the demand for this skill.

It gratifies me that I took Aesop’s fable about the tortoise and the hare to heart as a child. I can make more money being patient with people than I can being impatient with them. That’s what I thought, even before all of this happened.

Curmudgeon to Curmudgeon

There I was, all set to write a gloating blog post about how I won a contract away from a competitor because of my reputation for patience and politeness. Then I read someone else's blog post about not getting so worked up when people interrupt. That post pushed some of my buttons. I had to learn this the hard way, so I knew I should not be so quick to congratulate myself.

Patience and politeness are important for any interviewing project, but especially for my current project. Several respondents have told me that they never do telephone surveys. The only reason they are willing to participate is that they are members of the organization for which I am conducting the surveys. I learned to pause after I tell them who I am doing the survey for, so that they can say “Yes!” or “Oh, okay!” I learned long ago that if an interviewer indicates annoyance when interrupted by a respondent, the respondent will perceive the interviewer as rude.

My client told me that he cancelled the contract with the other vendor to do these interviews because that vendor’s interviewers were rude. He had me take over when there were just 17 interviews left to do out of a batch of 100. I started the next batch of 100 the next week. I did not ask my client to show me the emails he got from his client about the rude interviewers. I assumed that his client received complaints from respondents.

The respondents were probably rude to my competitor’s interviewers. Most of the respondents are old and curmudgeonly, like me. The interviewers probably sighed or got irritated tones in their voices. Sometimes that’s all it takes for a respondent to call and complain about the interviewer’s rudeness. It was probably worse than that, though, if my client halted the project with 17 interviews left to do.

Besides pausing strategically and allowing respondents to interrupt, what helps me keep a good attitude over the length of a project is remembering that I am interrupting a respondent’s day to ask them to give me information. I often interrupt their lunch or dinner. Sometimes I even wake the baby. I understand if they get irritated.

By the way, I have heard several times that Americans tend to interrupt more than people in other parts of the world. Especially men. Especially if they’re from New York. I think women interrupt more than men, but that’s just my own experience.

Time Zone Nerd

One thing that my job has taught me is that I am a time zone nerd. On a recent project, I had to put the finishing touches on my calling list by researching the time zones of some of the contacts. Some states and area codes are in more than one time zone, so I had to look up the ambiguous ones. Fortunately, we have a field for the county in the database, so I was able to learn the time zones pretty easily. Time zone boundaries conform to county boundaries.

I discovered that I enjoyed doing these lookups. I suspect that there is not much of a need for this type of knowledge or skill, as Google Maps does not show time zone boundaries. When I googled “Does Google Maps show time zone boundaries?” I found a link to a Google Group in which someone had asked why not. Another person replied that Google has apparently not seen a need to do so. Mapquest does not give time zone information, either. I had to consult my Rand-McNally Road Atlas, or type “What time zone is Sullivan County, Tennessee in?” (Eastern).

I know few other people who know things about time zones in the United States that I know. I remember a meeting a few years ago. It took some effort to get across the idea that most of Texas is in the Central Time Zone, but El Paso is in the Mountain Time Zone.

Indiana is now less confusing than it used to be. It used to be that some counties in Indiana did not observe Daylight Saving Time. All of Indiana now observes Daylight Saving Time, but some counties have switched time zones. One must have an up to date map to determine the time zone for a specific county in Indiana.

Arizona does not observe Daylight Saving Time, so I treat them as part of the Pacific Time Zone during the warm months, except for the parts of Arizona taken up by the Navajo Reservation. The Navajo Nation observes Daylight Saving Time since their territory is in three different states. Alaska observes Daylight Saving Time, but Hawaii does not.

I am curious as to why Google Maps and Mapquest do not include time zone information in their search results. There must be other people who need to know the correct time in places they call or plan to visit. Perhaps they think that exceptions to Daylight Saving Time observance will confuse people. Perhaps the cartographers at Google Maps and Mapquest do not understand time zones.

For now, I plan to not throw away my Rand-McNally Road Atlas. I plan to continue to purchase a new one every two or three years. It would be fun to hire myself out as a time zone consultant.

I need your help to predict an election

One issue on the May 6 ballot in Franklin County will be for a levy for the Columbus Zoo. Saperstein Associates is neutral in this debate. We are not for or against the levy. We just want to predict the election.

We are now in our third week of polling on this issue. We are interviewing 400 people each week. We may be starting a poll on another ballot issue next week, so we will have more than one poll going on at the same time. This means that I need to hire more interviewers.

The job is ideal for moonlighters, retirees, stay at home parents and those who want to add skills to their resumes, or want to minimize gaps in their employment history. You can call me at (614) 261-0065 or email me at jstevens@sapersteinassociates.com

Ending the year by adding to the count

I always like it when I complete at least one interview on the last day of the year. It was especially gratifying this year because I interviewed a person on a project that I have been working on since July. I have conducted a good share of the interviews for the survey myself. The respondents have been difficult to reach and it usually takes 30 minutes or more to do the interview.

