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This article is about the benefits of qualitative interviews and how to make a profit from a small amount of interviews. Qualitative interviews means there are less than 50 interviews, and the answers are not limited to yes/no or a 10-point scale.
Our goal is to improve customer relationship by asking our customers what they want and if there are secretive needs and wishes which are easy to fullfill for us or need only a small change in our product and sales strategy.
Artificial Intelligence relies on text already existing for training the model. So the answers given by AI are always a rephrasing and recombination of something already existing, and it is up to the reader to interpret if the results are valid or not.
How to make qualitative interviews worth the effort
Qualitative Interviews done by a good interviewer who makes the interviewees talk in the right direction gives direct access to the thoughts of our clients and target groups. This includes thoughts which do not exist in a written language.
Qualitative Interviews are expensive, about 300 € for each interview. This includes finding the right interviewees. Interviewing the correct respondents has a marketing effect: the respondents get aware that there is a supplier interested in them. If they are already customers the effect goes in the same direction.
This additional publicity pays for a part of the survey. The other one is additional sales following an improved strategy.
Stupid interviewers are a no-go
For best quality of interviews the interviewer has to dive into the world of the interviewed person. The interviewer has to direct the interview and add questions if necessary. This requires a lot of experience and knowledge for the interviewer. Hiring a random person without knowledge is the first step to disaster. Less experienced interviewers need the first interviews in a project for training, experienced interviewers do not need that. They can relate to previous experiences
References
This article is based on about 20 years experience with qualitative interviews and the usage of some form of artificial intelligence since 1992.