We have learned much while working on this project. Such a long interview presents opportunities to learn about nuances of establishing rapport and eliciting cooperation from respondents.We have talked to people from all over the world and have learned a little about their cultures. I am grateful that such a project came along to give me topics to blog about for a long time to come.Some of the experiences we have had will contribute to a sense of camaraderie for those of us who have worked on the project. I am grateful to have the work when things are slow otherwise.

I look forward to more telephone adventures in the coming year.

We're Almost Done

The other day we had a small party in our phone room to mark a project’s 100^th day of dialing. The same day marked another milestone on the project for me: it was the third time I had to ask a pregnant woman her weight. I know I shouldn’t stereotype people – especially when working on a scientific survey – but show me a pregnant woman who is not sensitive about her weight.

The project is a social research study in which we are required to ask respondents extremely detailed demographic information about each member of a respondent’s household, including height and weight. The weight questions are almost at the end of the questionnaire so that an interviewer has an opportunity to build rapport with a respondent. Still, the question comes up rather abruptly. Some respondents are taken aback. We don’t ask female respondents if they are pregnant, but they often volunteer the information early in the interview.

The first pregnant woman on the project to get the weight question gave me the idea to say “We’re almost done” right before the weight question comes up. She was a good sport about it, but she said “What!? Did you just ask me my weight?” when I suddenly asked her “Approximately how much do you currently weigh?” She then laughed and told me her weight. Not only that, but she weighed and measured her two toddlers.

Building rapport on a project in which an interviewer must ask for intimate details of a respondent’s life is often a matter of tone of voice. The interviewer must sound professional and positive, but also nonchalant and not too interested in the answers to the questions. Knowing when to say “We’re almost done” is a matter of timing. Saying this at the right time can mean the difference between completing an interview and not completing an interview. The statement not only helps a respondent to be patient and stay on the phone, but can also give an interviewer the last bit of rapport they need to get answers to sensitive questions. It can soften the abruptness of a question. The third pregnant woman I had to ask the weight question barely hesitated before answering.

They Call Me Mr. Diversity

Our current project leads me to believe that I did not misspend my youth.  We interview people all over the United States, from many different backgrounds.  Many of our respondents speak English as a second language.  Most respondents have financial problems and life issues that go along with financial problems.  The 30-minute interview contains many more demographic questions than most market research surveys.  Many of these demographic questions are at the beginning of the survey, and the answers drive whether we ask other demographic questions at the end of the survey.  We usually have all of the demographic questions at the end of the survey, to give us a chance to build rapport with respondents.  Most respondents received a letter before we started calling.

Some things I did as a young person that seemed pretty knuckleheaded at the time prepared me for this challenge.  I was a globe spinner in elementary school.  In junior high and high school I often put aside my homework while in the library so that I could randomly page through the encyclopedia or magazines.  When I was old enough to ride the city bus on my own I would hop on random bus routes to explore Minneapolis and St. Paul.  I spent the summer of my 21^st year on a hitchhiking tour of the United States.  At different times I have avoided college, television and owning a car because I believed I could experience life better without them.  I intentionally sought work, live music, volunteer activities and recreation that would broaden my experience.  I struck up conversations with many interesting individuals while engaged in these activities.  This exposed me to many cultures and taught me to not feel sorry for myself. 

My diversity of experience taught me adaptability, which we need to get the job done.  On our present project the interviewer and the respondent sometimes have to work together to figure out the best person in the household to answer the questions.  Diverse experience as well as my present career gave me many pieces of information about human beings that I can put to use.  I am grateful that my parents encouraged me to study foreign languages while I was in school.  It now makes it easier to understand foreign accents and pronounce names correctly.

Recently, one of the interviewers I supervise had a difficult interview.  He and the respondent had difficulty understanding each other’s accents.  The interviewer became frustrated and wanted to terminate the interview.  He worked very hard to speak slowly and clearly.  I told him to repeat a question once and mark “Don’t Know” if the respondent still did not understand.  Afterward, I found a tactful way to tell him to listen to his own accent.  I invoked the name of a former coworker from China.  She sometimes did not understand things I said until I used a British pronunciation or spelled a word.

I told the interviewer to try to use a Mid-Atlantic accent.  I told him to imagine an island in the Atlantic Ocean somewhere between New York and London.  A person who grew up on this island would have an accent somewhere between an eastern American accent and a British accent.  Such an accent can be helpful when talking to people who speak English as a second language.  For many such people, the Queen’s English was their first exposure to the language.  The conversation was effective.  The interviewer responded to my coaching and had a much more productive shift on his next shift.  He had a better attitude about interviewing foreign respondents.  I learned about the Mid-Atlantic accent from recreational reading.  I have coached other interviewers on not being shocked when respondents tell about their financial problems or family problems.

Neutrality and being able to instantly establish a rapport with a respondent are useful skills for any telephone survey, but they are especially important for our present project.  A sense of adventure and love of people are also quite useful.  Being well-read and well-traveled is helpful for any interviewer.  I understand why my father said that every young person should go on an odyssey.  He used to say that if a person goes to college, the college should be far away from home.  The world is much bigger than we imagine.